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It's been announced - and repeated here - that the NFL schedule this fall on Sirius will feature each home team's announcers (for most games, at any rate).
It doesn't appear to be that way with the NBA...which I can understand. But...
There doesn't seem to be any reason or rhyme to which broadcast gets carried. For example, tonight:
Orlando at Detroit on 110 - Orlando's feed
Toronto at Cleveland on 123 - Toronto's feed
Milwaukee at New Jersey on 125 - New Jersey's feed
Two away feeds, one home. Is there any rhyme or reason to this?
Oh, also, the NBA feeds seem to be a low-bandwidth, almost telephone quality feed. Since they aren't actually "creating" any new channels here, and just taking existing ones, why do they need to compress more than the channel that's already on before sports?
I don't know the reason they pick the feeds they do, but I do know that they try their best to get the highest quality feed they possibly can.
I'm listening to the Cavs/Raptors game, and Sirius inserted a little promo for the NHL Stanley Cup series. That promo sounded normal, so it appears the phone line quality is the feed out of Toronto to NYC. (Though heck, if Sirius is in NYC, why does the New Jersey Nets feed sound phone line quality? They're THERE!)
The phone line quality is not BAD...it's certainly listenable. I just wonder why.
I'm listening to the Cavs/Raptors game, and Sirius inserted a little promo for the NHL Stanley Cup series. That promo sounded normal, so it appears the phone line quality is the feed out of Toronto to NYC. (Though heck, if Sirius is in NYC, why does the New Jersey Nets feed sound phone line quality? They're THERE!)
Remember that the infrastructure is there for getting a high quality sound feed to Sirius and everywhere in between. It just depends on what is sent out. The distance does not matter. For example, I could have a high-quality audio conversation with someone else over my comp thanks to high bandwidth. But if I had 56k(and that ain't upload!), it does not matter what the other person has, they will still have bad sound quality.
Remember that the infrastructure is there for getting a high quality sound feed to Sirius and everywhere in between. It just depends on what is sent out. The distance does not matter.
I only brought up distance because, heck, Sirius could turn on a local AM radio to WOR in NYC and plug it into the system! (OK, so AM isn't THAT much better quality...but it'd be enough.)
I don't understand why the Nets game is at "phone line quality" and the 76ers game is not. And apparently, no one else does, either...not a huge deal.
I would imagine that Sirius has C band dishes in NYC that can pick up the various teams...I just don't know why they aren't using them. Every single major league sports network has a C band feed to send audio to local affiliates. I'm willing to buy the phone line quality to "save bandwidth" on the Sirius system itself, but that inserted promo would tend to indicate that's not why it sounds like that.
here is the important part if anyone is lazy to search through it all:
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Sorry for the delayed response on this, but if something is wrong with the primary satellite feed, it is our policy to go to a backup feed (ISDN or Telos) or to the visiting team feed if possible.
That evening, the satellite feed of the Red Wings game was out of commission and we ended up having to go with Telos. That technology basically uses a dial-up analog phone line. It's our feed of last resort and it was that or nothing.
You won't hear that kind of feed too often, thank goodness.
Oh, and if Sirius is supposed to go with the home team broadcast first...then how do you explain the Cavs/Raptors tonight?
The Cavs were the home team, but we heard neither satellite-delivered, ISDN or even Telos broadcasts of the dulcet tones of Cavs broadcaster Joe Tait.
The away feed was via phone (Toronto).
That means they had 6 possible ways of getting that game on the air, and 5 were not available! I don't get it.
The Cavs game was moved by the local affiliate to an FM sister station, due to the Indians, but I don't believe they moved the satellite. Or maybe they did, and Sirius didn't know about it. Get it right, Sirius!
Or maybe they did, and Sirius didn't know about it. Get it right, Sirius!
you seem to be pretty picky about this. even when you say that the local affiliate may have not notified sirius about the fm change and the possible satellite change. when sirius does not know how can they change their plans and get the proper coordinates.
this of coarse is all speculation. but i have faith that something major could have prevented sirius from doing the normal digital home game broadcast.
I listen to quite a few Timberwolves games when I can't get them on TV, and I've been pleasantly surprised that Sirius almost always has the Timberwolves announcers. Of all the games I've listened to, I've heard the other team's announcers just once.
you seem to be pretty picky about this. even when you say that the local affiliate may have not notified sirius about the fm change and the possible satellite change. when sirius does not know how can they change their plans and get the proper coordinates.
But in this case, the change, if indeed there was one, would have been caused by a long-forseen event...the conflict between the Cavaliers and the Indians. Whoever coordinates the PBP rebroadcasts for Sirius should have seen this coming...the Indians schedules are in all the newspapers, and are no secret And I'm pretty sure the radio networks make it clear if games are going to be on different channels, likely well before the season begins. This isn't a case of "oops, there's baseball now, we gotta move!"
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this of coarse is all speculation. but i have faith that something major could have prevented sirius from doing the normal digital home game broadcast.
I was only upset because the Sirius rep who posts here was wrong. There were a half-dozen games last night, and half of them were on a phone line feed. He gave the impression that it was a "rare" occurrence. I'll be interested to see if this continues tonight.
I believe I'm the Sirius rep you referred to, and I don't recall using the word "rare" as you have quoted me as saying. I do remember saying that we will use a phone line feed as a last resort when other, higher-quality feeds are not available.
I will restate that for NBA games, we use the home team feed as our primary source. We will not use the home team feed if the home team provides us with a "naked" feed ... a feed without commercials, because we would be left with dead air that we are not licensed to fill with our own commercials or public service announcements. We will not use the home team feed if it sounds worse than the visiting team feed, or if there are technical difficulties with the home feed.
The assumption that all major league teams provide a C-band satellite feed to their affiliates is wrong. While many NBA teams in fact do provide a satellite feed to their affiliates, many of those teams will (for economic reasons) use a dialup phone connection for the backhaul from the stadium to the flagship station.
Finally, our feeds are not affected by a change in local stations. The feed we get is the same that a local station will get, in most cases.
To repeat, for every game that is played on a particular night, we have a choice of two feeds. All things the same, we take the home feed. Otherwise, we'll opt for the visiting team feed. Beyond that, we do not have any control over the quality of the feed that we receive. The standards of quality vary greatly depending on the originating station and team.
Ron, thanks for clearing that up. I know that the question of announcers (for NBA/NHL) has come up before, and I hadn't seen a comprehensive answer like you just provided. Much appreciated!
But I do note this answer was primarily directed at the NBA (as was the question!) Can I safely assume that the same is true for the NHL? Home team feed is the first choice? Should the decision matrix change with the playoffs starting this week?
Ron, thanks for clearing that up. I know that the question of announcers (for NBA/NHL) has come up before, and I hadn't seen a comprehensive answer like you just provided. Much appreciated!
But I do note this answer was primarily directed at the NBA (as was the question!) Can I safely assume that the same is true for the NHL? Home team feed is the first choice? Should the decision matrix change with the playoffs starting this week?
Pretty much the same for the NHL (though the percentage of teams that use dial-up is even higher than NBA broadasts), and pretty much the same through the playoffs. Things will get a little crazy when the NBA playoffs begin because there will be a LOT of (BB and Hockey) games going on at the same time!
Sports Play-By-Play - Which Announcers?
And I'm pretty sure the radio networks make it clear if games are going to be on different channels, likely well before the season begins. This isn't a case of "oops, there's baseball now, we gotta move!"
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