ESPN and Fox will introduce several new technologies
during their coverage of this weekend's NHL All-Star
Weekend. ESPN has placed credit-card sized cameras, called
TargetCams, inside the targets of the accuracy shooting
SuperSkills segment, during Saturday night's broadcast. The
cameras will give viewers a goalie's-eye view of shots.
Both Fox and ESPN will use thirteen mics that have been
frozen into the ice which will pick up sounds of sticks,
skates and pucks (ESPN). The two-inch mics won't pick up
"words or whistles" (BOSTON GLOBE, 1/22).
GIVE US ALL-STARS? In Baltimore, Milton Kent writes on
Fox's final year of its NHL deal and notes how the network
changed the game presentation with technology: "[Fox]
attempted to take a game that was and still is largely on
the fringe of the American sports consciousness and bring it
into the 20th century, only to have virtually every move met
with criticism from the hockey community" (SUN, 1/22). In
Boston, Howard Manly notes that Fox Sports was "blasted" by
critics for its innovations. Fox Sports Exec Producer Ed
Goren feels that TV has "done its part to help popularize
the NHL, but can't do it alone." Goren: "At some point, the
league has to look within itself and ask whether they are
doing enough to create personalities and stars locally and
nationally" (BOSTON GLOBE, 1/22). Goren added that he is
"not sure hockey's drawing power is simply a TV issue."
Goren: "Every sport needs characters, and hockey doesn't
have enough of them. I'm not saying that say, trash-talking
is particularly good. But it may help with this whole
younger generation" (Michael Hiestand, USA TODAY, 1/22).
