I saw on the Universal Sports website that they plan to do a live broadcast of the world championships next month. Does anyone know anything more about this? I wonder if they plan to show the entire thing and If they will just pick up the IM Live broadcast from the internet which is usually not too good. If this is true, I can only hope that DirecTV customers like myself will get Universal Sports next month too.
I saw on the Universal Sports website that they plan to do a live broadcast of the world championships next month. Does anyone know anything more about this? I wonder if they plan to show the entire thing and If they will just pick up the IM Live broadcast from the internet which is usually not too good. If this is true, I can only hope that DirecTV customers like myself will get Universal Sports next month too.
The IM live broadcast off the internet for Kona is usually great in my opinion.
This is from their Twitter feed: We will be broadcasting live from Kona Ironman during the day - details are still being sorted out.
The IM live broadcast off the internet for Kona is usually great in my opinion.
Historically the Ironman Hawaii online show is hosted by Bob Babbitt and Paul Huddle - with a number of other folks contributing, most notably Greg Welch and Paula Newby Fraser. They focus on the Pro race starting at about 6:30am and running through until the top 3 - 5 women Pros are across the line in the mid-afternoon.
I am not sure what NBC/Universal’s plan is for this year, if they will start something completely new, or just stream the online show that they have had in the past. Babbitt and Huddle do a great job of hosting what is, sometimes a tedious race, with lots of facts and figures, and guests who drop in for on-the-fly interviews and comments. It’s hard to keep the excitement up and people engaged for almost 10 hours straight**.**
…I can only hope that DirecTV customers like myself will get Universal Sports next month too.
Are you sure that you don’t already get it over the air?
Its not that that I dont think is great, in fact I love Babbitt and Huddle’s commentary. Its just that every year the internet feed gets slowed down, fuzzy, or just plain stops continually, and the video quality is poor. The best combo would be for Universal Sports to broadcast on TV what IM live already does with Babbitt, Huddle, and the rest. that way we wouldnt have to deal with the unreliable internet feed.
that way we wouldnt have to deal with the unreliable internet feed.
I am not a tech guy in any way, but I agree with you that the internet feed has been an on-going challenge and issue for years. Not sure why that is. Perhaps with Universal now on board, these problems can be eliminated.
Not sure when, but someone told me it has to do with location(Hawaii - middle of the Pacific ocean), and bandwidth issues coming off the island with satellite feeds/bounces, and other techno mumbo-jumbo. Hopefully it get’s sorted out and we can all watch uninterrupted coverage this year. Ironically something you don’t see much of when you are actually there watching the race and are out on the course - as I was last year and will be again this year!
If they “just” show the same coverage as on the Internet that will be fantastic - the stuff dreams are made of!
Seriously, while the Internet feed has occasional issues with the feed the actual coverage is first class. You are no individuals more suited/ qualified to commentate on ironman and kona day is the one time during the year I try to block out any other commitments.
From the Universal Sports site: https://www.nmnathletics.com//SportSelect.dbml?ATCLID=&DB_MENU_ID=&DB_OEM_ID=23000&SPID=13056&SPSID=105906
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****contributing, most notably Greg Welch and Paula Newby Fraser
I sure hope not. Watching without sound is better than nothing I guess.
…I can only hope that DirecTV customers like myself will get Universal Sports next month too.
You should have Universal on DirecTV…channel 604. I’ve been watching it for a couple of weeks now.
****Not sure when, but someone told me it has to do with location(Hawaii - middle of the Pacific ocean), and bandwidth issues coming off the island with satellite feeds/bounces, and other techno mumbo-jumbo. Hopefully it get’s sorted out and we can all watch uninterrupted coverage this year. Ironically something you don’t see much of when you are actually there watching the race and are out on the course - as I was last year and will be again this year!
Pretty sure this is BS. I was in Kona earlier this year and had no internet problems. There are plenty of sites hosted in HI which seem to have no bandwidth problems.
I’ve also experienced dropouts etc while watching mainland IM’s.
You should have Universal on DirecTV…channel 604. I’ve been watching it for a couple of weeks now.
My program guide calls it “complimentary programming”. It also says Sept. 4-30. I’m not sure what that means, but I’m guessing it’s either going away on the 30th or moving to the premium sports package.
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On their website: www.universalsports.com
Sat, Oct 10 Ironman World Championship - Kailua-Kona at Kailua-Kona, Hawaii Live broadcast
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that way we wouldnt have to deal with the unreliable internet feed.
I am not a tech guy in any way, but I agree with you that the internet feed has been an on-going challenge and issue for years. Not sure why that is. Perhaps with Universal now on board, these problems can be eliminated.
Not sure when, but someone told me it has to do with location(Hawaii - middle of the Pacific ocean), and bandwidth issues coming off the island with satellite feeds/bounces, and other techno mumbo-jumbo. Hopefully it get’s sorted out and we can all watch uninterrupted coverage this year. Ironically something you don’t see much of when you are actually there watching the race and are out on the course - as I was last year and will be again this year!
Now they had some power issues one year I think but other than that and the local loss of television signal from choppers and motorcycles which has nothing or had nothing to do with the internet more direct line of sight I think the quality is much better than it used to.
Most your problems are on the user end sounds like because I had no problems last year or the last 3 years for that matter.
Heck couple years ago I was visiting friend in vegas while at their work office doing some work on their office computer I was watching it live no problems.
Then we got in the car went from north vegas over to henderson I was using my friends laptop with broadband card(sprint) while moving not missing a thring.
then back to the airport where I watched on my laptop on the airport wifi even while on the plane until they closed the doors.
then I arrived in santa barbara drove to my hotel(there for conference) and continued watching on my laptop using hotel wifi and it worked pretty good
much better than the when you had to call a hotel in kona to find out who won or wait until it came out in triathlete mag or sports illustrated.
yeah, i had thought this was a great idea…man it wud have been fun
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much better than the when you had to call a hotel in kona to find out who won or wait until it came out in triathlete mag or sports illustrated.
People enjoying watching the live coverage these days, owe thanks to Dan Empfield (Slowman) as he was the first person to really start “live” broadcasting from Kona with basic text updates many years ago. Of course it’s evolved way beyond that, but that’s how it all started.
much better than the when you had to call a hotel in kona to find out who won or wait until it came out in triathlete mag or sports illustrated.
People enjoying watching the live coverage these days, owe thanks to Dan Empfield (Slowman) as he was the first person to really start “live” broadcasting from Kona with basic text updates many years ago. Of course it’s evolved way beyond that, but that’s how it all started.
ditto on that....
The internet boom really changed things for triathlon and running..
Remember when you saw an ad for a race in magazine or had to call for an application then mail it in.
Now you just go online (and sometimes pay a hugh feee argggg) and sign up for a race.
Now we can go get detail course maps,hotel reservations.
We used to didn't get results for a month or so mailed to you now most races you can get them online same day in addition to splits live during the race.
I remember doing Kauai Loves You race in Kauai,HI back in 1988(molina won there and week later won kona) they gave us these bands with barcodes.
When you got out of the swim you handed them one then when you got off the bike you handed another not sure if one for the finish or not.
I thought hmmm thats cool. Well was on flight back to honolulu that afternoon after the race some guy setting across from me asks if I did the race.
I said yes and he hands me a card with my results....I thought man thats high tech...
Remember when just text updates were enough now we want live streaming video from the course..
The video technology we can than the porn industry for that being the first major industry to make money on the internet.
Weve come a long way for sure...
On another note, I was flipping through the guide on Universal Sports and it looks like Universal Sports is showing IM China, IM Lake Placid, and IM CDA all week long where I live. I haven’t had much TV time lately but I was completely unaware these were going to be on TV. Have these been airing for awhile now or is this the first time?
On another note, I was flipping through the guide on Universal Sports and it looks like Universal Sports is showing IM China, IM Lake Placid, and IM CDA all week long where I live. I haven’t had much TV time lately but I was completely unaware these were going to be on TV. Have these been airing for awhile now or is this the first time?
Looks like they’ve been cycling through re-runs to eat up air time. I’ve seen CDA twice in two weeks, so if you missed one, keep checking the guide, and it’ll probably be on again.