That Incessant BLADE SCRAPING

[JonnyCoop]

I don't have cable, so I'm only able to see what ABC offers (if such a small amount could even be considered an "offering" ) but the coverage of the Ladies SP yesterday was almost ruined for me by the CONSTANT SOUND OF SCRAPING BLADES ON THE ICE DURING THE PROGRAM THAT WAS JUST ABOUT AS LOUD AS THE MUSIC. This is 2006, people!! Don't they have SOUND ENGINEERING of some sort to remove that noise? I've NEVER heard it so loud. Did they put microphones on their skates or something?? Was it like that with ALL the telecasts in all the categories??

Granted -- in theory, you're not supposed to be able to hear the blade, ever, even if you're right there. However, to the best of my knowlege, the only skaters who have been able to accomplish this have been Michelle Kwan, Janet Lynn, and the Protopopovs (tho I'm sure there are others). The fact that the blade shouldn't be scraping at all is a subject for another post. But I'm sure blades have been scraping for decades now -- you just couldn't HEAR them that much!:banging: :banging: :banging:

[aunm88]

The scraping blades were pretty annoying! If i'm not wrong they had microphones placed at ice level for this event, so that's probably why the scraping was picked up more than usual? Not too sure...someone else might be able to confirm. You could hear the scraping on the CCTV and japanese asahi tv broadcasts as well

[debdelilah]

From what I read, it was deliberate: they really wanted people to hear the blades, and to that effect, put twelve microphones around and under the ice.

[Mathman]

Yeah, that was a bad decision on the part of the TV people. Skating is supposed to give the effect of effortlessness. This made it seem like they were grinding away at the ice, fighting it.

I remember one competition years ago, where the two commentators were Peggy Fleming and some guy who usually did baseball. At one point he made the comment, how nice it was to hear the skaters blades against the the ice. Peggy said, well the next skater up is Yuka Sato. You won't hear that.
Aunm88, welcome to Golden Skate!

[JonnyCoop]

Yeah, that was a bad decision on the part of the TV people. Skating is supposed to give the effect of effortlessness. This made it seem like they were grinding away at the ice, fighting it.

Exactly. And given the fact that most of the Ladies SP's weren't exactly stellar, anyway, it just kind of added to the overall "we've got work to do" effect. And even if a program was skated well, all I could think was "scraping blade = bad technique" and I just kept thinking "BAD TECHNIQUE!! BAD TECHNIQUE!!" no matter how good it looked.

[dizzydi7]

Hopefully this was an experiment that won't be repeated. I found it to be very annoying. I wonder if this was amplified to the point that the skaters and audience could also hear it?

Dizzy

[emma]

Yeah, that was a bad decision on the part of the TV people. Skating is supposed to give the effect of effortlessness. This made it seem like they were grinding away at the ice, fighting it.

I remember one competition years ago, where the two commentators were Peggy Fleming and some guy who usually did baseball. At one point he made the comment, how nice it was to hear the skaters blades against the the ice. Peggy said, well the next skater up is Yuka Sato. You won't hear that.
Aunm88, welcome to Golden Skate!

I guess i'm the odd-ball, but I really REALLY, like hearing the blades -- I have never been to a live competition, but if this is something of what you hear in the stands, then I like it because it makes it seem more real. Also, it will be fun to re-watch/listen and pay attention to who scratches the least (at least, it will be for me).

And, I do remember Peggy saying that about Sato, and I've heard others mention this about Kwan, and kind of like the opportunity to hear it myself.

[dizzydi7]

Emma,

I have attended live shows and although you can hear blades on the ice, it was natural stroking that could be heard. At Skate America because of the microphones on or near the ice, the blade stroking was very loud, exaggerated and quite distracting. To me, the blade noise was interfering with the music and marring the presentation of each progam.

I equate this with a poorly scored movie. You want the music to enhance the performance not "stick out like a sore thumb" so to speak.

Dizzy

[guinevere]

I believe this is some fancy new technology that the good folks at ESPN came up with to try to make figure skating more interesting to their (non-skating) viewers. As with the dreadful Skycam 2 years ago, they clearly sunk a LOT of money into it, so I bet we'll see (hear) this again during the season. Whoever makes these kinds of decisions must not be very familiar with skating - but then, I do believe their goal is to make the event more exciting and "XTREME"

On FSU, there was someone (who I think volunteered during SA?) who talked to the sound technicians, and apparently the scraping sound wasn't intended to be that bad - the temperature of the ice changed by 1 degree, and that threw all the sound equalization done prior to the competition out the window. I can see that being an issue, and it seemed like it was less of a problem suring the ladies SPs than the pairs SP (only 2 I got to see). But if the technology is so difficult to control of course it's going to be a disaster.

[JonnyCoop]

I never heard it like that in person either, and that was sitting in the 2nd row during practice sessions without the music on. (As to the actual competition, I was relegated to the rafters so they could have been carrying on full volume conversations with themselves and I wouldn't have heard it).

[show 42]

I thought I was the only one annoyed by it. I thought at first they had put mikes on the blades and then I thought.........yeah, my hearing has suddenly improved!! Very distracting..........42

[Tonichelle]

The ONLY time this 'technology' was 'cool' was when Kurt, Paul, and Scott miked their skates for SOI one year... it was called '5 minutes of icing'... THAT was cool because they deliberatly made noise with their blades and it went with the music... and it was a 'can you top this' part of the show...

this new 'taking you there' thing for ESPN sucks lol

[SK8LUVR]

I found it so annoying that it took away from the performance. You could not really hear the music and my daughter said, "Mom you shouldn't be able to hear their blades like that. They should get marked down for that". I said that they must have microphones at ice level.

Take note tv people: Not a good idea!!!!! No Microphones!!!!!

[JonnyCoop]

Anyone know how we can e-mail this thread to ESPN?

At least we didn't have to deal with that vertigo-inducing SKY CAM (at least not that I saw) into the bargain. Then again, how WOULD you be able to hear those blades properly with the sky-cam???:sheesh: :sheesh: :sheesh:

[SeaniBu]

Anyone know how we can e-mail this thread to ESPN?

Well if that happens I will have to say I ALMOST LOVED IT. Was not subliminal enough. Just to much in the "front end." Also the way the sound was proximity dependent. Did not like them in the ice as much as I would have on top / sides balancing the music and the blades as you would hear at the event. And I did hear them on some and not on others.

BTW it was 8 mics (not that it matters) from what I was reading and heard. I hope they keep trying variations of this. I would think a directional Mic congruent to the camera being used would have work better IMO.

Rather hear the blades then the comments incessantly during the routines.

PS, SkyCam should ONLY be used at the point where they take the ice to the first pose, and the end if it is a good shot, not during unless the choreography incorporates the skycam for say a ES. They need to remember this is skating, emphasis on the SKATES! Oksana used a shot in Ice wars last year that was very efective, but it was "worked into" rather then some director in a booth trying to stand out or something. more Seanibu rant sorry.