During the summer everyone no doubt will have caught some live streaming from Leamington where and our age old frustration was again highlighted.
Our conclusion – the problem with streaming is “the competitors”, never mind the constant battles with getting a decent wi-fi signal or the fingers crossed it doesn’t rain or even worse still it’s windy our biggest frustration is the lack of awareness of the cameras.
We all want to watch our sport and many cry out for more live streaming to promote it to an audience who may not understand the excitement, the tactics, the shot making and yes the atmosphere but time after time when the big shots are played the players surround the head so the viewer can see nothing.
In comparison it would be like the cameras switching to the opposition goalkeeper as a 25 yard thunderbolt is scored at the opposite end in football
We will say fair enough it is tough to keep out the way in Fours or Triples but not impossible but we still see it time and time again during pairs and singles which ultimately leads to viewers to switch off.
We can scream and shout all we want that we get no TV coverage but until the sport understands that it is the big shots, those match turning moments or the celebrations that sells to the public we will continue to shot ourselves in the foot and the sport will suffer.
One particular match went down to the last bowl of the extra end but the camera could not get anywhere near the centre of the rink to watch the line so the winning moment was a damp squib because the realisation of the bowl being close didn’t happen until the last second.
We are losing great opportunities to sell our sport which has a knock on effect with sponsors etc.
This is no longer a new fangled thing as we have seen streaming for a few years with the Aussies leading the way, they do plough a few quid into the streaming unlike ourselves who are very much self funded on a very limited budget.
So what’s the answer, more cameras, hoisting one us on a zip wire for an overhead shot but if a professional streaming company with several cameras set up on high platforms struggle then what chance have we got.
We have recently invested in a couple of 12ft tripods to get a higher camera shot and during an experiment last season we streamed a Denny Cup match but still you couldn’t see the key moments and the two cameras in question were virtually redundant.
Our only solution in anything other than a singles is to avoid having cameras directly behind the rink as it is a gamble will the players part at the last second like the red sea and you will see the head.
So it is time the competitors started to become accustomed to getting away from that centre line and understand there are a lot of viewers around the UK even the world want to watch live bowls and to see the key shots in matches and not a derriere or back of a head…. over to you the players.