Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

Amateur hour! I was a died in the wool Flo fan, but the fact they can't even get their act together to have the announcers audio working during this broadcast is Flippin ridiculous. I watched the outlaws race from arrowhead Speedway on dirt vision earlier this evening and it was 10 times more polished than this cr@p they're putting out from Flo! The quality of their broadcast is equivalent to a high school student streaming from his android phone (not even iPhone level).  I hate to bash them, but the quality of this broadcast is absolutely piss poor.

Yes, it's bad at best. Now that we have sound, It's over modulated and hard to have the volume up any. I find this typical for west coast broadcasts.

This'll be my last post on the topic. I love how when they finally resolved the audio issue, the announcer (Gary Thomas) makes a snarky comment about how the 29 people who complained about the audio can be relieved the audio is back.  Guess what GT... you're showing your backside.  If only 29 people complained about watching a race with no audio: 1) not many people are watching or 2) people don't miss hearing your commentary. Food for thought. Put that in your snark pipe :-)

Thank you your feedback Mike and thank you for watching. First off it was a joke to many of my friends who messaged to let me know. And they also worked diligently to try and fix the issue. Everybody is out there putting in the effort to try and make things positive. 

www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com

Is that a go-kart track? A little too small for 410 sprint cars I'd say. The only way to pass anyone was to hop over the inside berm. Didn't even finish the last lap of the feature I guess because of all the flips. 

A

Thanks for the response and explanation Gary, I appreciate it. Clearly I didn't get the joke :-). 

I don't know if it's still this way but the video guys that did video were friends of ours who had video cameras instead of still cameras.  I don't know if that's still the case but at least when I was still around the tracks every weekend video people were local guys who would shoot as a side deal to their day job.  I have never seen a production trailer like they'd use for pro sports.

As a former track rat and now mostly a seventy something streamer every dirt track broadcast comes across as semi professional except for a few big events.  Between gnarly track conditions, lights going out, types of support classes most open wheel fans would not care for we tend to overlook a lot.  Then there are long drawn out awards ceremonies Involving weekly racing that viewers have no idea who they are or why there is a delay .  
 

Dirt fans pay Netflix prices for what ends up barely being better than home video on some nights.  I pay $450 per year for two channels and a lot of times the broadcast quality isn't much better.  If it was any other sport or entertainment package I'd consider it over priced because of the annoyances but I watch it because it's the only way to stay connected with the sport and not for the broadcast quality.  It's getting much better than it was so no complaints but if I had to be honest the overall quality and getting done on schedule are never going to be perfect.

Dirt racing is still morphing from a "you have to be there" business model like drive in movies to making the sport available to fans over the air.  The sport up to this point hasn't attracted much interest from broadcast TV and corporate sponsors.  Perhaps less "f*ck" in the work area and some more professalism might get them past the FCC on network TV.  A lot of fans would rather have work area chaos than make the sport presentable and that kind of thing doesn't attract better production quality.  At least it didn't in the world I grew up in.  I remember a big uproar when I was a kid and John Wayne said hell and damn in a movie.  

That's what I'm seeing from my recliner anyways.  I watch it for the racing and if the quality gets better that's a bonus.  I watch Husets and Knoxville most weeks during the season and they both do a great job as do places like Jackson, Eldora and some of the PA and west coast tracks.  It seems like things go south more often at tracks out in the middle of nowhere that don't have the infastructure for TV.  

Stan Meissner

Dirt racing live on network TV is a dream of the past.  Be glad we have live streaming even with all its growing pains.  Why would WoO/High Limit pay for airtime on network when they can make money live from streaming?

I agree but I was talking about the idea of taking things to the next level.  With TV the next level would be network.  As I said, those are my observations from my recliner.  If we want to argue how accurate my perception is that would be a valid concern.  This wouldn't be the first time I got a different impression than others.  I watch races on TV and seldom see or talk to other racing fans anymore so I don't know what others are thinking.  I watch and formulate opinions on streaming.  I dare to look at all angles objectively and don't always see things the same from my recliner.  
 

I might be a keyboard warrior but I'm a keyboard warrior who spent years traveling around writing and taking photos and can see a Sprint Car hauler from where I'm sitting as I type.  

Stan Meissner

It looked like a 410 demo watching sprint cars go 45 mph and tipping over haha.

Are they really going to run the outlaws there.

Place didn't get any better racing wise .

Called off with 3 laps to go after midnight ouch.

I've been to that track a few times in its previous larger (1/2 mile?) configuration and always thought the racing was pretty good. Not sure why they changed to the smaller layout but Saturday wasn't good.  Hopefully they get the kinks worked out moving forward because we don't have a lot of dirt tracks here in NorCal anymore.

You do understand that the track was recently remodeled and then torrents of rain came down there, right?

Ascot was the greatest of all time..

West Capital wasn't half bad either..

Life is good...

That was not a good premiere for the "new" track but considering the weather, the new dirt that cpuldn't get properly worked in and that Tony Noceti is the promoter I'm confident it will come around.  Tony is one of the hardest working guys you'll ever meet and will do what it takes to make the place good.  The broadcast problems weren't his doing and I, like many others, gave up on it way before the end.  Only watched since our Pro Stocks got weathered out at another central CA track and had a couple of Sprint car friends running there. We always look forward to returning to Stockton.

I certainly hope you e-mailed them and set them right. What was their reply?

I have tinnitus and hearing loss and watch tv wearing headphones and sometimes closed captioning.  If the sound was bad I'd be one of the last to know.

Stan Meissner