Archive for February 14th, 2007
Recently I have been thinking about the potential Hawk-Eye, the technology used to decide contentious line calls in Tennis as well as used by Tennis and Cricket broadcasters, has in deciding difficult scoring decisions in the AFL. Hawk-Eye, with its ability to track the ball would be able to detect a player touching the ball, as its path would change, as well as follow the path of the ball in case it were to sail over the posts.
I was going to contact the AFL with these suggestions, but thought that I would contact the people responsible for Hawk-Eye, British company Hawk-Eye Innovations, first to see if they thought it would be possible. I was pleasantly surprised to receive a reply with half an hour, I was not pleased by what I read though.
We have spoken to the AFL and Channel 7. It is not something we are going to pursue at this stage.
This indicates to me that Hawk-Eye is capable of doing what I suggested, but for some stupid reason which the AFL and Channel Seven are aware of, will not be used. I can understand the AFL not wanting to take part just yet…they are always slow to adopt technology. I don’t want to see video replays introduced into decision making in AFL, and I’m glad they’ve kept that out, but ignoring the speedy, accurate Hawk-Eye astounds me. Unlike video replays it produces a result almost instantly.
As for Channel Seven, perhaps they don’t want to invest in extra gadgets for something they will only broadcast two matches of each week. Perhaps if the AFL hadn’t gone for the big bucks of the Nine/Ten/Fox consortium years ago, and still had Seven as their only broadcaster, we would be seeing innovations in broadcasting. Unfortunately the fragmented broadcasting landscape we currently have is not conducive to progress.
I suppose, at the very least, we know that when faced with a choice between money and progress, the AFL will chose money. Strange for a sport that has tried so hard to kill off the suburban nature of the game by moving all the Victorian clubs into a few grounds in an effort to make it look modern. I do have to wonder how the game will survive in the future if it continues this way, it’s a good game, but if it continues to make decisions which will do more harm than good, I can’t see the fan base expanding.
Samuel
February 14th, 2007 at 02:40pm
Weeks go by, but decisions on the 8pm-Midnight shift seem no closer.
The Sydney Morning Herald had an amusing article on Monday about this, they claimed that the candidates are baulking at the $100,000 per year supposedly being offered for the job, which is a quarter of the income Stan Zemanek was getting from the shift. If pay is the main reason for the delay, then I think we would have a decision by now, as pay negotiations would be a bit quicker, and a complete disagreement would surely see more people being “road tested” in the role.
The other suggestion in the article, and probably the best laugh I’ve had in a while, was the peculiar notion of 2UE wanting a duo in the role…that isn’t too outlandish, but the names were. Stuart Bocking and Clive Robertson (the two have completely incompatible styles…the studio or the planet would probably melt if that duo came to fruition) or Murray Olds and Murray Wilton (the odds of 2UE actually giving Murray Olds a permanent shift are almost zero for some unknown reason…he is wasted there, and why would Murray Wilton leave 2GB if the pay is supposedly being baulked at?).
Did the Sydney Morning Herald feel like some “creative journalism” (aka, they made the story up)?
Judge for yourself…towards the bottom of this article.
As for what is really happening at 2UE…well Paul Makin still doesn’t have his own 2UE New Day Australia intro (although they did make a new generic intro), but he has received a very warm welcome from the listeners. I am hearing rumours that he will be trialled on the 8pm-Midnight shift at some stage in the next few weeks. Other than that, 2UE’s non-daylight programming is a mystery.
Samuel
February 14th, 2007 at 09:00am
A few weeks ago I reported that Humphrey B. Bear may have been about to change television station. Well today I am very pleased to be able to bring you the news (if you haven’t already heard it elsewhere) that Here’s Humphrey will soon return to the screen with new episodes.
Channel Nine, who apparently only had the rights to repeat Humphrey’s episodes three times, and only had a few weeks left of repeats, have signed a new contract with Adelaide based Banksia Productions for more new episodes. Unfortunately I can’t find any details of how many episodes have been agreed to, but having Humphrey back with new episodes is good news none-the less.
More details as they come to hand.
Samuel
February 14th, 2007 at 06:24am