Thought I would wait till this morning to pass verdict on NBC’s first
effort. What a race to have for your first effort — a real storybook
finish. Coverage aside, it was by far the most enjoyable race I have seen
this year. Chocolate Myers and Mikey Waltrip, I salute you.

Now to the coverage. I was a little worried with the Britney-fest at the
beginning, but I’m not going to blame NBC 100% for that. I haven’t even
given her much thought until now because she really isn’t the type of act
I pay much attention to, but I have to admit she is (a) cute and (b) hot.
So I’m not going to complain about her.

The announcers: I was pleasantly surprised. The only exposure I’ve had to
Bestwick until now was on Speedvision last year. This was the first race I
heard him call. Is he as good as Mike Joy? No, at least not yet. Is he OK?
Absolutely. Once they settle in as a team I’m sure he’ll be fine. It was
great to hear BP again, and I was pleasantly surprised by Wally D. In the
beginning he seemed a little unsure of hinself, but as the night went on
he got into it and he and BP made some good comments. The biggest plus was
the time they spent not saying anything. It was great for them to just lay
out and let us hear the racing. Overall, I liked them. And I thought the
pit reporters were good choices; all 4 seemed solid.

The production: I know a lot of folks have been complaining about all the
commercials and there did seem to be a lot in the middle of the show. I
didn’t record the race but I remember thinking that they stayed with it at
the start for a long time — seemed like 15 or 20 laps — and that they
would have to make up for that later on, and they did. My recollection is
that Fox went to commercial every 10 laps at the big speedways so this
wasn’t all that far off, but I’d be happier if they weren’t there so much.
OTOH, it was a first as far as I can recall to see Houston hit the wall
live, without the "7 second delay" Fox seemed to use. And though they were
a few seconds late getting to the big wreck, they had lots of replay
angles afterward.

The presentation: maybe I missed it, but I didn’t see many pit times. On
my set, the sound seemed a little more balanced than Fox’s which I found
heavy on car sounds to the point that you couldn’t make out the guys in
the booth. The best part for me: no sound effects. OTOH, I was
disappointed to see their version of the ticker — let’s call it the
clicker — in pretty much the same format at the top of the screen. I
still don’t like it but it seems we’re stuck with it. I do think NBCs is
less intrusive because it’s not constantly moving, but I could do without
it. OTOH, it didn’t seem to be there as much as Fox’s. It got out of synch
quite a bit, and I wonder if either of these can ever be made real-time
with a direct connection to the cars somehow. Right now in a race with a
lot of passing it is never right. Aside from that, the show seemed to have
the right balance of graphics that were unobtrusive, but they botched the
starting lineup rundown by letting the graphics get out of synch with the
announcers. It was like the graphics were on a fixed timer that the
announcers had to keep up with.

On that subject, they really did botch up the placings after the pit
stops. Nobody knew who was in front. Finally they just gave up and went to
commercial to sort it out. They need some work on their production
support. I won’t blame them for the green screen and loss of sound; it
happens, but if it becomes a habit I’ll be unhappy. Also, I suspect they
are using the same in-car camera technology as Fox, and it seemed equally
uninspired. Overall, it seemed they had a few bugs that need working out
to get rid of the somewhat sloppy feel parts of the broadcast had.

All in all, it seems promising. I give them a B, and think they will get
better as the year goes on. I enjoyed watching it as much or more than
Fox, though the race itself probably had a lot to do with that. If they
can work out the bugs they will be fine.

–
Greg Beaulieu    ab…@chebucto.ns.ca    Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada
         My Homepage: http://sites.netscape.net/ab348/homepage