flagrag

BFD you didn't really miss much in Walkabout tonight apart from a few riders and fans having few too many beers but was an experience and good speedway atmosphere. Unfortunately I am likely to be too busy tommorow to see all the fans for pre meeting drinks but may pop in after racing is all done

topaz325, on 14 June 2011 - 11:04 PM, said: Ben Barker in Team GB,the guy is a PL rider with no ambition. You mean the guy who 2.5 years ago when still only an 8 point PL man went full time EL? There are a few things you can never accuse Barker of, one of them is having no ambition. I understand that Barker has also been called up to be track reserve at Cardiff along with a GP 2012 qualifier this weekend all seems strange for a guy with no ambition

Unless any last minute changes happen this will also be the first GP in HD on Sky apart from Cardiff, Due to a lack of HD equipped studios at Osterley London previously all GPS have only been in SD even if filmed in HD they are downscaled for broadcast on Sky as we wdo not allow SD presentation and then HD main action as deemed to be confusing to viewers. Once the new Harlequin 1 building fully opens later in the year all Gps and other studio presented shows should be in HD

Now that the trails and bumpers have been run on Elite league coverage I am very pleased to confirm this years Brutish Speedway GP at Cardiff will be the first ever broadcast in 3D and as far as I know will be first ever tv match in 3D. This will of course be on top on the usual HD coverage

Birmingham will be in the Elite league in 2011 and the new number one will be Hans Anderson much to the annoyance of Coventry who thought they had agreed a deal for him to go to Brandon and Richard Sweetman will be staying at Perry Barr talks are ongoing with Jason Lyons as needs to decide whether he wants to step up

I also understand that Sky sports pit side reporter and glamour girl Charlie Webster is going to be at the meeting presenting the trophys

For those that missed the world cup due to change of channels to avoid red button coverage the meeting is being shown again on Wednesday and Thursday evening again in HD

Does anybody have a rough idea on how many fans are likely to be at Kings Lynn do you think the crowd will be at similar level to last year at Peterborough ?

Ballinger do you still have the room available ? I have tried PM but says you can not recieve any new messages

Just tried the ETAP but none available so must have gone straight away or have not gone back into the system yet.

Ihave just been asked the near impossible question by a friend to try and find them a reasonable hotel in Cardiff anybody got any ideas as everywhere seems full or very expensive. I have told them that it may have to be a sleep in your car thing this year.

Anybody know the Balakovo line up ? And is that right that the only Brits taking part are Harris,Woffinden and Kennett which if correct is very disapointing

Seen this on an I phone any chance of somebody developing this for the Android platform

If the GP moves onto Red button it is likely that the GP will not record for the full duration and you will just get 6-8pm which is very bad news for everybody and even worse for Virgin media customers as they wont get to watch it at all

A final decision has not been made yet whether Sky will broadcast this meeting yet, They are awaiting final confirmation on whether Canal + Poland or Polsat wish to broadcast the meeting at all as Sky sports will be the host broadcaster for the event if they do show it is likely that Sky will broadcast it but it may not be Live.

With that tight trousers I would have loved to have seen a front shot I dont remember that snug a trousers

Yes that is correct diesel and in fact they have the use of full lighting rigs that are used at some day/night Cricket matches at Test game venues but it comes down to cost, To use mobile lighting rigs would add on an additional £1,500 per meeting production costs which over the course of the season would be over 50K extra and that is on top of an extra 140K a year to broadcast in HD which Sky are happy to absorb. At most stadiums to improve the lighting up to the required lux levels for HD coverage would cost around £5,000 per track I understand Sky are willing to make contributions but expect/want clubs and stadiums to pay as well for the increased clarity and benefits to sponsors logos which im sure will make it easier to sell adverts

Well I am hoping that now Charlie has proved that she can do the live anchor role that we will be able to have her at all GPs doing the presentation from trackside and then we may be able to get all the the GP's in HD as it is a lack of HD equipped studios in London that is holding up showing all GP's in HD. With being spoilt last week by having 3/4 meetings in high definition which all looked superb we had to go back to standard coverage of the Elite league match which just looked fuzzy and washed out compared to what we got used to last week. I believe the time has come now for BSPA/stadium owners and Sky to get together to find a way of improving lighting at live TV matches even if only on a temp week by week basis and moved round like the studio unit so that we can have weekly HD speedway

I feel that Charlie did a very good job last night and dashing round the pits all night trying to get interviews and comments from riders and team managers, I know she asks quite a lot of the same questions all th etime but most of this is fed into her by the producer and match director it wasnt helped last night by sky just adding onto the world feed so they never knew when they were going to cut back to something that was important. Charlie is so enthusiastic about her speedway now and is really getting into it im told she has even been seen at sheffield with her brother on nights off. she enjoys being involved in the productions and see's it more than just another interviewing job she wants to suceed at this. My only worry is though like Suzi Perry she does a lot of other work and that she may taken off to do something more high profile for Sky or BBC

Ole Olsen and Steve Brandon do have a very hard job to do with pleasing the fans as well as sponsors and tv companies I know a few broadcasters have been unhappy with GP meetings over running this year and this has been fed back to BSI and the GP team if the meeting overuns it can turn into a very expensive game for broadcasters with scheduling being put out,adverts missed and most importantly the additional cost of broadcasting with a HD satellite uplink from the track likely to cost around an extra £2,500 per 15mins plus £150 crew cost then then the Ob facilties provider possibly wanting another £3,000 for overun the costs soon mount up. Overall I do agree that possibly some of tracks do start off far to slick at the start of the night and I thought that was to happen at Peterborough until Buster watered it and the track blended together

I think the ticket prices for the world cup this year have been very reasonable with advance tickets for last nights match at Peterborough actually cheaper than an elite league match and the prices for the playoff seems very well priced again. Is a shame that the GP challenge is so expensive as I think they could have had a good crowd for that but £25 is way over the top and evidence was there last night lower prices bring increased numbers with a lot more people watching compared to last year at Coventry when again prices too high

I am wondering if there has been some airline delays and the Polish riders have been delayed or that due to the bad weather they have not been able to practice as planned so everything is moved back a bit

I am not sure what the weather is like in the Peterborough area but Charlie Webster from Sky has just posted on Twitter that the start time for tonights meeting has already been delayed which is a bit worrying as further rain is predicted this afternoon lets hope the meeting runs

It would not surprise me if Darcy Ward is now called up after seeing that Poland are not fielding the strongest team also I am sure IMG would be very pleased as could possibly add another few hundred fans on the gate with more Kings Lynn fans and neutrals coming over

I think they should book a big name act but only release the name of the artist on the local radio stations on the day I would say if could get Stereophonics or Tom Jones you could add 20,000 on the gate i remember when Radio 1 arranged a secret gig in Leeds with Oasis only announced the location and artist on the day and tehy had 25,000 turn up