Best Vs Worst Stream/Facilities

[jdfranklin23]

I know we've posted and discussed different fields and such; but, I wasn't sure if we had a specific topic devoted to it.  I'm interested in hearing thoughts on who has the best live-stream vs worst (and on-demand), best vs worst fan facilities, best vs worst field and player facilities, etc.

What goes into making a live stream a quality product? Quality of the camera? Unobstructed view? Announcers? Replays?
Obviously, Simple Coach has brought up the University of Paywall haha.

What goes into a quality fan experience for a live game in-person?

Thoughts?

[Hopkins92]

Great topic!

I just don't have time today to address it.

[Another Mom]

All I ask is that the camera follow the ball. That's all. Especially when the ball is at one end of the field.

I really don't watch other teams, but I find the W&L announcers to be very knowledgeable.  One of them had a tendency to be very critical and second guess the players. I've noticed he's toned it down lately.  I do think it's refreshing to point out the home teams missteps, but that does need to be balanced out with pointing out the good things the players do.

[NEPAFAN]

Right now it is the ETOWN stream as it is down/frozen for the Landmark Championship game...

[oacalum]

The most important aspect of streaming I've noticed is finding the perfect zoom amount. Zoom too far in and there's way too much camera movement and it hurts to watch, but zoom too far out and you can't follow what's going on in the game.

[jdfranklin23]

All I ask is that the camera follow the ball. That's all. Especially when the ball is at one end of the field.

I really don't watch other teams, but I find the W&L announcers to be very knowledgeable.  One of them had a tendency to be very critical and second guess the players. I've noticed he's toned it down lately.  I do think it's refreshing to point out the home teams missteps, but that does need to be balanced out with pointing out the good things the players do.

You hit the #1 in my opinion.  Can't stand it when the camera operator isn't tracking the ball.  I've found some of the live streams to have abysmal video quality to the point that you can't even read the names and numbers on the uniforms.

So far, my favorite has been Messiah's.  Quality video with zoomed in replays, relatively reliable streaming feed, knowledgable commentators that try to call it evenly.  My only complaint is sometimes they don't pan out far enough for the. corners when it is on the near side of the camera.

[Maine Soccer Fan]

Wheaton(IL) has the best replay machine that I've seen.

Gordon College will sometimes have 2 or 3 players from the women's team announce the game. The pure enthusiasm, knowledge of the game and friendship with the players makes it a fun change of pace.

Don't know about this year, but last year's UChicago commentary was really good.

[Gregory Sager]

Wheaton(IL) has the best replay machine that I've seen.

From a technical standpoint, Wheaton's broadcast is fantastic. Wheaton uses student announcers, though, and that makes them hit-or-miss in terms of quality.

Don't know about this year, but last year's UChicago commentary was really good.

The U of C's PBP announcer and colorman were both very good this year as well.

[Gregory Sager]

All I ask is that the camera follow the ball. That's all. Especially when the ball is at one end of the field.

This.

The most important aspect of streaming I've noticed is finding the perfect zoom amount. Zoom too far in and there's way too much camera movement and it hurts to watch, but zoom too far out and you can't follow what's going on in the game.

This, too.

I'll add two more necessary production elements for a satisfying soccer livestream:

1) Get the camera off of the ground. I absolutely hate watching a game streamed at ground level. It makes it extremely difficult to follow what's going on with any clarity whatsoever when the ball's at or near the opposite side of the pitch.

2) Multiple cameras when possible, please. A lot of center cameras have obstacles between them and the two near corners of the pitch. Given how important corners are to the game of soccer, I don't think that you can have a great broadcast unless you've got a second camera that can pick up the near corners -- unless your center camera is up very high above all obstacles (including press-box walls, which means having a camera that can stick out of the window) and can swing from side to side.

[4samuy]

Chicago's color guy for most games, is DJ Weiss, who was Chicago's center back 6 years back.  He's really good at breaking the game down, while being very fair in his commentary.

[Hopkins92]

I haven't caught a North Park game in quite some time, but I do remember the overall quality.

* - There's a guy that covers Centennial games who is pretty good. Some of the other guys aren't all that great. I think they hire professional crews, so... Overall I haven't seen anything that isn't pretty good aesthetically, and a lot of them have pretty good replay capabilities.

* - I will echo the earlier comment: Again, Mr. Sager excluded, I'd say Messiah is the best broadcast going. Camera and other technical issues are great, the field is beautiful, and the broadcast duo is very knowledgeable. They call things from their perspective, but in no way are they unfair and they are definitely not overly emotional. They have friends, fans and family checking in (via text) and they do a nice little half-time show. Also references to this board, which shows you how much their paying attention to "available resources."

* - Then you have a random one: I found the enthusiasm and the set-up of the Montclair St. broadcast endearing. And they did a really nice interview with the striker on the Women's team, which I thought was a really cool touch. Something about that field, crowd... Seems like a potentially tough place to play in terms atmosphere... intimidating... But that's tough to gauge from a stream.

* - The C2C Tournament down in Salisbury was a trip. The actual camera coverage was pretty good. In particular, when the ball was in each nearside corner, the "production crew" did a good job switching to secondary cameras to capture that. We all know fields where once it goes in the near corner, it's all just speculation.

On the flip side, their rotation of student broadcasters were... Not exactly versed in the finer points of the game? I'm trying to be gracious. There were a few very good crews but there were also a few that it might've just been better to pick up the bench audio and leave it at that.