Did something go wrong here? Or was this how it was meant to be?

Compared to the other artistes, it appeared, to my unseasoned ears, below par.

Yes, there was a major sound issue with this. The issue was : they let bloody sound engineers listen.

It looked like at the start she was having a problem with either her monitoring or lack of talent, she certainly seemed to be having pitch problems, which suggests that her vocal was live whereas the rest of the show looked like it was blatantly from track.

Us Brits just haven't grasped the concept on Miming.

For the Other singing parts after the bus is was sometimes quite obvious.

Josh

Linky

On review, it sounds like there's no direct program, just the atmos mics. This would possibly explain the lack of lip sync later in the show (nobody mimes that badly). Whether this was an artistic decision (to give the feel of an arena show), or technical (pgm wasn't available) is anybody's guess.

Now thats interesting; I wasn't paying too much attention as I was just going to bed (late!) and the video was grabbing it, but I don't recall the sound being rough - maybe we got a different feed than you guys...?

And The Page was definitely miming, his riff carried on whilst he was adjusting his shirt...

Yup. And yup.

Honestly - after the absolutely knock-out spectacular entertainment that the Chinese pulled out of the hat - is an overpaid footballer, a talent show winner who can wail vaguely in tune, a sweaty guitarist, a 10 year old kid with no discerrnable contribution to make to proceedings, and some dodgy contemporary dance with some umberellas really the best that the UK could muster?!

Didn't look a bad bus....... not British though.

The other thing is the question of scale - the Chinese used *lots* of performers for each segment of their show, the BritBus could have accomodated the entire British contingent. It just looked, well,... "small".

Well, here in Aus the sound was appalling so I suspect we got the same feed as the UK. As somebody else said, it sounded to me like we were hearing only the atmosphere mics with nothing direct from the vocal mic or guitar.

Far be it from me to suggest that the Chinese engineer doing the pool mix would deliberately sabotage the rather lack-lustre British effort....

(And it didn't need sabotaging...I cringed when I saw Beckham.)

Bob

I thought the sound was poor - and by comparison to the sound for the "party" singing after the tower of remembrance it was appalling.

In terms of comparison between the Beijing ceremonies' production values and the London eight minutes - obviously no comparison at all - I assume that we were trying to show typical London iconic images and in that sense it probably worked. I think the world view of Beckham is probably more favourable that our own view so again a good choice. And I guess that Whole Lot of Love was designed to suggest a more open, fun games than the over managed spectacle we just saw for the last two weeks.

I'm looking forward to the prospect of two thousand and twelve Morris Dancers and two thousand and twelve Pearly Kings and Queens

I both laughed and cringed when the animated sequence showed a graffitti "artist" and soldiers doing the Monty Python silly walk.

I wept tears of laughter when I saw Boris walking into the arena with a "gosh - what are all these people doing here?" look on his face ;-)

The Telegraph has a perfect summary of our 8min's.

Boris on the stand was like a kid and just kept waving.

I will be SO SO disappointed in London if there are no pearly kings and queens

Now that's an interesting article in the Telegraph which in brief is saying we have just under four
years to get it right.
Whoever organised this eight minute fiasco needs a five year stint in The Tower - in chains.

Unfortunately for London the momeries of the Beijing games will remain for ages and the 2012 games will
be compared to those of 2008 whether we like it or not.
We need to do something different, lower key perhaps but still good - professional and well organised.

Yesterday's British offering was crap - it conveyed nothing to offer the rest of the world the briefest idea
of our culture, history or current lifestyle.
Not that the rest of the world cares but heck, you have to say the Chinese made a great attempt
at showing themselves to World Public; and succeeded.

Oh, and was the girl from X-Factor the only person who volunteered to (sort of) sing at this shindig
or did the pros take one look at what was required of them and offer a definite NO.

Why do some people still seem to be of the opinion that the UK can actually manage to come up, on time and under budget, with something well-organised, of high quality and relevant to the Games (I.e. not just another 'concert' featuring the best of the worst of British 'talent', which seems to be what passes for pretty much any major event these days - is that really what Nelson Mandela wanted for his borthday?!)?

The Chinese this year have showed us how it should be done - personally, I was completely blown away by parts of the opening and closing ceremonies - and I have no doubt that there's no way on earth that the UK will be able to rustle up anything that could stand side-by-side with what we've just seen from Beijing. Sad, but unfortunately almost certainly true.

Gareth: agreed.

The Chinese took the Olympics incredibly seriously, and poured resources into it as necessary, $100m USD funding for the opening and closing ceremonies alone I think was reported. And being a a single-party socialist republic (had to look that up in Wikipedia) they dont have Nimbys, petty legislation and the like getting in the way of what needs to be done. They just got on with it, and blew everyone away.

And I've now reviewed the bus, and yes, the sound was somewhat poor.....

Getting slightly political here...

I have to agree with Gareth that the Chinese opening and closing ceremonies were stunning pieces of "theatre". I don't normally enjoy these sorts of thing but sat through both of them enthralled.

However, I'm less convinced that they were examples of "how it should be done". The Olympics are meant to be a showcase for competition between individual athletes, not an arena for nationalistic competition and politics. While the ceremonies were great to watch, I'm not sure what they have to do with a sporting event and have to think it was much more a modern equivalent of the old Soviet parades of missiles through Red Square. I'm sure it was much more designed to show "look what a totalitarian state can achieve" than have any relevance to the Olympics. When you consider that many Chinese still live near the poverty line, it becomes even less acceptable to throw $100 million at a few hours of grandstanding, however well done it might be.

Alas, I'm not so naive as to think the British effort won't be compared unfavourably with the Chinese ceremony. However, on balance I'd still prefer to live in a country where I can't be summarily thrown out so my house can be bulldozed for the stadium--and where the volunteer performers aren't worked in the summer sun until they pass out (as happened in China).

Bob

Well said Bobbsy.

from what I gathered from our 8minits, England is looking to be a more like new/modern style games ( wicked/we will rock you style equivalent in theatre)
Beijing showed the older, more traditional style games ( shakespeare/blood brother style equivalent in theatre)

as for Leona Lewis... why? doesn't that just shout cheap? where where some of our bigger, more traditional singers? (although I was pleasantly surprised to see it wasn't ms winehouse appearing from the bus)

I would have rather seen Brian May than Jimmy Page, who I think is a bigger face. I would be totally shocked if he wasn't somewhere in our opening ceremony. (maybe standing on the roof? 'shredding' the national anthem?)

How many of us will be going to out opening? (not for the sport. to see how we light/sound the event)
maybe a blue-roomer will be working there!

I definitely plan to attend the opening event.

[dreaming]
I would like to work on it in some capacity.
[/dreaming]

Josh

Personally I was glad to see Jimmy Page their rather than Brian May but that is a matter of taste. I would love to have been in on the meeting when they chose to do "Whole lotta of love" though - what a strange choice.

I am in two minds on if I would like to work on it - awful lot of pressure, on the other hand the kudos would be quite good. Some of my colleagues were working on the Athens one, will ask them what they thought.

Whether it was ethical or not to pour so much into the various olympic ceremonies, it was stunning to watch. What I'd love to see happen at 2012 is for some clever guy to come up with some comparatively simple yet ingenious design that blows everyone away with it's simplicity yet effectiveness, so that everyone else goes "now why didn't we think of that before?" That would be fantastic. Do I think it's possible? Sure.

Do I think it's going to happen? Nope. The fact that they came up with the logo they did has given me low hopes for the rest of it to be honest! Instead, I regrettably think that it's probably going to be pretty crap, however much we're reassured it'll be wonderful. The 2000 London fireworks spring to mind in that sense...

Oh how we laugh.
I live a few miles from East London where they have done just that. Hundereds of businesses have been closed and the compensation they received was inadiquate to restart elsewhere. A friend of mine had a recording studio down there too. In The BBC's coverage (downloadable on Iplayer) there was a segment about the new stadium and a stop-frame shot of them tearing down 2 quite new apartment blocks.

They do it here too. Its just a matter of scale. Unfortunatly, no plans to tear down Liona Lewis.

This has turned into quite an interesting and a little political topic here, on the flip side, I was just wondering about anyones opinions on the actual technical side of the performance? We all agree that the broadcast sound feed was a little flaky, and I know that time in China and time in the stadium for the Handover crew was tight. Putting aside the actual performance, I thought the way the buss opened out was awesome, and the LED brollies turned out really well! Technically on site it appeared to go perfectly! My only criticism was the dodgey looking rope light around the hedgerow.

Well said. The whole thing looked like a reject scene from Mary Poppins - I was half expecting them to burst into a rendition of The Old Bamboo, or somesuch. A total embarrassment, full of the kind of hackneyed cliches, which sent our once-respected flim industry spinning off in the 70s.

Maybe a procession of teenage mothers pushing prams, being machine-gunned by a gang of crack-dealing hoodies on BMX bikes, while a carefully choreographed crowd of pissed-up chavs vomited the 2012 logo onto the stage, would have been more relevant.

Because the pathological liars in charge of it say we can.

Don't worry, someone's come up with a much better alternative version...

And if anyone knows where I can get that on a T-shirt, sing it out

Sorry if this is OT.

Heh... if you do a "google images" search for "london 2012 logo", that comes up as the second hit... in front of the "real" one!

It's probably only OT if this thread stays in "Sound" - Mods?

OK, you want it to stay in SOUND - here goes.

The (TV) sound was crap ! ((Bus wasn't too clever either)).

Goog grief, if there was an Olympic sport for moaning and being pessimistic we Brits would have all the Golds

Great idea David - and wouldn't need to build a new venue.

Grumpiness and cynicism to international standards - count me in the team!

Careful Gareth. I believe I now qualify to be a grumpy cynic for Australia (or at least will by 2012). Your medal might not be assured.

Bob

Ah, but he's not the only one, Bobbsy

Don't throw away that Union Jack shirt just yet

Well, I have been watching this topic since it was created and had not felt the need to comment until now.
Are we discussing sound or the olympics here?

Sorry to be a bad egg, as a school boy I was more interested in playing the guitar than football, are we not going a bit OT here?
Personally I could not give much of a damn about any sport, let alone this jumped up, poor excuse to spend millions for no reason hype.

If we are talking about Leona lewis, then I think she did a great job.
Yea, sound was bad, but I can really feel for her, she represented our country with her voice, can you imagine singing live to what, millions of people worldwide?

I'm thinking more millions from us tax payers will harvest the 2012 olympics, when SURELY there are more worthwhile causes?

John Denim.

Well, I thought we were having a bit of a giggle on this topic after all, the TV sound on the British segment
was crap and the bus a little odd.

Apart from that if you don't like sport no one's forcing anyone to watch it for just 15 days every four years.

In addition, a large number of sound, lighting, staging, fireworks and video companies of all sizes will make a
good few bob out of it all too.

Still would have preferred Brian May performing the national anthem from the roof.

I'm with John, 100% on this

Dave

Are you saying it doesn't matter that a large number of sound, lighting, staging, fireworks and video companies of all sizes will make a good few bob out of the 2012 Olympics?

I'll grant you that that is a "Good Thing", but I'll bet the rate payers of London won't regard it as 100% good even if they are into sport.

The games as a competition between the best athletes in the world - A Good Thing
The games as a competition between the nations of the world to rack up as many gold medals in a "My Ck is bigger than yours" way - a bad thing.
Grinding the peasants into the dust/mud to pay for the games, there or here - a bad thing.
Incessant TV coverage - a bad thing. In comparison; sticking hot needles in my eyes - a good thing.
Boris on a Red Bus - Bad
Boris under a Red Bus...

...good!

On second thoughts, we shouldn't wish bad things on politicians.

Should Boris fall under a double decker bus, I'll be as sad as everyone else.

Now, where did I put that bunting I had a while ago....

So a good number of folk on this forum have no interest in the survival of rental companies - how strange!

Come on Ken, I'm the only one so far to comment and I said that that side of the equation is "A Good Thing". Everyone else is probably outdoors enjoying this summer's sun!

But will they?

How are such large contracts done - through local / national hire companies, or direct with manufacturers for product placement?
Will companies try to undercut each other to say that they 'did' the Olympics?
How much extra tax etc will everyone be paying ?

The first two above could mean that there is very little hire required for local companies, except perhaps in the Broadcast / AV sector for the media village. There will be local hires for big screens in city centres and at some of the peripheral venues across the UK, and some pubs may want screen / PA hire, but this size of job may be at a different scale?

Just a thought....those in that sector will know best, and I'd be delighetd to be proved wrong.

What sun ???????


A concurrent post has been automatically merged from this point on.

OK, the games will cost a bomb and the British tax payer will probably be paying for it until the next millenium
but, there will be a good number of rental companies of all types making some extra bucks out of it.

This will probably as has been mentioned on a peripheral basis as the Chinese will probably do the main
arenas for nothing.

On the basis of extra income for some in our industry we should all support the project whether or not we hate sport.

Yesterday. Bright thing in the sky. No idea where it has gone today though...

Yes - but it did piss down in Beijing quite often which was somewhat reassuring.


(But the sound was still crap and the bus looked odd)

HaHa - yes Ken , thats brilliant!

So the point of them firing over 1000 "anti -rain" rockets into the sky was? . . . . . . . - or was that the start of the fireworks ?

Brian May would have been better I think

I've only just seen this. Is the the whole celeb thing the best that the UK can manage?
Oh dear...
but could someone have the fiddle 'player' scrubbed & sent to my tent?