Early verdict: You should, too

I checked out the new Grand Slam livestreams.

Early verdict: You should, too.

Right on the Slam homepage was a link to the coverage on HomeTeam Live. I could easily navigate between the four sheets in play; click on one and it jumps larger into view.

There are six navigation buttons along the bottom: Pause, Volume, Picture-In-Picture, Fullscreen, Feedback (!) and Quality (160p to 1080p60).

I started bright and early with the opening draw. The featured match was an all-Scottish battle between Bruce Mouat and Cameron Bryce, with commentary from John Cullen and Tyler George. The skips were miked at minimum, and the arena sounds were clearly audible.

The streaming cameras revealed there were fans in the stands in Charlottetown; pretty amazing for an 8:30 a.m. draw on a Tuesday.

Three cameras seems to be in use for each sheet—near house, far house and overhead. According to The Curling Group, all of them are operated remotely, from a control centre located near the commentators.

The pictures are sharp. I could clearly see Hammy McMillan’s bleached blonde short crop.

The overhead cam produces a slightly darker picture, and the operators occasionally struggle in staying ahead of the action, particularly on heavy takeouts. I suspect these are curling newbies on the crews, and they’ll improve in time.

(Indeed… I later watched portions of the other draws through the day, on mobile, and there was already marked improvement in the camerawork.)

I checked the other three live 8:30 games out quite easily; there was no commentary nor player microphones for any of them except for all four Satsuki Fujisawa players. 

That’s because a Japanese network, Abema, is covering this Slam; they also have some cameramen on the field of play.

My picture froze a few times during the morning game but there were no problems during the following draw. If this happens to you, don’t even think of using your Feedback button to complain because that’s not on HomeTeam—that’s your internet provider. The people I want to strangle on occasion.

The graphic “bugs” looked good, and started disappearing/reappearing more in the second draw, which adds to a professional presentation.

Were there commercial spots? Yes! MR MIKES SteakhouseCasual and a couple of different spots from Goldline (both Slam sponsors).

Do they need more differing commercial spots? Always! On every curling show everywhere!

Are there replays? Yes! Both in-game and in a closing package. The end of the Mouat-Bryce game featured a near-dizzying array of shots (missed and made) throughout the match.

I actually might like that better than the polished closing packs the major broadcasters give us—instead of one or two shot results and anguished face closeups, I saw virtually of all the game’s highlights in about 60 seconds.

George teamed with Brent Laing for the second draw’s featured game commentary—Brad Jacobs vs John Shuster—and that pairing proved to be more chatty than Cullen/George. 

I preferred the pacing of the latter, and when George/Laing were both speaking over multiple player voices, my senses overloaded.

By the late ends of the second draw, the camera operators were dabbling in closeup shots, during hack chats, deliveries and sweeping. Clear signs of improving confidence.

All in all, a good start.

Now… all we need is for more curling fans to bite the bullet and learn how to hook up their internet TVs.