So I am watching the opening ceremonies from the 08/08/08 Olympics, a date fact that the NBC staff played up big time as if there was going to be some big event tied to the date somehow. Well if you were watching, you know that nothing like that ever materialized. What did stand out however, besides the fact that Bob Costas should fire the hair and make-up person that colored his hair flat brown, was the incredibly bad audio feed. The commentary during the carrying of the torch was more like a whisper, with the crowd noise drowning out the audio feed. Hey fella’s in the truck! Push the slider up on the board! (This is an apology and a correction, apparently it was not NBC, but Dish Networks High Def Feed only)

All the NBC failures aside, the show that the Chinese put on was outstanding, a massive effort in choreography, the mix of technology and art was perfect. I specifically thought that the creation of a gradient using giant stamp pads and the feet of all of the athletes, across the earlier created image, was very clever. I would imagine that we will see that image for years to come.