Prague Worlds - the Aftermath

I have a specific issue with the LED boards. Especially the ones that had white backgrounds. It messes with the exposure compensation built into the cameras so on some skaters, I noticed it especially with Zingas & Kolesnik, it puts them in a shadow because the background was so bright that it made the foreground darker so the skaters became harder to see.

Also my brother pointed out that the lights jitter and he had to look away from the screen because it was bugging his eyes with the skaters moving so fast when he came to see who was skating.

Also CBC needs to archive everything on Gem like they did for the Olympics. They do it for other sports they can do it for the skating. Either that or let us access the ISU stream. Especially after the competition is over.
 
The best worlds I have attended. Great arena, fantastic organisation, fully sold event. Really, so much better than the Olympics! Wednesday morning early women SP groups had better attendance than FD final at Milano. Great audience and some of the all times great performances.

Additionally, Prague is one of the most pleasant cities in Europe.

Douze points.

If this is a just example of what they are capable of, bring all competitions to Prague!
 
Jay42 said:
I have a specific issue with the LED boards. Especially the ones that had white backgrounds. It messes with the exposure compensation built into the cameras so on some skaters, I noticed it especially with Zingas & Kolesnik, it puts them in a shadow because the background was so bright that it made the foreground darker so the skaters became harder to see.

Also my brother pointed out that the lights jitter and he had to look away from the screen because it was bugging his eyes with the skaters moving so fast when he came to see who was skating.
+
Also CBC needs to archive everything on Gem like they did for the Olympics. They do it for other sports they can do it for the skating. Either that or let us access the ISU stream. Especially after the competition is over.
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The lighting nearly broke me. The LED boards were bad, the animated signs (the waving flags behind boards) were worse. I covered my eyes and looked away at times.

I didn't have a problem watching Worlds at TD Garden last year.

This year it was like being punched repeatedly in the brain.

I don't think it's my TV settings (brightness, color balance, or refresh rate) or eyeglasses (amber lenses) recommended by a doctor after I had a concussion several years ago.

Edit:
With color settings to near black and white, it's more comfortable on the eyes but it's like watching the 1950s.
 
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What is the point of the LED boards? Did the ads change? (You can see how much I noticed them :lol: ) Is it more environmentally friendly than creating physical advertisements? I don't think it's more noticeable or looks any better?
 
The program music in unsynchronized stereo on the livestream for the Men's Short Program ruined it for me almost as Mark Hanretty's incessant, inane, and inaccurate commentary over the entire competition.

Tonia Kwiatkowski's commentary was brief and almost entirely limited to explaining technique. It was a breath of fresh air.

There is something clearly amiss when a judge's PCS for one skater (Nika Egadze) are 0.25, 7.00, and 7.25. There needs to be something to prevent implausible marks from going into the system as official results.

I think that Amber Glenn should compete as long as she wants. All I ask is that she stop saying that her problems with concentration are behind her until they really are.

Kaori Sakamoto and Yuma Kagiyama's Free Skates were for performances for the ages.

I love Kévin Aymoz's skating and his Kiss and Cry reactions. I would love to see what his reactions will be if he ever sits (or jumps) there as a choreographer.

I don't miss the Russians at all except maybe Anna Tsareva.
 
Vagabond said:
The program music in unsynchronized stereo on the livestream for the Men's Short Program ruined it for me almost as Mark Hanretty's incessant, inane, and inaccurate commentary over the entire competition.

Tonia Kwiatkowski's commentary was brief and almost entirely limited to explaining technique. It was a breath of fresh air.

There is something clearly amiss when a judge's PCS for one skater (Nika Egadze) are 0.25, 7.00, and 7.25. There needs to be something to prevent implausible marks from going into the system as official results.

I think that Amber Glenn should compete as long as she wants. All I ask is that she stop saying that her problems with concentration are behind her until they really are.

Kaori Sakamoto and Yuma Kagiyama's Free Skates were for performances for the ages.

I love Kévin Aymoz's skating and his Kiss and Cry reactions. I would love to see what his reactions will be if he ever sits (or jumps) there as a choreographer.

I don't miss the Russians at all except maybe Anna Tsareva.
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A couple of years ago Kevin was in the kiss n cry as a choreographer at French junior nationals. He was totally sweet.

And this year at French Masters, even though he was skating too. He stayed at the Boards watching Davide Lewton Brain. He will be wonderful as a full time choreographer.
 
Jay42 said:
Also CBC needs to archive everything on Gem like they did for the Olympics. They do it for other sports they can do it for the skating. Either that or let us access the ISU stream. Especially after the competition is over.
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At a minimum, they should allow us to rewind up to 30 min as they did for the Olympics. I'm grateful that CBC continues to support figure skating (yeah, national broadcaster!) but I can't be glued to a screen for 5 straight days and missed a lot of good content that I can't be bothered to find on their website (a big thank you to @Skate Talker for all the info) and scroll through.

I look for it on the ISU website and if I can't find it there, I move on.

And I have a paid subscription to the damn thing.

Regarding commenting, I really enjoyed Mark in the past, but his constant cheerleading took away from the program content commentary or the silence, which I appreciate equally. (i know they have to talk during the performances, but it shouldn't be empty gushing.
 
Vagabond said:
There is something clearly amiss when a judge's PCS for one skater (Nika Egadze) are 0.25, 7.00, and 7.25. There needs to be something to prevent implausible marks from going into the system as official results.
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There also is a “4.00” in F-B/C’s Rhythm dance PCS! I’m sure it was supposed to be a 9 at least.
 
Desperado said:
Regarding commenting, I really enjoyed Mark in the past, but his constant cheerleading took away from the program content commentary or the silence, which I appreciate equally. (i know they have to talk during the performances, but it shouldn't be empty gushing.
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CBC bring back PJ Kwong. For that matter ISU hire her right now! Her commentary in the CBC Country Canada years was everything. No gushing, lots of technical info, always calm and non-intrusive, on the nose comments on the performance aspect. Realistic but still supportive of all the athletes' hard work. I well remember how some complained about her low-key style back in the day, but what I wouldn't give for that now. For those who don't want commentary with their skating her even tones made it easier to "hear past" the commentary to the skating if so desired. (IIRC PJ initially was hired to do the English language technical element calling for the international broadcasters.)
 
Skate Talker said:
CBC bring back PJ Kwong. For that matter ISU hire her right now! Her commentary in the CBC Country Canada years was everything. No gushing, lots of technical info, always calm and non-intrusive, on the nose comments on the performance aspect. Realistic but still supportive of all the athletes' hard work. I well remember how some complained about her low-key style back in the day, but what I wouldn't give for that now. For those who don't want commentary with their skating her even tones made it easier to "hear past" the commentary to the skating if so desired. (IIRC PJ initially was hired to do the English language technical element calling for the international broadcasters.)
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Yes! PJ Kwong is a treasure and I would love to see her doing more commentating work.
 
I thought Tonia was better this week than previous events, but she’s not really adding much for me. I am however, livid that she chose the crescendo of Nessun Dorma to comment that Yuma was executing an Ina Bauer as part of the choreo sequence. Like girl, we’ve been waiting all season to see this skated well and you had to talk at that moment? Knowing when to stfu is a key part of being a good commentator.

I think the boards would be much more pleasing if they could turn down the brightness by like 20%. I would also not put a big amount of real estate to really dark sections. Several skaters were blending right into the large dark blue piece that had the Prague 2026 logo on it when they got close to it. With the audience so dark, it’s really jarring to have those eye searing bright pieces and then simultaneously hard to see the skaters near the darker parts.

I do think the boards work well during the gala when they make them monochromatic with the black/navy blue and gold. It works there because the audience is dark and so is the ice. There isn’t this huge contrast that makes it hard to see.

The drone sucks. The camera quality was poor, and it also wasn’t even getting that close of shots as the skaters were coming off the ice. Either have Jordan Cowan, or don’t do it at all. Personally I’d vote for just don’t do it at all, because I don’t get a lot out of the on ice shots period, but others may.

But a very well attended worlds and it did look like a really cool venue.
 
I was wondering, whether the ISU changed guidelines on camerawork for events. The Olys had a lot bad camera work. And now here, again: missing jumps (on jumping passes), odd angles on lifts like DavSmo curve lift, shots of upper body when foot work was important, shots were one skater was missing in the picture.
A lot of times the camera hadn't enough distance, so we couldn't see if the skater was crawling or had good speed.
 
It must be such an overwhelming feeling to skate in a world's gala post olympics and know that you are retiring from competitive skating after this skate. All their years from early childhood have been devoted to this endeavour and now they move on with future plans. No wonder some have a hard time letting it all go. All the very best to those calling it a day - their fans will miss them.
 
The mood of the musical numbers struck me. A lot of it is the taste of the skater. Much of it very loud pop. Surprising were the few numbers that were classical and subdued. An example was Jia Shin`s Swan Lake. Suddenly it was just this lyrical music and Jia`s lovely skating. No flashing lights, no heavy back beat. The area was dead silent watching intently. Skaters should think about the power numbers like this can have on the crowd.
 
A reminder that complaining here only reaches those who are paid subscribers, some of whom may agree and others who don't.

Everyone who has comments for the ISU should share them directly - posting them here likely does no good at all. They do have a fan survey going...

The same goes for CBC - share your comments directly with them - there are opportunities to add comments to their videos (on YouTube) as well as on their news stories.

Make your opinions count :)
 
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victorskid said:
A reminder that complaining here only reaches those who are paid subscribers, some of whom may agree and others who don't.

Everyone who has comments for the ISU should share them directly - posting them here likely does no good at all. They do have a fan survey going...

The same goes for CBC - share your comments directly with them - there are opportunities to add comments to their videos (on YouTube) as well as on their news stories.

Make you opinions count :)
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Does the ISU have an email account?
 
Based on the discourse early in the season, it sounds like the ticket buying process, especially for All Event tickets was the biggest source of frustration for attendees.

From what I've seen on other online sources, getting to Prague wasn't the easiest for visitors outside of Europe, but especially expensive to travel to for those coming from Asia, even though costs once there were more reasonable than other European cities.

Watching from home, at least, the LED screens didn't bother me. (And they didn't bother me at Worlds in Boston when I attended.) Apparently they are part of the ISU initiative to make skating more "modern" and 21st Century.

We should all be used to some less than great camera work by now. I honestly don't think that's anything the ISU has much, if any, control over. I think of it as something that is a lesser evil, as at least we have availability of live coverage and aren't refreshing Wedgie Data every few minutes to just get results and not knowing who may or may not get shown on an eventual broadcast like in days of yore.

I do wish a commentary free feed was available, but I know a lot of people also enjoy commentary, if not so much during the program but for the snippets of color commentary, news and gossip during warm ups and while waiting for the marks.
 
Miezekatze said:
As a viewer on Tv, the feed sucked (especially during the Men SP I think), the LEDs were annoying and the screaming presenters reminded me of some weird WWF Wrestling event, but that aside it was a nice Worlds.
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I was able to tune out the presenters and didn't notice the LED boards except for once near the end of the event. The Peacock feed did cut out several times in the middle of programs and I consider that inexcusable, but it wasn't unwatchable.

My major complaint was how bad the camerawork was and how stupid some of the replays were. Why did they show the closing bows on replay? Why did they show a disputed element but with the camera that only showed the part of the body not under dispute?

Like many, Mark was getting on my every last nerve by the end. This is even with me tuning him out about 80% of the time. Tonia was fine but someone who knows something about Pairs should be there for Pairs as I found their commentary added nothing for that event.

viennese said:
With color settings to near black and white, it's more comfortable on the eyes but it's like watching the 1950s.
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60s for a lot of us. :lol:

Private Citizen said:
What is the point of the LED boards? Did the ads change? (You can see how much I noticed them :lol: ) Is it more environmentally friendly than creating physical advertisements? I don't think it's more noticeable or looks any better?
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They are cheaper in the long run, but they are costly in the short run. They are also much less work than hanging signs for every comp. They are definitely more flexible. I did think they looked better than some of the banners we see -- crisper. They are probably more environmentally friendly but I guess it depends on how much electricity they consume.

They also let ads be animated but I don't consider that an advantage. :lol: Well, it's fine when no one's skating but otherwise, no.

As for them being bright, this can be adjusted.
 
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