Overall, the coverage of round 4 was definitely an improvement on previous weeks.
My main gripe, as noted in the other thread, is that I was watching and waiting on YouTube. The stream started late there. I only tuned in to the Facebook stream when someone said it had started there.
It was another few minutes before the YouTube stream turned on. That hadn’t happened in previous weeks, so seems like someone ballsed up.
Main improvement was the use of picture-in-picture for the talking heads. Thank you so much for listening to that feedback and making a change. It was far less frustrating.
The race finish was slighty sub optimal. At least to me. Here it is again:
The camera position switched just as they crossed the line. Which to me was a jarring transition and just the wrong moment to do it, especially with Alex West coming fast on the outside. The new camera angle made it much harder to see relative positions, and impossible to tell whether Alex had snatched second position:
Or even better probably, an actual view across the line; and could you actually put a line there? The finish gantry is quite wide, so in a really tight finish it’d be hard for us to tell who’s won.
Still, a minor gripe in fast-improving race coverage.
The late start on the Youtube Round 4 feed happened because Zwift set up the feed to play on the previous weeks Round 3 feed which played normally. I didn’t realize it until later on when I did a search with the filter set for today’s videos.
I don’t know enough about how live streaming works on YouTube but I guess it makes sense to have a “Zwift Racing Channel” which contains all the live races, meaning you can subscribe to notifications and bookmark the page. A separate recording of each race/round can then be uploaded separately to allow people to search for the race after the event.
I agree, the coverage and commentating has improved with each week. I have not watched a live stream, instead watching it on YouTube after the fact when I have time. Reading the comments on YouTube is quite interesting. I guess I should expect no less considering it is the Internet
Of particular note, there is lots of dissatisfaction and hate directed towards Nathan Guerra. Apparently his voice is too high pitched. Also, being an American it annoys the Brits One of my favorite ones is a complaint about getting someone that is known to the cycling community If there is someone in the Zwift racing community that everyone is familiar with, I would have to guess Nathan would be that person.
Again, better each time. Zwift is learning. Nathan is learning. Hopefully, Zwift builds some more tools to make the commentary, presentation, and spectating all that much better!