Posts Tagged espn

Prediction #1 for 2011 - The End of 3D Broadcasting

Jan 2

Posted by Andrew Machado in Technology | 6,690 Comments

Wasn’t it just November of 2009 when Avatar burst onto the scene bringing 3d to the masses.  I remember being unable to escape the Samsung TV ad with Train playing in the background.

There are a few reasons why I think 3D broadcasting will be coming to end in 2011.

1.  Cost to Make  Your TV 3D Ready

Not only do you need a 3D Ready TV, but you also need to have at least one pair of 3d glasses.  Oh and you also need to find a device thats 3d Ready (Special Blu-ray player, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 or the latest version of Direct TV/Comcast Boxes.

2.  Lack of Selection

On my Comcast box I have two channels in 3d.  Yes Two.  ESPN 3D and Comcast’s demo channel.  How can they expect consumers to pay extra money per month to get 3D service when your selection is so bare?  There are already rumors ESPN will be canceling their channel and expect 2011 to be the last year its available.

3.  The biggest problem of all.  Glasses are Required

Its been proven that when consumers have to buy additional equipment to get certain features the technology usually doesn’t survive.  See Sega’s CD Attachment, Web Cams (didn’t take off until integrated into all laptops and displays) and 3D glasses will be another one.  In order to make 3d successful consumers will need to be able to view 3d content without glasses.  This technology on large displays is years away.  Nintendo is launching a 3.5 inch screen portable this year that will not require glasses.  Consumers will need panels of 40 inches or more for it to be successful.

Good luck 3D I wish you well.  Sadly you are going to be booted out of Costco and hopefully off my Comcast Box very soon.

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Sports Conversation Vertical Getting Hot

Dec 27

Posted by Andrew Machado in Technology | 6,264 Comments

First we had message boards discussing their favorite teams.  Then this conversation moved somewhat to Twitter.  Just quickly doing a search for Aaron Rodgers I see 100s of tweets come down within minutes.  A few years ago my friends launched a service called InGameNow which had a website and mobile apps allowing users to chat in realtime about games that were going in the NFL, MLB, NBA, Hockey and even Mixed Martial Arts.  Sadly the service folded.

Well around Super Bowl last year the Sports Conversation vertical got new life with a service called FanVibe.  It allows checking into any game, talking trash with friends and recently even competing for points about what will happen next in the game.

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Since then checking into sports games has become a feature most sports properties have added.  You can see it on FanIQ, ESPN Passport for iPhone.

So Much Conversation, but where to do it?

I just visited the ESPN homepage and saw a conversation ticker refreshing constantly with what people were saying.

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In another year I’ll be very interested to see where sports conversation goes.  Between FanVibe, ESPN, Twitter and a plethora of other sites it seems like the space is red hot.

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HTML 5 Video Tag +The iPad = Life For Older Machines

Apr 23

Posted by Andrew Machado in Technology | 9,497 Comments

Since the launch of the iPad there have been sites converting layouts and content to a compatible format.  What that means is they need to remove anything Adobe Flash since the iPad controversiality is not supporting Flash at all.

Steve Jobs has been quoted as saying “Flash is a CPU Hog” which some Adobe fan boys have taken offense to.

Well thank god Apple is doing this because as a side benefit those users out there on older mac hardware may have just caught a break.  I recently visited ESPN.com on my dad’s Imac G5 1ghz machine and formally video would play horribly dropping frames, audio cutting out and sometime seven crashing.

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After the launch of the iPad video played smooth on ESPN.com, yet it looked exactly the same.  My hunch is ESPN detects if a compatible browser that supports the <video> tag is visiting the site (Safari, FireFox or Google Chrome) it displays the video in HTML 5 format.

Flash has historically been a real problem on the mac, which they are claiming to have fixed with Flash 10.1, but sadly any mac owners on older powerpc hardware won’t notice a difference.  With HTML 5 at least the web can be tolerable for these owners.

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ESPN Pushing the Envelope with 30 for 30 Series

Oct 7

Posted by Andrew Machado in Brand Advertising, Personal | 9,250 Comments

I love Movies.  I love Sports.  I love when a channel like ESPN takes something as basic as sports and reminds me of why I love their channel.  For the next 30 weeks every Tuesday ESPN will be showing a unique documentary on a key moment in sports over the last 30 years.  What is really great though is the hook which is every single one is directed by a popular Hollywood director.

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I just finished the first episode Kings Ransom about the great Wayne Gretzky trade from 1988 where the Edmonton Oilers traded him to the Los Angeles Kings.  It is directed by the great Peter Berg.  If you haven’t heard of Peter Berg highlight his name in this post and click the i icon.  He is a brilliant director who has handled the great series Friday Night Lights (movie as well as TV show.

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Probably my favorite part of this is the sheer amount of footage and knowledge shown in this first episode.  To be honest I had no idea Gretzky was traded and to hear about how he helped negotiate the deal fascinated me.  In between stock footage you see brief glimpses of Wayne today with Peter Berg discussing moments of the story.  Overall I can not give it a high enough rating.

The Bad

The fact I have to set my DVR to record each and every episode.  ESPN how could you blow this?  Currently my cable guide lists it as simply “Kings Ransom” which the cable box can not decipher as the first in the 30 part series.  I’ve written Bill Simmons on Twitter and I pray they get this fixed.  For 30 weeks I’m not sure I can keep up telling my guide to record the next one.

What Stories Are Coming Up?

The Band That Wouldn’t Die - The story of the Balitmore Colts being moved to Indianapolis in the middle of the night.  It is directed by Barry Levinson

Muhammad versus Larry - When Ali fought Holmes it was a huge moment for boxing.  Relive it with Albert Maysles directs this one.

Winning Time: Reggie Miller versus The New York Knicks - Reggie Miller, The Knicks and Spike Lee.  Oddly enough Spike Lee is not directing this one (hopefully he’s been banished after that awful Kobe Bryant piece he did).  Instead we get Dan Klores behind the camera.

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