Football season has returned. Tom Brady might be out for the season, Willie Parker had a monster day (and lit up my Fantasy Football team as a result), and NBC has done a great service to sports fans. They debuted a broadband site during their Sunday Night Football broadcast that allows users to choose from five camera options: Main Broadcast, Sideline, End Zone, Star and Cable Cam. This mirrors what DirecTV does with NASCAR's HotPass feature - there you can follow a driver in his in-car, roof and bumper-cam through the whole race, complete with a separate show announcer and scanner audio. For NBC's iteration, the Madden/Michaels duo is your only audio choice, for better or worse. However, you do get to view the game unfiltered by the show's director.My favorite is the Cable Cam (viewed above). This reminds of playing Madden a little bit, allowing a better picture of the formations, and strictly game action. Star Cam swivels around between QBs, RBs, and WRs, as well anyone else making big plays. This view will also swing to players who are being discussed by the announcers after a play. End Zone and Sideline Cams simply grab the action from their respective locations. Main Broadcast should need no explanation. One interesting feature occurs during commercials. Only on the main broadcast view do you see them. (Although you do hear them no matter what.) If you have the other views selected, you'll instead see a stat screen for the game. (Pictured Below)
Another nice touch is that no matter which image you have selected in the forefront, the others will continue playing in the background, allowing you to decide which view to switch to easily. There is also a 'Fullscreen' option; this isn't truly full-screen, but rather replaces the multi-view with a larger, single view. Aside from a few stutters and sometimes poor video (buffering, no doubt), this broadcast is a nice alternative if you're at your computer, or prefer to make the directing decisions yourself.
UPDATE: Another thing I just noticed during the broadcast: the main broadcast is tape-delayed online just as it is over the air by a few seconds. This is noticeable when you are viewing the other angles, which are not tape-delayed. So, you'll here some calls by Michaels a few seconds after it already happened.
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