PCRX Pittsburgh Blog Spot

After NBC ran the biggest hockey game so far on MSNBC where most people in the world cannot watch it without some form of either cable or satellite I believe that they should not have exclusive rights to ANY sporting event, ever again! It wasn’t bad enough that they denied Pittsburgh Penguin fans the ability to sit outside the Mellon Arena and watch the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2009. Now they are totally ruining the Olympic coverage by having the more popular events on channels that no one can find.

I believe such a large event should be divided up amongst all the major networks. By lottery for event coverage to keep it fair to all the networks involved. That way one network would not monopolize all the good events. Truth is the sponsors are all the same no matter what network you watch. You see the same commercials over and over.

If you live in the United States apparently you cannot even watch streaming video of the Canadian coverages. For whatever reason (and I am tech savvy) I could not get the streaming to work for the hockey games at www.nbcolympics.com. I can only imagine someone that is not tech savvy trying to get it working.

NBC needs to be more spectator sensitive and less selfish with their dire quest for rating numbers. They very well could have done a head count of all the people outside Mellon Arena last year to compile their numbers if it was that important. Hockey is a great sport and needs the best exposure possible to increase it’s popularity. NBC is hurting it, not helping it by stifling their coverage of the hockey events.
Rich

I watched a couple of really exciting cross country skiing events. What is so exciting about it you ask? I own a pair of cross country skis. They are very old and very dusty. It always seems like there is either too little or too much snow. Last year was the closest I came to actually getting out. They were out of the attic and moved into the closet at my apartment. I was ready to head out the following morning when a disaster ice storm ruined any possibility of getting them out that weekend. I was only hours away from redemption and the exhilaration of trekking out the Butler/Freeport trail for great run.

Watching these athletes go nine miles in around 35 minutes was very humbling to say the least. I feel pretty good biking 12 miles in roughly an hour so you know how impressive it is for someone to ski nine in half that time. The women were just as impressive going nearly six miles in slightly less time. I am really enjoying seeing all the nations represented whether they have a snowball’s chance in hell of doing anything other than finishing. I was really impressed with the enthusiasm that the crowd that cheered the non ranked end finishers to their finish line of the race. My thought is along the lines of what I think, I can relate to these that are just happy to be there participating.
Rich

Isn’t it so amazing how far the technology in covering the Olympics. High speed rail cameras, sky cameras, etc. to cover the action making you feel like you are a part of it all. The amazing clarity and lighting features.

The special effects for the opening ceremonies absolutely took my breath away. The amazing choreography of the story and the incredible projector effects that appeared so real that you thought the actors were really jumping across water gaps to ice flows. Whales that appeared to swim right across your screen spouting water as they went. Just to poin out a few of my faves.

I have never been unemployed this long to have the opportunity to behold these amazing athletes and hear their stories. I have never really been able to sit and watch the Olympics in their entirety until this year because of work constraints. I can’t even imagine how many camera and technical people it takes to cover such a huge event. I hope to report more here over the next two weeks. Hoping that you get to enjoy this special event as much as you can!
Rich