Camera Angles @ SA Racecourses

This is a topic we have discussed before,but it surely needs to be revisited.

I have friends visiting from overseas,and the general consensus after watching racing yesterday is that our camera shots have to be amongst the worst viewer-wise in the whole world.You simply can't see what's going on,especially at Turffontein.If we can't get people back to the courses surely we can @ least make it a pleasant viewing experience for those watching from home.

Justanotherpunter Wrote:

---

> This is a topic we have discussed before,but it
> surely needs to be revisited.
>
> I have friends visiting from overseas,and the
> general consensus after watching racing yesterday
> is that our camera shots have to be amongst the
> most viewer-wise in the whole world.You simply
> can't see what's going on,especially at
> Turffontein.If we can't get people back to the
> courses surely we can @ least make it a pleasant
> viewing experience for those watching from home.


where are your visitors from???

'cos u havent seen anything as bad as the french camera angles....they dont even focus on the finish, the horses pass the camera...and u have to speculate what won.....also the camera at some british racecourses are horrendous...camera angles so lopsided that horses that seem to have lost by a head ,but have actually got up...and these courses i refer to are small courses where camera angles and wide angles should not actually affect it....turfontein outer track is very broad so its generally difficult to focus on anything flying up on the outside ,especially if the long time leader was on the inside..but generally i've seen a lot worse

Would have to add that 2 wrongs don't make a right.

I am also disappointed by overseas pics, here Greyville on the outside poor same as big T

Greyville,Turffontein ,Scottsville,Fairview and Arlington you are clueless when the field fans out..

Who cares how much worse it is elsewhere though. I don't think anyone in racing management has even thought about what and how we broadcast the very images of the sport for a long time now. If they have then they havent done anything about it for ever. Every other sport has cantered past, while local horse racing is trapped decades behind. Every now and again they give us a new, but useless camera angle that most people would not see.

We only have a handful of tracks left, and they share TV staff so they share equipment. There is a lot we can do without, but the images should be crisp and sharp and reliable.

And the irony is that we aspire to be some sort of racing and tote hub for the world but we make little effort to grow and improve. Bonsky can make a decent effort with the budget of an individual, racing only turns over billions so one would think they could rake off a few micro percent for the picture we show to the world?

-we show the start of a race from behind the gates these days, you can't even pick up your horse from the barrier number;
(it's a pity that the horse's number is not the draw number, would that make it to easy on us?)

-the close ups show 1 or 2 horses, lovely if you happened to have backed either, you have no clue whats happening in the race;

-cameras are left on auto-exposure, so backlit runners are black blobs against sun-drenched backgrounds, or if the camera pans past a white van the whole picture darkens;

-slow lenses used for night racing leaves the camera hunting for focus half the time;

-bandwidth so squeezed that black & white jockey colours come out as a low-resolution grey block picture.

How is it possible, that we the end user, or the customer, care more about this business than the owners and managers? Why can't the pro's, the people who run this show,, be more keen to supply a great product than we casual amateurs?

Maybe the way is for use to collect these complaints and send them to the big shareholders? Maybe if they start worrying about their dividends because their business is managed like shit, they will kick some arse?

In general the camera angles are not too bad in RSA.(overseas tends to be terrible) I can understand technical restrictions of the cameras and mounting distances. I only get peeved when the better positioned cameras are not used more often.

Why doesn’t someone who has more knowledge than the "wag 'n bietjie die baas kom now" start a web site with live SA horse racing something like Racing UK.com.
That way I can give DSTV with their Monopoly gaining pirate proof movie scheme (I don't know who they are trying to fool) a present & we can all watch professionally captured live S.A. racing

hibernia Wrote:

---

> Greyville,Turffontein ,Scottsville,Fairview and
> Arlington you are clueless when the field fans
> out..


Recently ....Im clueless when the cards are printed

> Recently ....Im clueless when the cards are
> printed


Try Formgrids it saved a good copule of burnt holes in my pocket.

Shocking IMO you think you are home and you get grabbed by a horse not even in picture

Seems to me it was never that bad at Turffontein - so why was it so bad on Saturday?

Camera angles aside. The picture quality is appalling. I have to go back to my 1970s Sony TV to find a comparable picture quality. Surely - at the very least - they must be filming in HD even if only broadcasting in 570. Even that would help!