eL TV

Been looking into Free To Air Satellite systems for the new house (if it ever gets built - council planners are tw@ts) and wondered whether it's an option the league/clubs should be looking into? Not sure on the costs of the broadcasting, but when you look at some of the shíte channels it can't be that much.

With licencing all clubs will have to have the camera facilities, a deal with local radio to do commentary, then it would just be the cameraman. Even if it was just repeats of the games throughout the week it would beat the present situation, although a simple highlights package could be produced if needs be (similar to what you see on Eurosport so you'd have sod all studio costs).

There's no rights issue, since it's non-exclusive anyway at the moment. There would be some advertising revenue to help with/ pay the running costs, and garanteed television exposure should increase sponsorship and ad board revenue for the individual clubs.

Free to Air is probably going to go pretty big soon I reckon, with ITV likely to follow BBC in going FTA later this year, and if that happens Channel 4 likely to follow when their sky deal runs out. Anyone with Sky would be able to pick it up on the "extra channels". It would also be excellent for ex-pats wanting to follow the league.

Could it be viable and should it be something the FAI/League/clubs should look into at least?

Yeah. Another possibility is that the league/clubs could purchase an outside broadcast unit together and each club have a trained cameraman- surely that would make it easier for the current stations to broadcast even more games?

You just get the Dish, LNB, Reciever install it and away you go. Once off payment, so no subscription. Doesn't need cards (cams) or anything. (Everything new for €200ish, but you can do it second hand).

Here's the list at the moment. But like I said strong rumours that ITV will follow later this year (their sky contract is up), and then that opens up the possibility of Channels 4 and 5 following.

edit Here's there is Satellite.ie which will give you an indication for buying everything new.

did i hear my name mentioned somewhere ??? how about internet rights, with the arrival of broadband and the cheap price of memory, a decent site with highlights would be good also, the weeks goals on line for those not in the country....a decent bit of advertising on the site might cover the costs.....

i looked into it in a small way before but broadband is needed to access lage files....your thoughts people....

i would be interested in doing camera at certain games as i've just purchased a tv quality pro digital camera.....

A Spanish relative living Ireland watches his favourite 2nd division side on the internet (live, I think) every Sunday night. Have any techies at eL CLubs looked into the possibilities of webcasts of games?

unless there was a market for a webcast it wouldn't be worth it, the main thing is that you would need broadband to use it as dail up would be much too slow, i think a highlights package would be a good option, i have a mate moving to tanzania later this year and he says he'd love it , just to keep in touch with the league....

if each club got the game on video and sent it to one central po box who could edit and dump on line it would be a nice package for all concerned...

If D. Ahern would get off his ass and attempt to find out about one section of his portfolio, broadcasting in this country, RTE would be trialling digital broadcasts by now.
We should be following the Freeview model, as setup by the BBC. You pay £99 sterling for a box, and no more payments, except the TV licence, after that.
Unfortunately, and its not just a go at FF, the government have done nothing, indeed even hindered, progress on digital broadcasting here. They decided to go along with one particular system, involving broadcasting nodes in different parts of the country, which was untried, unproven and ultimately failed to get off the ground. Sounds familiar? They choose this mostly so that RTE wouldn't be involved.
Since then nothing has happened, and RTE have not been given the necessary support to do anything. So we will be stuck in a situation where Sky will have a monopoly soon. Remember analogue TV transmission will be finished by 2012 at the latest, and Sky plan to stop analogue transmission by the end of 2007, if possible.
The point about the Freeview type system, is that once the transmission medium is in place, its not costly to broadcast a new channel. A sports channel could easily be set up for relatively small money, or even having a certain number of hours on a pre-existing channel.
The main obstacle then is actually getting the games recorded. If you have the material, there would be plenty if scope to transmit it.

well if we get the material i am willing to work within a group to put together an on line package of highlights and games, this way we have an idea of the interest in the topic by the traffic the web site revieves.......

anyone else interested ????

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Originally Posted by patsh

If D. Ahern would get off his ass and attempt to find out about one section of his portfolio, broadcasting in this country, RTE would be trialling digital broadcasts by now.
We should be following the Freeview model, as setup by the BBC. You pay £99 sterling for a box, and no more payments, except the TV licence, after that.

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Problem is you need decent reception of the digital terrestrial, a thing that many parts of the country can't get. However any progress towards it would be beneficial. IMO they should be looking at producing a free to view CAM/card to work in any sat reciever. Even the BBC have said that they won't get the coverage for with Digital Terrestrial, that's why they're talking about setting up a FTA system with other companies.

As you point out, Analogue is supposed to go by 2012. In England they're working on the plans to get the numbers up to make the switch. Ireland hasn't/is only just starting to trial digital terrestrial, and you can only get Sat broadcasts if you're family pack or above from Sky. :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by max power

well if we get the material i am willing to work within a group to put together an on line package of highlights and games, this way we have an idea of the interest in the topic by the traffic the web site revieves.......

anyone else interested ????

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i think this is a great idea BUT
where will you get the material
how much would it cost to put the whole thing together

can't see it working out but if it did i could possibly offer my services as an editor

qunnie

once material is sent in....from dublin easy, longford easy and others coming backup after the weekend could help out too, it would be something to show the fai that the fans care and will make an effort if the don't....

once material is dubped onto the harddrive, it onlt takes a few mins to edit and a simple piece of music and generic crowd noise covers the silence....

i have the same editiing package that tv3 have ( avid ) and its fast...

on the cost thing, gettin the site registered etc would cost but i know someone who does hosting.....hes not a million miles away from here....

we just need to get the material to get the ball rolling...oh and a site name

avid nice, i only have FCP myself but anyway

and you think there would be no problem getting the material.

another thing video files can be big so you'd need a good bite of memory on the server and also handy bite of bandwidth

well i have 240gb at the mo, but that is easily upgraded, i also have an external 80gb which is handy as well, the big part is getting the material....

any takers from any clubs....i know we get all home games recorded so that wouldn't be a problem and access to dublin footage is easy also because i'm in dublin

I don't have a notion about sateille systems or any of that craic but I'd definatly give a hand in getting the ball rolling. Its seems like a good idea, but the next step would be meeting up and having a proper discussion otherwise this will just end up just being another meaningless tread.

well its hard to get every one in the same place at the same time. but i'm in dublin/longford and can meet any weekend.... a rep from each premier club would be a help also, 1st division teams are welcome

i would be willing to help out where ever i can. i won't offer to be cork rep as i can't make all the games and i'm sure there all plenty people out there more suitable.

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Originally Posted by max power

i would be interested in doing camera at certain games as i've just purchased a tv quality pro digital camera.....

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what sort of camera do you have max?

i've just got my hands on a canon XL1s, its fairly good, haven't done too much with it only a bit og ground work for some skydiving.....

nice enough camera although i prefer sonys myself ...got a PDX10 cost about 3k fairly happy with. and it's DVCAM

would it not be hard to cover a match using a small viewfinder like the one on the XL

no i've seen some work done on the canon and it seems fine, i looked at the sony but i feel the canon can take more knocks, i'll be using it to cover skydiving here and in spain and florida along with whatever football i do as well....

but overall the sony is an excellent camera as well...

you should cover the odd game and send it to me so i can do a bit of editing on it, i hope to do our away european game as well

skydiving! are you mad... i have my camera wrapped up in cotton wool all the time for fear something would happen to my baby.

but seriously yeah the canons are used for a lot of stuff like that.

to be honest i don't get to the cross as often as i should plus thier are other problems which would make difficult for me to cover the odd game

i use a sony mini dv strapped to my helmet for the main skydiving shots and the canon for the ground shots, but there are fools who strap the canon to their head and jump out of planes.....

i was getting worried there for a minute...fools and thats not a small camera

i know, i've been a plane with one of them ready to jump out and here he is having it put onto his head with gaff tape, made sure i was gone out the door of the plane long before him

What kind of cameras do RTÉ use .... that is the kind of standard we should match or better.

i guessing they cost anywhere between 30k and a 100k but the cameras max and myself mentioned above are broadcast standard and cost between 3k and 5k.

Lads

What about rights for broadcast/webcast from the FAI

I know the regional station up here ran into trouble as they were filming and showing highlights without the permission of the League

well a full supporters committee with backing from the clubs needs to be looked at then

maybe someone should contact the clubs and/or league and see what they think

i ahve just sent an e mail to the league, if anyone is interested in getting a copy of it then pm me

Surely it can't have got that dangerous recently in those tv gantrys if games were covered up to now.Anyway if the gantrys are unsafe at a couple of grounds,surely they could send cameras to the grounds where it is safe.Its madness to think we are talking about sending fans out to record games due to tv3 or othe channels not showing highlights.We must be the only league in Europe that is without tv coverage.

maybe this is the kick up the hole they need to get things sorted

wouldn't a safe gantry come under the media section of the UEFA licensing, just to throw it out there?

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Originally Posted by tiktok

wouldn't a safe gantry come under the media section of the UEFA licensing, just to throw it out there?

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Cant remember ... i know it needed to have facilites for monitor and ISDN connection and all that kind of thing. I suppose the normal safety code applies. Anyone confirm this ??

Think it does, as afaik it was one of the things Town have to do. However I think it was more coverage. Personally I don't see how the ladders are the issue - think that'd be needed for most grounds throughout Europe to get to the camera position. IMO it's just a cop out and an excuse.

the only thing is lazy cameraman who won't carry the camera and equipment up the stairs in case they put their back out........

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Originally Posted by max power

the only thing is lazy cameraman who won't carry the camera and equipment up the stairs in case they put their back out........

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i go to the races (horses) frequently and you would want to see the tv camera positions on some of the tracks.in naas there is one as you turn into the home straight and its perched on the roof of a transit van :eek: ,whatever the weather might be hail rain or snow thuis guy is standing on the roof of the van getting his marbles frozen etc.

maybe its a different union ???