Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Friday 23 February 2018
Less is more: Why the Olympics broadcast beats online

By ANICK JESDANUN letes. Hulu's live-TV service
AP Technology Writer lets you pick your favorite
NEW YORK (AP) — When it sports, although its offerings
comes to the Olympics, too aren't as extensive as Com-
much choice can paralyze cast's. For everyone else,
you with indecision. With NBC's app gives you plenty
five television channels, on- of ways to drill down. You
line streaming, virtual reality can also customize phone
and Snapchat, where do notifications by sport or se-
you even start? lected athletes.
Catch curling on the USA How, then, is broadcast
Network, and you might better?
miss that superb — or di- For one thing, watching on-
sastrous — figure skating line takes work. With luge
routine that will be talked and skeleton, for instance,
it takes five hours to watch
all four runs down the track
— longer if you add training
runs. There's no easy way to
about on social media and more than 175 hours of tives. jump straight to an athlete
in the office. Tune into a programming on the main The 30 events in VR work who isn't prominent, such
stream of figure skating, channel alone, catching better as a behind-the- as the lone competitor
and you might miss that up might have to wait until scenes companion than as from the tropical country of
medal-winning run down after the games end. a replacement for televi- Ghana. The ability to jump
the slopes. Among the online stand- sion. For instance, after an to any athlete is limited to
With an event as sprawl- outs: athlete starts sliding down figure skating and some al-
ing as the Olympics, some- — THE GOLD: Online the skeleton track, you see pine skiing events.
times the straight-up linear streaming brings equality. crews with brooms fixing As for VR, you might feel as
TV broadcast is best, even NBC focuses heavily on the ice for the next com- though you're in an Olym-
if you're watching that Americans and a handful petitor. With figure skating, pic arena or on a moun-
online. Experts make the of medal contenders from you can linger at the "kiss tain, but only television can
choices for you; all you other countries in popular and cry" area as competi- offer close-ups with its zoom
have to do is lean back on sports. To see otherwise ob- tors wait for their scores; cameras. Figure skating, for
your couch. scure athletes, you'll have television typically cuts to instance, feels distant; the
That's not to say alterna- to catch one of the online replays. VR camera's wider shot is
tives to the main NBC streams. Every event is be- — THE BRONZE: Apps let of a mostly empty ice rink.
broadcast are pointless. ing shown in its entirety on- you personalize. With luge, each athlete
Die-hard fans of biathlon line, complete with graph- If you enjoy watching ski- whizzes by in a second,
can choose that and noth- ics, slow-motion replays ers and snowboarders fall whereas TV can capture
ing else. Snapchat users and commentary from — just admit it, you do — the entire, 45-second-plus
who might have skipped the International Olym- Comcast's Xfinity Stream run with multiple cameras.
the Olympics entirely might pic Committee's Olympic app can give you clip after Complain all you want
at least catch the few min- Broadcasting Services. It clip of tumbles and face about interruptions in the
utes of live video offered feels like a broadcast — just plants. Likewise, you can broadcast for puffy profiles,
there each day. not an American-centric get clips of just upsets or but they offer a nice break
NBC's websites and apps one. thrilling finishes. Comcast from what looks to an un-
let you catch up on what — THE SILVER: Virtual reality also organizes video by trained eye like skier after
you missed — though with offers alternative perspec- sport and selected ath- skier making the same run
down the slope. (That said,
snazzy technology super-
imposes two skiers on the
same image, so broadcast
viewers can compare and
contrast their runs.)
Also welcome in the broad-
cast are segments on Ko-
rean culture and politics.
It's easy to miss those when
filtering for specific events
or athletes.
Watching NBC's broadcast
doesn't necessarily mean
watching with an antenna
or cable TV set-top box,
since the network also of-
fers an online "enhanced
view" of its broadcast. The
broadcast video appears
in a smaller box, leaving
room elsewhere for medal
counts, trivia and other
context. q