So really, what about it, was it a big hit little some say or did it just turn the race to junk like others have said?
Well, looking at just the race coverage itself without the on-screen commercials differently had its advantages as it was explained with Jeff Gordon before the race started, putting the running order at the bottom with a couple of ads/logos was a better than just the standard look, the screen wasn’t over lapped by graphics and you could see the cars always in frame correctly compared to a lot of time when the cameras focused in a car, it would run in to the graphics up top, so a better layout in general.. All coverages should consider doing that either with the running order on top or below.
As for the overall concept, the 3 full commercials per hour and the rest of the commercials on-screen is a little different than ESPN’s side-by-side coverage they use for most of there IRL races and that the TNT concept wasn’t bad most of the time with being able to still watch the commercials, but be kept in touch with what’s going on on-track including the running order. I did notice one downside, while the commercials were playing, a couple of cases, the green flag had waved or there was a caution on track and they didn’t cut to the audio, everything isn’t going to be perfect, but overall not bad.
Final thoughts, the Pepsi 400 turned out to be one of the best races all season long including most in part to the final five laps of the race and what a finish… for the coverage, I was able to watch the coverage on two different television sets, one being my fathers 4:3 standard digital television which wasn’t bad, it’s the best your going to get with a standard 4:3 layout and I got to watch it on my 16:9 widescreen LCD, now I don’t have high-def coming from my cable company, so in my case the picture is just expanded from a standard 4:3 and fillout to 16:9 widescreen which believe it or not I love watching, it’s a better picture and it’s a cool layout, every race is better than a 4:3, maybe I should try high-def if I only had a 1080p instead of a 720p.
Like I said, not bad for the launch, it was a success, but needs some modifications and I hope they use it again, it’s a better improvement over the standard races are shown now.
Memo: To all of the networks who broadcast races including Nextel Cup, look at this concept and use it for your broadcasts in terms of putting a widescreen effect with the picture either above or below the running order, the coverage would be just better.
See Yeah!
