Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Just a thought...

Supposedly, there have been numerous problems with the audio and commentary feeds from many nations' broadcasts last night.  Spain couldn't hear Norway, the UK heard an unbalanced Polish performance, and many commentators were forced to use their telephones to get their point across.

I'm pretty disappointed in this, considering the reputation that Germany has for their technical prowess.  This being my first ESC, I can't personally compare the issues here with things that have happened in the past, but this seems somewhat unprecedented.  The EBU and German Broadcaster NRD will have a joint press conference here in about 10 minutes to discuss what happened, and we'll go from there.

But, if this is all true, I'm happy to say that it might have disproven my theory that the Icelandic entry's success hinged on the commentary from the broadcasters currying a sympathy vote.  Hopefully, this means that "Coming Home" passed into the final through their own merit, which makes me a very, very happy Samantha. :-)

3 comments:

  1. Hello again. I was "sort of" watching the raw feed live on eurovision.tv (I was at work, so I had to keep busy), and thanks to the internets, I've got the BBC version running on the TV right now (Turkey's on). I've got some broadcasting experience, as it happens, so I'll put in my 2 cents on this topic, and on the semifinal in general.

    I didn't have the surround audio at work and I don't now, but the stereo mix isn't way out of line with what I'd expect from any live music performance show. It is not great by any means, though. I'd describe it as "mostly competent."

    I do suspect that there were problems with the stage monitors for the first few acts, especially Poland. It seemed that Poland couldn't hear their track at first, the same thing that happened to poor Jemini. Fortunately for them, they guessed a little better than Jemini.

    The BBC audio was low at the beginning of Poland's song, but I'm pretty sure it was the BBC's fault. It sounded like they forgot to turn the audio back up after the announcer finished announcing. They had similar problems on last year's first semi broadcast.

    I am surprised that the BBC announcer is in London though ... and quite frankly, seems unprepared. The girl supposedly in the booth ("Sarah") hasn't been heard from much except on the onscreen cut-ins, which could have been taped in advance.

    Being in America, I'm not familiar with BBC announcers, but I wonder if this guy was the standby in case of issues onsite?

    I was thinking the whole time at work that the Germans were doing a surprisingly mediocre job with this production. Norway and Russia both did much better. The German hosts were painful to sit through, and the interval act was mundane. Fabulous venue and stage, though.

    VERY disappointed that Norway got booted. Although her performance could've been better, there were worse performances later in the show that got through. But on the whole, I'm not as outraged by the results as I usually am. I'm delighted that Serbia and Switzerland are in.

    By the way, maybe I'm just thick, or just in a Eurovision-free country, but I somehow missed the Iceland back story (finally looking it up after the show, after hearing it **referred to** way too many times). So my enthusiasm for their song - of which I have quite a bit - was entirely due to the song and the performance. I hope it does well at the final, regardless of the reason.

    And I've got two new Eurovision converts at work. They couldn't stay away from my office to see what was going on.

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  2. Wow! So I was right? I knew there was something wrong with the Audio. I wonder what that means? This could be an exciting development! Maybe they will give the first couple of song another chance and move them into the second semi and expand the final to may 27 songs or something? :0

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  3. Update - Having just heard Poland on a Youtube posting from another country, it appears there was some sort of mix problem on BBC after all. The vocals are much louder on the BBC version, and it makes her sound more off-key than necessary.

    I suspect it would be due to an improper stereo mixdown of the surround sound audio, which could still be the BBC's fault. But when your audio guys are trying to restore an intermittent ISDN link from the venue, a mix problem goes down the priority list a few notches.

    I've read that some networks - including the German one - gave up on the official hookup and used the commentator's cell phones instead!

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