So my wife and her friend spent the day watching the SkateAmerica ice skating/dancing competition on the TiVo, off and on. One of the things they noticed, and pointed out to me, is that the noises the ice skates made on the ice were loud. I'm talking unearthly loud. Great crashings and crunchings that really detracted from the performance…
Turns out the production crew was experimenting with new tech; they had buried eight microphones in the ice when they froze it. The commentators were on about how one could listen for smooth gliding etc to judge the quality of the skaters' performances. This is probably true.
However, the same purpose could have been served by turning up the microphones at key points, or just by mixing them down a bit so they weren't so distracting. This whole thing seems a classic example of good tech driving bad decisions.
I was lucky enough to sit on the ice at a skating event ("Stars on Ice") here in Portland a couple of years ago. Hearing the skate noises whispering and scratching across the ice really added to the show. Of course, I had no annoying commentator in my ear, and the sounds traveling across the ice were filtered nicely. My wife's friend points out that I could also localize the skate noises to distinguish them from the background music and general crowd noise.
Anyway, props to wife and friend for picking right up on how bad the whole thing was. They certainly felt vindicated when the announcers reported it was all on purpose. (B)