Winter Olympics?

[bironi]

I know this is a pretty silly question to ask on a bike forum, but...….

Why are the music sound systems used for ice skating so lame?
If it is due to the hard surfaces and big open space, fine.
But couldn't the music be enhanced for those viewing from their homes?
It seems to me that this would help sell the product.

Your thoughts?

[KonaSS]

I was so looking forward to the Olympics. I forgot about how much ice skating coverage I am going to have to endure. Thank you for this gentle let down.

[j44ke]

I think it is because the production takes the sound from the space rather than directly through some kind of audio connection.

And it is NBC.

[robin3mj]

And odds are the arena was finished last week, and they installed the sound system this morning.

Part of me loves the Olympics, but the adult part of my brain thinks it's really time to let them fade into Bolivian, to use the words of the great Mike Tyson.

[Bob Ross]

Why are the music sound systems used for ice skating so lame?
If it is due to the hard surfaces and big open space, fine.
But couldn't the music be enhanced for those viewing from their homes?

I mentioned this to my wife last night as we were watching the telecast: In most events of this sort, the broadcast truck gets a direct feed from the arena mixing console so the telecast audio engineer can blend some of the source music into their feed and to the viewers at home it sounds like ...y'know, normal TV broadcast.
Last night's telecast was conspicuously different. It sounded like there was no direct feed, and so the telecast had to rely on ambient microphones in the arena to pick up the music indirectly from the venue's public address system.

This is a really shitty way to capture music, and definitely impacted our appreciation of the dancers.


[edit: iow, what j44ke said.]

[David in Maine]

I have a slightly OT sound-related question that is also very juvenile! I was casually watching the first Men's downhill skiing training runs. During the run of D. Schwaiger at around 12:40 in the Peacock coverage, the audio momentarily drops out and there is a pretty loud fart in the audio. Like, a literal fart! Did anyone else notice this.

David

[vertical_doug]

I can only conclude that there must be a large winter storm in the United States and people are trapped inside with nothing to do.

[echappist]

And odds are the arena was finished last week, and they installed the sound system this morning.

Part of me loves the Olympics, but the adult part of my brain thinks it's really time to let them fade into Bolivian, to use the words of the great Mike Tyson.

Exiling IOC officials to the Bolivian Andes might not be a bad idea :) (i had to look up the reference)

Jest aside, it's increasingly clear that the Olympics is held for the following reasons for grifters to grift and for autocrats to sportwash. Actual sporting competition is an after-thought; basically a dog wagged by its tail.

[bironi]

My favorite winter Oly sport is curling.
No music involved, instead quiet words and barked orders.
I really enjoy the visual aspect.

[Too Tall]

My favorite winter Oly sport is curling.
No music involved, instead quiet words and barked orders.
I really enjoy the visual aspect.

Some people enjoy the after effects of novacaine. This is less invasive. LOL yeah I'll admit to watching some curling.

The ice dancing is pretty phenomenal.

[bironi]

My wife is the ice dancing fan.
She is visiting family in New York currently.
The last time I watched the ice dancing with her recently, I demanded the sport be removed from the Olympics.
But a couple nights back, I watched the event by myself and rather enjoyed it.
Never say never.

[rwsaunders]

I liked the pic of Putin asleep in the stands…I could relate. The non-stop blubbering of the announcers trying to talk over the stadium announcer…God awful and then someone was playing an 8-track tape of classical music hits with Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture and Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance, as the songs kept playing over and over…too much for me…like a brain washing scene from the Manchurian Candidate. I had to put on the noise cancelling headphones as I wanted to I stay in the family room and read in front of the fireplace…wife wasn’t having any of my side comments, as Twitter has having a field day over the event.

[rec head]

+1 for curling.

This may be old news but for those that have Comcast it seems that they are including Peacock coverage so you can browse by sport and watch replays.

[robin3mj]

Amen to curling.
I was skiing in Canada during the 2002 games and the air time the canucks gave to curling, sans puff pieces and inane commentary, was perfect.

I went Belgian feather bowling once right before Covid hit and it’s a similar mood.

[72gmc]

I’ve been lucky enough to be in Japan during a summer Olympics, and France during a cyclocross worlds, but the problem is that my kids were with me on those trips—and they agree that the coverage was so much better. Now we’re as noisy as crows when we watch the Olympics. A family of curmudgeons.

[j44ke]

I've done curling. Played curling? Curled? Whatever. The thing with giant rocks and ice and brooms - I've done that. Very obvious to me it embraces all aspects of a classic Canadian bar game. A bunch of guys in a bar get really drunk, steal some mops and brooms and stagger out onto a nearby pond to attempt a game of hockey with a junked car tire. Then figure out that rocks slide better on ice. Someone vaguely remembers shuffleboard. Then someone gets a hernia and a sport is born.

But it is nothing without drinking.

[bironi]

I've done curling. Played curling? Curled? Whatever. The thing with giant rocks and ice and brooms - I've done that. Very obvious to me it embraces all aspects of a classic Canadian bar game. A bunch of guys in a bar get really drunk, steal some mops and brooms and stagger out onto a nearby pond to attempt a game of hockey with a junked car tire. Then figure out that rocks slide better on ice. Someone vaguely remembers shuffleboard. Then someone gets a hernia and a sport is born.

But it is nothing without drinking.

I might be good in that version.

[Too Tall]

I've done curling. Played curling? Curled? Whatever. The thing with giant rocks and ice and brooms - I've done that. Very obvious to me it embraces all aspects of a classic Canadian bar game. A bunch of guys in a bar get really drunk, steal some mops and brooms and stagger out onto a nearby pond to attempt a game of hockey with a junked car tire. Then figure out that rocks slide better on ice. Someone vaguely remembers shuffleboard. Then someone gets a hernia and a sport is born.

But it is nothing without drinking.

It's called broom ball and is a MN staple. The rink is formed by mounding snow, in abundance 11.5 months of each year, to form a rink. Fill the "rink" with water, cut some brooms in half...dip them in liquid plastic and commence.

Oh, you need duct tape on your shoes in just the right amounts for that perfect glide to grip factor.

Beers of course.

[Mark Kelly]

For a change the local broadcaster here has got it right: you can navigate to their digital stream and choose what you want to watch.

We watched Norway's Therese Johaug utterly dominate the women's skiathlon last night, uninterrupted coverage from beginning to end.

Oh and an Austalian, Jess Yeaton, put in a creditable performance: given the tiny number of XC skiers here, having one finish in the top half of a select field like that feels like a victory to us.

[j44ke]

For a change the local broadcaster here has got it right: you can navigate to their digital stream and choose what you want to watch.

We watched Norway's Therese Johaug utterly dominate the women's skiathlon last night, uninterrupted coverage from beginning to end.

Oh and an Austalian, Jess Yeaton, put in a creditable performance: given the tiny number of XC skiers here, having one finish in the top half of a select field like that feels like a victory to us.

So cold there with such a high windchill racers are wearing what looks like kinesiology tape on their faces. At the biathlon relay it was cold and the wind was sending shots all over the place. But Norway won anyway.