television at the Olympics...

[Arkay]

Originally Posted by electroking

I don't know who provides the feeds to Radio-Canada/CBC but as far as
I'm concerned, the presentation is fine.

I was just watching the replay of the men's 3-meter springboard final,
and I was amazed by one small feature: where do they set-up their
mikes to get such clear pickup of the competitors' speech when they
exchange cues just before they jump?

A lot of that is done with highly directional mikes from some distance. The diving ones seem to be from the side, but I'm not sure: they could also be being fed in from somewhere on the board support itself. Also, modern sports venues often have mini-cams and mikes mounted in odd places, like suspended from tracks on the ceiling (or tracks on the bottom of a swimming pool). With computer-controlled servo remote control, they can move them around and zoom in on almost anything. A lot like security systems, but they usually use the smallest high-quality gear to keep it unobtrusive, and of course they are broadcast standard, which is better than the usual security system gear.

Pretty amazing what they can do these days with mini-cams and remote mikes!

Add to that the computer enhancements (like the green lines that show world-record time location in a swimming pool, or first-down lines in a football game). If you are old enough to remember, just compare the coverage of the modern Olympics or a recent Superbowl to the coverage of 20, 30 years ago. Truly amazing improvements!