LVSteve
Member
The Strip typically has a big fireworks display for New Year. It has been canceled a couple of times for high winds and last year for COVID. This year it went ahead, despite a pretty stiff breeze/wind at times. There were some sideways fireworks, for sure.
In the past we have had some fair, to very good coverage of the fireworks on TV for those of use who have no wish to hit the Strip at New Year under any circumstances. Quite often, the local station folks were set up in various places up and down the Strip with an "anchor" desk at one location.
Now, I understand that COVID may have cooled the desire to go and mix with the herd from all over, but should that affect setting some cameras to broadcast the fireworks? I think not, but the multiple debacles this year almost defy belief. Here's a breakdown station by station. It is based on the quick looks I could stomach. Most of the time the TV was on the Godzilla marathon, that's how poor the broadcasts were.
Channel 3, NBC affiliate. No local folk out on the Strip, apparently. They were showing the Miley Cyrus New Year show from Florida with a time delay. Yeah, whatever. At midnight they divided the screen into four, one with Miley and her "music" while the other three showed the Vegas fireworks. Camera work was pretty good, in focus and mostly well framed. It would have been passable but for the inclusion of the Miley nonsense, no doubt at the insistence of the network. Thanks for nothing, NBC HQ.
Channel 5, Fox affiliate. Their schedule had them showing "I can see you voice", whatever that is. I didn't tune over there at midnight, but their website showed some broad view shots with the Strat Tower camera specializing in sideways fireworks. The shots were no different than you get on any normal news broadcast, so Meh! applies.
Channel 8, CBS affiliate. They did have their folk out in a couple of places and the show ran from just before the ball drop in New York. They showed fireworks from each timezone and the "anchors" had a drink (or two, three?) for each timezone. By the time they got to mountain time, the female presenter was pickled. Like being around most drunks, the fun in that faded after five minutes.
I was relieved when Channel 8 decided to go over to the Zowie Bowie concert at the Westgate (previously The Hilton, The International, and The Whyte House in "Diamonds are forever"). Zowie Bowie are a local show/cover band that have been quite successful, or so I'm told. On what I saw, I must assume they were having an off night. I hope the foldback for the singers was poor, because both the main guy and girl were way off key on occasion. Or maybe they cannot really sing, I'll check with my local music biz guy. The audio was plagued with distortion, and if you are showing a live event, you need a mike to pick up crowd noise. Wait, maybe there was a crowd mike and the lack of crowd noise was a measure of how bad the band sounded. Painful.
If you think these were Channel 8's only issues, you'd be wrong. When the fireworks started the camera work was laughable. One camera appeared to be looking through a coating of beer. A long shot camera was way out of focus and over exposed. How hard was that to get right? The camera pointed at the Strat Tower was zoomed in crazy tight so you could not see the fireworks dispersing. Oh, and many of the cameras were poorly mounted and shaking in the wind, almost inducing motion sickness.
All in all, a total goat rope for Channel 8. (Sorry to bring you into this, goats.)
Channel 13, ABC affiliate. These guys ran a short show from about 2330 called "Debut '22". In case you missed the name, it was plastered across a huge gray banner located up from the bottom of the picture and again in a large gray circular blob in the upper left area of the screen. Did they take these off when showing the fireworks? Of course not! It made watching the fireworks impossible for me, so I quickly abandoned that channel. More abject failure.
10-15 years ago the fireworks coverage was mostly good on all the channels. I don't know if all the good directors and camera folks were off with COVID or have left the valley, but last night's shows barely met high school standard for me (sorry to bring you into this, high school kids).
These people are supposed to be media and entertainment experts, but last night's efforts made me think that the "give a rat's" factor was at an all time low. Maybe it's just a reflection on the general slide I see many say is going on, who knows.
In the past we have had some fair, to very good coverage of the fireworks on TV for those of use who have no wish to hit the Strip at New Year under any circumstances. Quite often, the local station folks were set up in various places up and down the Strip with an "anchor" desk at one location.
Now, I understand that COVID may have cooled the desire to go and mix with the herd from all over, but should that affect setting some cameras to broadcast the fireworks? I think not, but the multiple debacles this year almost defy belief. Here's a breakdown station by station. It is based on the quick looks I could stomach. Most of the time the TV was on the Godzilla marathon, that's how poor the broadcasts were.
Channel 3, NBC affiliate. No local folk out on the Strip, apparently. They were showing the Miley Cyrus New Year show from Florida with a time delay. Yeah, whatever. At midnight they divided the screen into four, one with Miley and her "music" while the other three showed the Vegas fireworks. Camera work was pretty good, in focus and mostly well framed. It would have been passable but for the inclusion of the Miley nonsense, no doubt at the insistence of the network. Thanks for nothing, NBC HQ.
Channel 5, Fox affiliate. Their schedule had them showing "I can see you voice", whatever that is. I didn't tune over there at midnight, but their website showed some broad view shots with the Strat Tower camera specializing in sideways fireworks. The shots were no different than you get on any normal news broadcast, so Meh! applies.
Channel 8, CBS affiliate. They did have their folk out in a couple of places and the show ran from just before the ball drop in New York. They showed fireworks from each timezone and the "anchors" had a drink (or two, three?) for each timezone. By the time they got to mountain time, the female presenter was pickled. Like being around most drunks, the fun in that faded after five minutes.
I was relieved when Channel 8 decided to go over to the Zowie Bowie concert at the Westgate (previously The Hilton, The International, and The Whyte House in "Diamonds are forever"). Zowie Bowie are a local show/cover band that have been quite successful, or so I'm told. On what I saw, I must assume they were having an off night. I hope the foldback for the singers was poor, because both the main guy and girl were way off key on occasion. Or maybe they cannot really sing, I'll check with my local music biz guy. The audio was plagued with distortion, and if you are showing a live event, you need a mike to pick up crowd noise. Wait, maybe there was a crowd mike and the lack of crowd noise was a measure of how bad the band sounded. Painful.
If you think these were Channel 8's only issues, you'd be wrong. When the fireworks started the camera work was laughable. One camera appeared to be looking through a coating of beer. A long shot camera was way out of focus and over exposed. How hard was that to get right? The camera pointed at the Strat Tower was zoomed in crazy tight so you could not see the fireworks dispersing. Oh, and many of the cameras were poorly mounted and shaking in the wind, almost inducing motion sickness.
All in all, a total goat rope for Channel 8. (Sorry to bring you into this, goats.)
Channel 13, ABC affiliate. These guys ran a short show from about 2330 called "Debut '22". In case you missed the name, it was plastered across a huge gray banner located up from the bottom of the picture and again in a large gray circular blob in the upper left area of the screen. Did they take these off when showing the fireworks? Of course not! It made watching the fireworks impossible for me, so I quickly abandoned that channel. More abject failure.
10-15 years ago the fireworks coverage was mostly good on all the channels. I don't know if all the good directors and camera folks were off with COVID or have left the valley, but last night's shows barely met high school standard for me (sorry to bring you into this, high school kids).
These people are supposed to be media and entertainment experts, but last night's efforts made me think that the "give a rat's" factor was at an all time low. Maybe it's just a reflection on the general slide I see many say is going on, who knows.
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