- 25 Jun 08, 11:20 PM
Vienna
It's ironic that Match of the Day editor Paul Armstrong chose today to blog about the evolution of TV coverage at big football tournaments.
Germany's Euro 2008 semi-final with Turkey was warming up nicely when the live feed from the host broadcaster went down here at the IBC. Not our doing, I hasten to add. It was something totally beyond our control.
There were several further interruptions, causing a mixture of panic, anger and frustration among BBC staff here. If it's any consolation - and it may not be - lots of television stations across Europe were affected, not just us.
We were able to switch to Radio 5 Live's commentary as soon as we became aware of the problems, but everyone here wants to know what caused them. The severe weather conditions in Vienna may be to blame, but Uefa have promised to investigate. As soon as we have an answer, we'll let you know.
In the meantime, we hope the interruptions didn't spoil your enjoyment too much.
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I would like to add that it wasnt just Europe but Asia too and for that matter the whole world...so basically it was live and uninterrupted for the fans inside the stadium only.....
makes you wonder why no backup plans are in place for a broadcast of this magnitude which is to be received literally by millions around the world.....very disappointing on UEFA's part.....
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The picture died here in Canada too. Had to resort to Caroline Cheeses' comments on BBC website for updates.
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It went here in the Middle East too.
Al Jazeera,(who have quite impressively poached Richard Keys as studio presenter with Hoddle and Venables as guests) kept loosing the feed from just before German’s second goal onwards.
But given the way that Scottish fans behaved in Manchester when the feed for the game was lost, perhaps it’s a good thing that Italy knocked them out in qualifying. Can you imagine the carnage if that happened during an England or Scotland game – especially one that ended in defeat?
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The picture died everywhere except in Switzerland - they have their own transmission cables, it is reported here in Germany. German and Austrian TV took over the Swiss picture after a few minutes yesterday.
OMG those were sad minutes..
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I am feeling bit embarrassed now. I was constantly wearing and yell at Caroline " Please let me know whet the hell going on there?"
Sorry Caroline, from the bottom of my heart
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I actually preferred the 5live audio with the pictures when it came on than Motty and Lawro.
Its a bit harsh to criticise anyone I feel because we only lost a bit of Germany v Turkey and that wasn't due to an individual. Its just as well the stadium lights didn't get a power cut or the BBC studio.
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What got me was how when the pictures did come back, the commentary (both TV and 5Live) was not co-ordinated with the pictures - at least on digital TV where it lagged a few seconds. For some reason they hadn't co-ordinated it.
And that brings forth the issue of digital versus analogue. Digital is meant to be an improvement but it certainly isn't when it comes to watching or listening to football because you are around 2 seconds behind the action as it happens. Hence someone watching their old battered telly upstairs can be heard shouting when a goal goes in while you are sitting below on your new "improved" digital version still seeing the cross come in.
On a wider point it does amaze me how often apparent technological improvements actually end up making things worse or at least more complicated. Surely it should be the other way around...?
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Can anyone ask why the game was in Basle yet the IBC is based in Vienna?
Surely, there would have been a smaller back up in Zurich?
It was lucky that the BBC had R5L's link to London to help us follow the match rather then us not hearing anything.
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Considering there will have been a global audience of hundreds of millions, I found it strange that the match continued.
Once it was known that the satellite link had been lost, why was a messgae not cascaded to the referee to halt play at the next natural break in play.
Surely it makes sense to delay the game for TV pictures to return to normal?
Whether we like it or not, TV companies pay big money for huge sporting events like these, and they and their sponsors deserve better.
Imagine if the same thing happened in Beijing at the Opening Ceremony? Would we continue with the ceremony knowing the world was not watching, and miss the lighting of the flame? I think not!
Common sense must prevail.
One final point, I am fortunate enough to have a motorised dish and was able to watch the Klose goal live on ZDF coverage who switched to showing pictures from Swiss TV. How come the BBC did not use the Swiss pictures?
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Uefa has held a press conference today and tried to shed some light on what happened last night. It says it was down to a technical problem.
This is the official line from Alexandre Fourtoy, head of Uefa's media technology department: "Yesterday, because of the massive storm in Vienna, there were three minor power cuts, each less than a millisecond, which caused the master control room to reboot, which can take around five minutes.
"The system was defective in detecting the cuts and switching to backup power, but we have changed this to ensure continuity of the signal for the remaining games."
Uefa added that it is confident there will be no repeat.
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F**k UEFA!
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You can't stop a freakin international semi-finals match because the TV coverage goes out! Besides being utterly foolish, it gives a definate advantage to a fatigued and injury ravaged Turkish squad. You can always see the coverage later. What does it really matter if someone halfway across the world sees the images right away or catches it 20 minutes later? 20 minutes can make a lot of difference if the game is stopped for that long though. Just.. no.
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Well done to the BBC for switching the Five Live commentary.
Its the most frustrating thing in the world when there is a break in live sports coverage. As soon as it happened I turned over to the Freeview channel with the commentary on then when I went switched back over to BBC1 I thought how great it that.
Its something which ITV and Sky cannot ever do.
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Can one receive Five Live outside the UK?
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