Twenty20 World Cup

[Martin J.]

Does anyone know who is providing the OB coverage for the Twenty20 World Cup? ESPN maybe? The standard is well below what we usually see from Sky.

At least two of the cameras at The Oval are full of aggressive image noise and one looks like it's full of noise but is having some DNR applied.

At Lord's, there are also cameras awash with noise, the fisheye view is out-of-focus at the edges and one camera had horrible sharpening artefacts.

From the remainder, there just isn't any "zing" to the HD images either except for those coming from Sky's little studio at Trent Bridge. The light hasn't been good so far, but it wasn't bad today either, and on Thursday when Sky was at Hove and the lights failed, there wasn't any sign of noise problems.

It's a major disappointment for such a major competition.

[Silver Serpent]

Try using Medium contrast on the Sky Receiver and calibrate to suit

The Dynamic Range is probably shot on Low

[derek500]

I've been impressed with the PQ of the matches I've seen. Shame the host broadcaster isn't doing 5.1 though.

[Martin J.]

Originally Posted by Silver Serpent

Try using Medium contrast on the Sky Receiver and calibrate to suit

I'll deal with you later.

To answer my own question, the pictures are from ESPN Star Sports and they're rubbish compared to the usual cricket in HD. Sky's own cameras (pitch interviews and in their studios) are vastly superior. After the England match yesterday the Oval looked beautiful in the setting sun, but from ESPN's cameras it was drab, noisy and over-sharpened.

They had big dead pixels in two cameras also... calibrated on "High" probably.

[gary965]

Agree with you about the PQ on some cameras but not all. Obviously Sky's studio stuff is great but some of the outside shots especially in the dodgy light conditions at some games is very mixed.

That along with the poor Lions v Sharks picture last night almost had me fiddling with my G10 telly, it was only ITV HD's good footie picture which stopped me.

[uno]

It would be interesting to hear from somebody who has been to a series game to report who is providing the OB facilities for this as it doesnt look like the usual CTV ob equipment as their cameras have CTV on the side and have not seen that at all. As Star sports are the righst holders I suspect that they have possibly got a company in from europe E.g Outside broadcast BE, Alfacam or CVG as the picture quality is not up to the usual standard but once coverage goes to studio or pitch interview back to usual quality so CTV are probably just provide presentation facilities which is a shame as their units provide some of the best HD picture quality

[calcotroyal]

Visions are providing the ob facilities UK Film and Television News - Visions Comes To the Crease To Cover The Twenty20 World Cup In HD

[uno]

Thanks Calcotroyal for finding that information, I must say todays coverage of England vs India did look a lot better and Visions output on Skys premiership football is normally very good so must say I am a little surprised with the poor pictures at some games. This could possibly be due to Star/Espn crews taking a while to get used to the UK light levels and controls.

[gary965]

I thought the pictures of the England v India game were much better, maybe the sunny day helped and more experience etc.