An article in this week’s Broadcast (behind a paywall I’m afraid) explained the broadcast complexities with covering something like the annual Oxford v Cambridge Boat Race. It takes 38 cameras, two helicopters and and goodness knows how many other people to cover it.
Last year there was an issue with open microphones when ITV cut to the audio of one of the coxes who chose that moment to swear as they urged their crew on. This year they seem to have put some kind of delay on it, as the sound cut and times when they cut to them, yet even my feeble lip-reading got a good idea what she was saying.
However, who was the person who at the precise moment the race started, managed to cutaway to a disinterested looking person sitting in a portakabin studio somewhere? Very poor.
For the rest it was good coverage, and until Cambridge took a firm lead, it was a very open race.
I really don’t know why I care who wins the Boat Race not having been to either University. But somehow I do – a bit. Cambridge won.