The last race broadcast on NBC Sports (Channel 220 for you DirecTV folks) before the Tour de France, was a one hour recap show of the Tour de Yorkshire. I have my DVR set to record anything cycling related that happens on that channel so it recorded this.
I settled onto the couch and pushed play on the DVR. It started out innocently. The bumper video faded into the race situation at 70kms on stage 1. Christian Vandevelde began his commentary, on top of the bumper music, which normally fades a few seconds into the commentary. This time, it did not. As a matter of fact, it didn't even fade into a distant bed of music behind the commentary, but rather, it competed with it.
It eventually faded. Well, the fade was actually the end of the song. I thought it was a technical glitch, someone just forgot to fade the music. A few minutes later, when the cameras cut from the peloton to the breakaway, another song burst into the commentary! I didn't know what was going on. The music this time had more tension in it and less inspirational trumpeting. Moments later, a rider in the breakaway misjudged a downhill corner in the rain and went plowing into the side of a hill. The music continued. A few seconds later, the peloton had a fairly massive pile up in the same slippery corner. After they cut back to the remnants of the breakaway, the music faded.
That's when I realized what was going on. NBC Sports, in all it's wisdom, is trying to liven up the racing by adding music to the replays. How do I know this was the case? The breakaway headed for the KOM points banner on the top of the final climb, the tension music returned. The breakaway gets captured by a small chase group, the tension music returned. Final kilometer of the race, the tension music returned. All too loud and drowning out the commentary.
Stop it NBC Sports. Just stop it.
A) Cycling doesn't need it. I'll grant you the race can be very boring in the beginning when the riders are just pulling out of the start line, the first bit is just a breakaway going up the road and the peloton holding them at bay. But by the time the action heats up, music is not needed. Even if it is a replay/recap show.
B) If you are trying to make it interesting for those who don't normally tune into cycling, you may be doing the opposite of the desired effect. People are trained that when they hear tension music, something tense of exciting is going to happen. Putting music in every time something happens that's different than just the peloton plowing along, is misleading. It would be like putting music just before a pile up in NASCAR, or ominous keyboard tones playing every time there's a corner kick in soccer.
C) Whomever was mixing the sound for the coverage of the Tour de Yorkshire was doing a terrible job. I could barely hear the commentary when this tension music would come in. If you insist on doing it, make it a distant bed of music. Not something competing with the commentary.
D) I don't mind the easy fade in of music just before you cut to commercial on the live shows. It gives me an extra 10 seconds to run to the loo or get a cold one from the kitchen.
I'm worried that the evening recap show will be strewn with bad music, level, and timing. I try to watch the stage live in the morning, but on days I work, I can often come home in time to watch the recap show, which has extra content that I really like (Ask Bobke for example).
Please NBC Sports, don't feel the need to "produce" the Tour de France.
See you on the road.
No comments:
Post a Comment