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Cricket Australia apologises for tech disruption

Tech problems leave broadcasters with no Live coverage for 15 minutes.

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Cricket Australia has apologised after the feed of day-four’s action at the Gabba stopped for about 15 minutes, leaving FOX Sports, Seven and TV stations around with no cricket.

The situation improved slightly, albeit with one camera in use. Play continued throughout the interruption but with no third umpire.

“We’ve very sorry,” Cricket Australia (CA) chief executive Nick Hockley told reporters in Sydney.

“It hasn’t been ideal.

“These things happen. My understanding of the situation, and we will get full details and a full report, is it was an issue with one of the generators.

“Very appreciative of everyone who worked very quickly to get the feeds and signal back up and running. We can only apologise to the fans.”

The problem was exacerbated because most commentators were calling the match from outside Queensland.

The number of broadcast and Decision Review System (DRS) staff at the venue was also reduced, compared to a normal Test, because of Queensland’s border restrictions.

The full suite of DRS devices is expected to be used during the second Test, which begins at Adelaide Oval on Thursday.

Source: Seven News

8 Responses

  1. I would be interested to know who the host broadcaster is? One of the commentators said that channel 7 actually only have 4 cameras on the ground and rely on the host broadcaster?

    1. Fox Cricket is the host broadcaster on Internationals (Tests, One-Dayers etc). Ch7 is host broadcaster for most of the BBL, except a handful of matches exclusive to Fox.

  2. Commentators on other media platforms (Twitter) were rather scathing of the situation. Thankfully that blame wasn’t directed at 7 and their commentators were walking the viewers through what was happening. I was surprised to learn 7 were only allowed 4 cameras into the Gabba so that’s how they were still offering some footage. I’m still baffled by this world feed thing.

    1. Host broadcaster is required to supply coverage of an event to worldwide partners free of domestic sponsorship, graphics and commentary. Other broadcasters can then take this coverage and add their own production to it. Ch7 are permitted to have cameras inside the stadium to add to the world feed. It’s so they can pick off shots relevant to their commentary. But they don’t generally use these cameras to “ball follow”.

      1. … which is what Seven resorted to when the Fox, oops sorry the “host broadcaster” feeds went down – they used their own cameras as a workaround, until those too dropped out.

        You’d think after the last power outage there during a BBL match which resulted in the match being abandoned, they’d have backup equipment or plans in place to cover such an event – especially for a high profile international match, being broadcast around the world.

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