Page 74 - Computer Power User - February 2017

with the entertainment going on before Reality Sets In Last year, Japanese State broadcaster
the game, the halftime show—that all goes One thing that’s certain about every Super NHK actually used 8K cameras to
above and beyond the actual football.” Bowl is that one team will win and one will broadcast Super Bowl 50 in 8K Super-Hi
Further, Extreme Networks must build out lose. Another is that every Super Bowl makes Vision (16 times the resolution of HD).
capacity in and out of NRG Stadium to for big business and big viewing. Last year’s 4K.com reports NHK specifically used
accommodate media requirements. Super Bowl attracted 111.9 million television Ikegami SHK-810 cameras, which
Extreme Networks began its work viewers, for example. The post-game show house a 33-million-pixel Super 35mm
about 18 months ago. Planning has itself attracted 70 million, making it the CMOS sensor. While the 8K broadcast
notably included preparing for the second-most-watched telecast for 2016. In was only viewable within Levi’s Stadium
unknown. “We’re still in weekly meetings terms of business, beyond the ad dollars and at NHK’s Tokyo-based headquarters,
in partnership with the NFL, stadium generated, the Super Bowl helps move a lot broadcasting the game in 8K was part
operations people, and our partners in this of television sets. Consumer Reports notes of bigger plan to air public 8K live
project, making sure we’re counting for that stores discount units 22% on average broadcasts in time for the 2020 Olympic
the unknown,” says Brams, who points to in the weeks prior to the game, with deals Games in Tokyo.
the roughly 30-minute power outage that tending to “favor crowd-pleasing large-screen Increasingly, other technologies are
occurred during 2013’s Super Bowl XLVII sets.” This year, experts agree it’s larger 4K sets joining the television as visual options
as an example. football fans are eying. for fans to view football. During this

The Bumpy Reception For Microsoft Surface Tablets

When the NFL and Microsoft inked a five-year $400 million deal in 2013 Conversely, Mehdi stated tablets enable teams to “respond nearly in real-
to put Microsoft Surface tablets on NFL sidelines to use during games, the time,” including with “dynamic, full-color images, up to seven times faster
arrangement seemed a no-brainer. After all, tablets promised to eliminate than the printed page. Game analysis is more efficient, productive, and
the hassle of printing photos for players and coaches to review previous competitive—enabling quicker decision-making by coaches and players,
plays while simultaneously introducing greater speed, efficiency, and in a game often decided by inches and seconds.”
versatility. Not everyone has been a fan, however, including Bill Belichick,
arguably the NFL’s greatest coach ever. Elsewhere, The Ringer detailed other issues coaches and players have
with tablets, including one related to the digital playbooks players now
Despite the advantages, some coaches and players have voiced receive on tablets. One worry is players are missing “major details” by
complaints about tablet dependability. Such a claim came after last relying too heavily on technology and could experience an “information
year’s AFC Championship game between the Denver Broncos and overload” leading to “paralysis by analysis” setting in.
Belichick’s New England Patriots when the Patriots’
tablets malfunctioned for several minutes during a key
touchdown drive by the Broncos, who won the game 20-
18. Belichick later depicted such malfunctions as being
“fairly common.” The NFL and Microsoft maintained
network issues were to blame and not the tablets.

Belichick never did become a fan. In October, he said the
tablets were “too undependable” and he’d be sticking
with photos, “which several of our other coaches do, as
well, because there just isn’t enough consistency in the
performance of the tablets.” Days later, Yusuf Mehdi,
Microsoft corporate vice president, Windows and Devices
Group, acknowledged the debate but pointed out that
prior to tablets, “coaches and players pored over stacks of
static, black-and-white photos,” meaning “someone had
to take the images, send them to a printer, wait for black- While some coaches and players have voiced complaints about the dependability of
and-white prints, grab them from the printer, and work to Microsoft Surface tablets, their use on NFL sidelines has also been credited with greatly
stick them in a three-ring binder” before delivering them enhancing how players and coaches can now review plays during games.
to the sidelines.

74 February2017 / www.computerpoweruser.com