US Bank Fireworks Vs. Big Bang

[techguy1975]

Kudos to ch. 6 for the job they did on the US Bank Fireworks.  The production value was much much better IMHO.  It seems they had more camera on the field, better angles, they utilized their helicopter to capture alot of the show, I thought the split screen was a good touch as well..  And best of all.... NO ANNOYING REPORTERS!!  You actually heard just the crowd reaciton, all the booms of the fireworks (and they 550187897987 car alarms going off).  I hope ch 12 was watching, and takes notes for next year...this is how you put a show on!

[Talos4]

Yeah, What he said  :OnAir:

[kevbeck122]

I watched both at Summerfest... the US Bank show was a lot better than the Big Bang.  Guess it was about the same for those of you watching on TV .

[StarvingForHDTV]

I thought Fox 6 did an excellent job of coverage.  No crazy DJ, no annoying chatter about miscellaneous information, and thank God for no shots of that sailboat.

Thank you Fox 6 for letting us see and hear the fireworks.

[SRW1000]

I'm glad someone started a thead on the two.  Here's my comparison.

VISUALS

Channel 6:  6/10
Overall better framing, but still some annoying zoomed-in and intentionally out of focus shots.  The sky-cam pictures were of horrible quality; you could barely make out what you were looking at because the colors and images were so dull and muted.  The end of the final finale was little more than one big, white blob.  The exposures of the cameras should have been adjusted for the massive brightness.  Between the upper left advertising bug and the lower right Fox 6 bug, the already reduced-size picture probably lost another 8-10%.

Channel 12: 7/10
Way too many shots of people, places, and things.  The focus should have been on the actual fireworks.  The Channel 12 bug should have been semi-transparent, and the "informational" text boxes totally pulled the viewer out of the experience.  That said, when we did see the fireworks, they looked great.  Being in HD made all the difference.


SOUND

Channel 6: 1/10
Maybe this should be a zero, but at least there was some sound.  There was little consistency throughout the broadcast - sometimes it was crowd sounds, sometimes it was the music, many times it was car alarms, and occasionally we could hear actual fireworks.  

Channel 12: 7/10
I've subtracted points for the commentators, and the lack of low-frequency sound (I don't know if my subwoofer ever even turned on).  But, they did an excellent job with ambient effects.  Their production had an actual you-are-there quality that was completely missing on 6's broadcast.


THE ACTUAL FIREWORKS SHOW

Channel 6: 8/10
Nicely done, although there was an odd gap between the three different finales.  Also, wasn't it supposed to be an hour long and end at 10:30?  I wouldn't be mentioning that part if the spokesperson for the bank hadn't brought it up a couple of times in the pre-show interview.

Channel 12: 7/10
A little too short, but there were no awkward pauses and they had a nice rhythm to them.


OVERALL SCORE

Channel 6 - 5/10
Channel 12 -7/10

In conclusion, I liked the Channel 12 show enough to watch it twice.  Although there were a number of things that could have been improved, overall it was a better and higher-quality production (being in HD had a lot to do with this).  

I can't imagine wanting to watch the Fox 6 show again.  While the actual fireworks were better, the quality just couldn't compare.

Scott

[techguy1975]

I'm glad someone started a thead on the two.  Here's my comparison.

Channel 6: 8/10
Nicely done, although there was an odd gap between the three different finales.  Also, wasn't it supposed to be an hour long and end at 10:30?  I wouldn't be mentioning that part if the spokesperson for the bank hadn't brought it up a couple of times in the pre-show interview.

Channel 12: 7/10
A little too short, but there were no awkward pauses and they had a nice rhythm to them.

I agree the periods between the finales was a little akward, but keep in mind, ch. 6 wasnt launching the fireworks, they were just covering it.  The odd gaps, and the show ending about 10 minutes early was the fault of the Bartolatas.  It seemed to me they were either having some problems getting some of the fireworks to launch or something.

[SRW1000]

I agree the periods between the finales was a little akward, but keep in mind, ch. 6 wasnt launching the fireworks, they were just covering it.  The odd gaps, and the show ending about 10 minutes early was the fault of the Bartolatas.  It seemed to me they were either having some problems getting some of the fireworks to launch or something.

Sorry if my post was misleading.  I didn't mean for it to look like I was blaming Fox 6 for the gaps, or to credit them for the actual content of the fireworks.  That section of my recap was only in regards to the fireworks show itself, and didn't have anything to do with either of the two broadcasters.

Scott