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Commonwealth Games - BBC coverage

Split from The Sport Thread (November 2013)

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BR
Brekkie
And I have to say have been woeful.
After the lovely evolution since 2000 (bar Turin 2006 where it went all ESPN circa late 90's again) of the OBS graphics for both codes of the Olympics - why have we been frogmarched back to the land of simple for these games? The graphics for Manchester 12 years ago were miles better than this rubbish.
It doesn't help that they've gone for Futura which is a 'simple' and 'basic' looking font, but not to have any shading, light flares in animation (on or off) or bevels on the text boxes, just to make them stand out a bit better, gives the indication that very little time or money has been spent on them, or the brief was given to someone with a serious lack of ideas.

It looks like they were rendered on Powerpoint a couple of hours before the opening ceremony, when someone remembered they need some graphics.

Also, there is a lack of consistency. That consentric ring effect on the top left of the score box appears in some events, but not in others - was expecting to see it bottom right of the time box for the swimming/cycling/athletics.

It's been the only thing dragging down the coverage of the games this time around.

From discussion earlier in the games here I think you're very much in the minority in criticising the games graphics - most have liked their freshing simplicity. Also at least they're unique to the games - unlike the Olympic graphics which have been "evolving" for 14 years yet seem to have got practically nowhere.

A simple package with a "simple" and "basic" clear font and no unnecessary and no unnecessary "light flares" or "bevels" has served these games well - and the host graphics look far better than the BBC package which contains all of these element and look bloody awful.

As Jon says that sort of thing can work well for events where you've only one sport to think about and graphics don't go much beyond the score, teamsheets and occassional astons - but for a multi-sport event where you have 17, or in the case of the Olympics, 26, sports to design for where many events need to relay much more information than a standard football or rugby game the Glasgow graphics have worked superbly - and they've been a refreshing change to the glossy over-stylised approaches of some events.
BA
bilky asko
The above post shows everything that is wrong with graphic design in this country today.


What are you on about? "Flat and simplistic" is currently a major trend. These Commonwealth Games graphics have followed that trend. The TV graphics, as well as all the graphic design for the Games, were done by Tangent Graphic, who are based in Glasgow.

The OBS graphics were designed in Spain by OBS's Television Graphics division.

An interesting quote from Kim Erdahl (Manager of Television Graphics at OBS):

Quote:
We keep our look as straight forward as possible so it can be recreated by rights holders if they want their own coverage to reproduce our look


article here ……..

SPORTSVIDEO.ORG
02-Aug-2014 @ 18:41

In any case, I don't love the Commonwealth Games graphics - they're certainly functional, and they're definitely better than OBS's graphics, but I think they look clunky and unrefined. Still, they match the general branding, which is a definite plus.
NG
noggin Founding member

Also, there is a lack of consistency. That consentric ring effect on the top left of the score box appears in some events, but not in others - was expecting to see it bottom right of the time box for the swimming/cycling/athletics.


Suspect that is people keying them incorrectly at the venue rather than inconsistency in the original design - though I may be wrong. It would be very easy to clip out those concentric rings in error.
MI
Michael
GE
Gareth E
Don't want to delve into presenter rota talk too much here, but flicking through Twitter it seems that Gary Lineker has now finished his Glasgow commitments and will not feature in the Closing Ceremony coverage tonight.

Unusual, considering he was billed to be presenter. Presumably it'll be Clare Balding or Gabby Logan alongside Hazel Irvine in the stadium. Although I'd say the hour-long build-up will mainly be filled with an Eddie Butler review piece.
BR
Brekkie
It was down as Gary, Clare and Hazel so suspect it would have been similar to the opening with Clare in a "roving" role. Not sure I can bring myself to watch the actual ceremony anyway considering how awful the opening was.
HA
harshy Founding member
i got to admit the bbc titles were better then the world titles by the host broadcasters, the music and the creativity was well produced on the bbc titles, the music on the world titles were a bit of a let down, but it had a nice ending to it.

The graphics whilst simplistic were very good i thought, possible inconsistancy was just the outer rings not sure why it was there, sometimes it wasnt but i doubt the average viewers care Smile
GE
thegeek Founding member
Did I see that Clare Balding has a chat show on BT Sport? I wonder whether the Tonight concept was brought in off the back of that?
You're right - it started off as a live, studio show with an audience, then got scaled back a bit to be a pre-record, and over the summer seems to have moved to other locations with no audience.
You'd be forgiven for not knowing about it, though - it's not exactly had stellar viewing figures.
GO
gottago
Haven't really seen any of the BBC3 coverage but have they been running 60 Second updates during the day like they were foolishly forced to do during the Olympics?
GE
thegeek Founding member
Yep. I've only seen a handful so couldn't tell you what sort of schedule they were on.
MI
Michael
Haven't really seen any of the BBC3 coverage but have they been running 60 Second updates during the day like they were foolishly forced to do during the Olympics?


Yes how dare they abandon their PSB commitments while showing a sporting event in specially extended hours?
BR
Brekkie
Haven't really seen any of the BBC3 coverage but have they been running 60 Second updates during the day like they were foolishly forced to do during the Olympics?

Yes. Stupid really considering their "PSB commitments" don't kick in before 7pm and I think they only lose one bulletin in the evening, but have 3-4 during the day to make up for it.

Not much to fault though coverage wise from the BBC. Only thing that winds me up is the EPG - needlessly breaking it up at 12noon and 3pm despite their being no break in the programme (which makes a nice change actually), and they've not been the best at updating the EPG - notably during the Opening Ceremony when it didn't account for the over run.

Overall though the BBC1 and BBC3 coverage has been good and apart from a slight curling-esque obsession with Lawn Bowls most of the time they've shown what you'd expect them to be showing. The Connected Red Button service is brilliant, though I don't think the streaming online is quite as user friendly as it was for the Olympics. The TV red button service though is poor though - it was better in Manchester 12 years ago.

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