Question About Pool on TV

M

mikefeiman

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I wanted to pose a question to the AZers out there, as you all represent a valued voice in pool and billiards. ESPN is pushing to make pool on TV more entertaining to watch and one of the ways they're doing it is with a new feature called the "cue view". The idea is that they're going to show where the player is hitting the cue ball before the shot is made with a little insert in the lower left corner of the screen that looks like this:

sdclassic1.jpg


It seems pretty cool to me, but you guys are all the target audience, so I wanted to get your opinions on this. What other ways would you guys like to see ESPN improving pool on TV.

My apologies if this topic has been discussed previously (as I'm sure it has). I tried searching for an existing thread, but for some reason the search kept timing out.

Thanks in advance and thanks for supporting the game we all love!

Mike
 
mikefeiman said:
I wanted to pose a question to the AZers out there, as you all represent a valued voice in pool and billiards. ESPN is pushing to make pool on TV more entertaining to watch and one of the ways they're doing it is with a new feature called the "cue view". The idea is that they're going to show where the player is hitting the cue ball before the shot is made with a little insert in the lower left corner of the screen that looks like this:

sdclassic1.jpg


It seems pretty cool to me, but you guys are all the target audience, so I wanted to get your opinions on this. What other ways would you guys like to see ESPN improving pool on TV.

My apologies if this topic has been discussed previously (as I'm sure it has). I tried searching for an existing thread, but for some reason the search kept timing out.

Thanks in advance and thanks for supporting the game we all love!

Mike
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I think if there's one thing we can learn from other sports is the game will only be more interesting if we provide as much information about it as possible. Look no further than baseball. The top of the screen gives the pitch count, runners on base, the score, inning and even the series score if it's the playoffs. That's not even including the batter's statistics that appear at the bottom of the screen along with situational statistics.

I mean, I think adding a cueball to the lower left corner is a good start.
 
mikefeiman said:
I wanted to pose a question to the AZers out there, as you all represent a valued voice in pool and billiards. ESPN is pushing to make pool on TV more entertaining to watch and one of the ways they're doing it is with a new feature called the "cue view". The idea is that they're going to show where the player is hitting the cue ball before the shot is made with a little insert in the lower left corner of the screen that looks like this:

sdclassic1.jpg


It seems pretty cool to me, but you guys are all the target audience, so I wanted to get your opinions on this. What other ways would you guys like to see ESPN improving pool on TV.

My apologies if this topic has been discussed previously (as I'm sure it has). I tried searching for an existing thread, but for some reason the search kept timing out.

Thanks in advance and thanks for supporting the game we all love!

Mike
Click to expand...

Nothing will help until they get a director that understands pool and cares about making a good show. And TWO commentators who know the tip from the butt of a pool cue.
 
Anything helps. What would really help is if they didnt take a 90 minute match and make it 30 minutes long so they can fit in 16 minutes of commercials and 14 minutes of intro's, outro's, lessons with the pro's about how to get 2 rail shape and all the the other crap ESPN producers love so much.

ESPN is better than nothing but not by much. Accu-stats stuff is broadcast quality. ESPN would be better off just using the matches Pat has that fit the time constraints. There are, I am sure ,numerous reasons on both sides why this doesn't happen.

Unless one of my friends is playing on ESPN I don't even watch it.
 
I for one think the cue view is a great idea. You can't always tell what kind of english is being applied as a lot of pros address the ball with extreme low & then change when they stroke the ball. The cur view would give us average players some valuable information. How bout putting a radar gun on the CB like they do in baseball. Maybe too much information there....LOL
 
Interestingly enough, one of the things they were playing with at the Generation Pool event was a radar gun. They were clocking break speeds before each of the TV matches. I'm not sure how exactly they're going to use it (or if they're going to use it at all), but I'm guessing that adding a radar gun to these events is going to happen soon.
 
mikefeiman said:
Interestingly enough, one of the things they were playing with at the Generation Pool event was a radar gun. They were clocking break speeds before each of the TV matches. I'm not sure how exactly they're going to use it (or if they're going to use it at all), but I'm guessing that adding a radar gun to these events is going to happen soon.
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Very good ideas.

Problem is, when are we going to be able to see it on TV. I could be dead by that time. :D
 
On TV

I would like to see updated 'runout' percentages displayed.

The Japanese, who make it exciting, will show critical or important shots, 2-3 times more, each from a different side camera angle.
 
Commentators

Commentators that know the game and know it well, while still being articulate enough to be able to explain the shot or strategy behing the shape/shot.

Also, a color guy. Someone who can add a little bit of "spice" to the match. I know I'll get reemed for this but I've really enjoyed hearing Jimmy Mataya commentate.
 
Get rid of the pocket view cameras. They do nothing for the pool fan. If you want to play around with different views try a micro camera on the players shoulder. Kind of like the cockpit view in auto racing.

player statistics also make the match more exciting, and since gambling on TV isn't really all that taboo anymore, showing the match odds could generate some excitement.

GET RID OF 9 BALL FOR TV, 8BALL appeals to the masses much more.
 
Dawg wrote; said:
I think that it would be very cool and would probably lend itself to an increased popularity in the sport or at worst and increase in the urge to participate in the sport if they had a few things... some of these things could be added post production if it wouldn't be viable to do it realtime...

1. wouldn't it be cool if when a player took a shot if there was a small cue ball image on the screen showing you exactly what english they were about to apply to a shot? and a small "power meter" which maybe had some red bars maybe going up a cue stick image that showed how much power they applied to a certain shot?

2. "player eye" cams. not sure how this could be accomplished could be as simple as a ear piece (similiar to perhaps a hands free (blue tooth) headset earpiece like for cell phones), or two ear pieces with cameras triangulated to show you what a player was looking at like the exact view that you would see if you were the one looking down the cue preparing for a shot. coupled of course with the above mentioned "english indicator" and "stroke meter"

I think that would not only be very interesting and educational, I think it could certainly ad an additional "interactive" aspect to the game and would almost unquestionably increase the interest in playing the game. People would think "I know how he did that, I gotta try that. I think I can do that".

Thoughts?

~D4\/\/G~
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original thread

Tap, Tap, Tap.

full idea I had was; when they got down on the shot the cue ball image on the bottom or side of the screen would show a blinking red dot where they were aiming and when they stroked it, the dot would stop blinking and indicate exacly where they hit and for the power meter they could show that little cue stick with the red lines going up and down (in timing) with their practice strokes and wham when they stroked through the shot the red power indicator would freeze at the power level they executed the shot at... Plus that would sorta look like some of the video games (ie; tiger woods golf, lol.) which may attract some younger kids to stop and become interested...
 
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jay helfert said:
Nothing will help until they get a director that understands pool and cares about making a good show. And TWO commentators who know the tip from the butt of a pool cue.
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I completely agree here with what Jay said.

Further, I agree that the cue view is a total waste. Anyone with a half a brain knows what low left, low right center ball .. etc mean. If they don't then they can't even tell time and they should be watching bowling.

My personal opinion is to attract the masses, (which I assume TV wants) its to show the game that the masses play when they are visiting pool rooms. Namely 8 ball.

The game of 9 ball is far too complicated, advanced and very quickly boring for the average Joe who likes to bang balls. No choices in shots and no ability to play position = change the channel.

I'm not saying 9 ball once in a while is bad, I'm saying to attract the masses, show their game of choice.
 
whitewolf said:
Very good ideas.

Problem is, when are we going to be able to see it on TV. I could be dead by that time. :D
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I agree. I think all these things are very good ideas and would definitely help make it more interesting to watch on tv.

I have a semi-related concern though. On my red-eye flight out of Vegas after the BCA, the airline bumped me up to first class because the flight was originally filled and I offered to be bumped, and it turned out they didn't need it so...Anyway, I was seated behind a prominent ESPN commentator, who will go unnamed, and two of his colleagues who I didn't recognize. I listened intently as they discussed the future of ESPN programming and how they had heard whispers that the company was moving away from "packaged shows" and in the direction of just showing live sporting events/matches all the time. I think its safe to assume that by packaged shows, they were referring to things such as billiards, bowling, wood sports, fishing, etc... I guess we'll have to wait and see but if that's the case, the future is bleak for billiards on ESPN. :(
 
Pool needs to be live and uncut. How can you get excited about an old match that is edited down, and you already know who won?
 
3andstop said:
I completely agree here with what Jay said.

Further, I agree that the cue view is a total waste. Anyone with a half a brain knows what low left, low right center ball .. etc mean. If they don't then they can't even tell time and they should be watching bowling.

My personal opinion is to attract the masses, (which I assume TV wants) its to show the game that the masses play when they are visiting pool rooms. Namely 8 ball.

I don't want to ride you too hard, but this type of attitude will never attract the masses.

There are alot of people out there who have never played pool or are extreme novices, that would benefit from this type of information, not only by helping their pool knowledge, but also by keeping it interesting.
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I would like to see the stats

Personally, I would like to see the stats of the games and matches. The Accu-Stat system is unbeatable for this. The stats prove how well folks are playing and show which player deserves to win. Where it really gets interesting is when the player who is playing better according to the stats is losing. Then you get involved in trying to figure out why he is losing and some interesting stuff can come to light, like the importance of a timely slop or a bad roll.
 
Cuaba said:
Pool needs to be live and uncut. How can you get excited about an old match that is edited down, and you already know who won?
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I've been saying the same thing for years. That's why doing the WPC was so great. LIVE, full length matches! And we were on for hours every day. They actually treated pool like a major league sport.
 
Jerry Forsyth said:
Personally, I would like to see the stats of the games and matches. The Accu-Stat system is unbeatable for this. The stats prove how well folks are playing and show which player deserves to win. Where it really gets interesting is when the player who is playing better according to the stats is losing. Then you get involved in trying to figure out why he is losing and some interesting stuff can come to light, like the importance of a timely slop or a bad roll.
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Thanks Jerry. I'm surprised I don't see Jerry's name mentioned more often in threads about commentators. I think you do an excellent job myself. I'd rather listen to you then some other more "prominent" coms.
 
I don't think the cue view is all that bad. And it doesn't have to consume that much of the screen. I think they need to include head-to-head stat's as well. People love to cheer for the underdog. I'd love to see this match with stat's of lifetime scores, reasons persons got 2nd so many times, etc. etc.

Also, I understand why everyone thinks it's great for pool to try and dress up it's image, dress codes, etc. But do we really think that is going to attract a larger audience? Which is how we get more TV exposure?

I think we need to dive into the PRO's personalities. I'd love to see Earl playing Scott Frost on TV. Watching Scott eat a bag of chips and taking sidebets as to how he was going to come back on Earl. And Earl, well, being Earl. That stuff makes good TV.
 
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