Update: After looking into this we are 100% confident this is what is going on. Rojo first noticed this when he got back to the States after being here in Budapest.
The live NBC audio and live NBC video from the stadium are 100% synced. The problem is play-by-play man Leigh Diffey is looking at a monitor and not the live action to broadcast the race. That is a common practice. The issue however is these in stadium monitors are 2-5 seconds delayed. The net result is Leigh Diffey is announcing everything 2-5 seconds after it happened live. This is a huge issue in track and field where tenths of a second make a difference. (Meanwhile some of the other announcers are looking at the action in front of the and broadcasting off of this which creates further issues)
But the main issue is Leigh is broadcasting all the races 2-5 seconds late. Watch the men's 100m final and it is obvious:
I've been thinking there's something wrong with his reaction time all week, so yes, this probably explains it.
Look, I always say, if it's a track meet and I"m not broadcasting it, I'm going to complain 9 times out of 10 about the announcing, but I'd bet my life on it. When I was in Budapest and got back to the Airbnb and was listening to highlights, something seemed off about their calls. I thought something was off on the timing but didn't quite understand what it was.
When I got back here, it was obvious what was happening thanks to the Athing Mu race. She nearly falls and then 2-seconds later he talks about it. But SRR and Ato are calling it off what they see so it's very confusing as the timing isn't right.
Thinking back about some of the sprints, there is a long pause before he says anything. Waiting a second or two is fine but he waits like 4 (2+2) and that is bad. On one of the sprints today I think Ato Boldon started doing the play by play so I"m not sure Leigh realizes the monitor is delayed but it is and it really messed me up when I was watching the women's 10k and Hassan fell. I was watching the monitor, heard Hassan fall, looked at the track and it was long over. Very confusing.
Having done some broadcasts myself, I'll say that calling it off a monitor is often done and quite standard as you can see way better. The problem in Budapest is the TVs were delayed by 2-3 seconds which isn't nornal. It made being in the mixed zone very annoying as we weren't seeing anything close to live. A half second dealy isn't bad but multiple seconds is.
Watch Athing's fall or Lyles 200 win. It's obvious he's delayed. The fall is most obvious but even on Lyles call Leigh says, "Watch the clock" but he says it when Lyles is already at the finish line and it's clear it's not a WR.
Instead of yelling at the screen about all the bad (delayed?) track announcing, it is more fun to watch the "closed (not close) captioning) scrolling underneath:
I've been thinking there's something wrong with his reaction time all week, so yes, this probably explains it.
It sounds as if he is still not over what happened to Devon Allen last year and so it is indeed impacting his reaction time. Maybe that is why when Faith Kipyegon had clearly pulled away and was close to finishing he was still asking if Sifan Hassan could catch her in the 1500m final.
And does not have a trained eye. I don’t care how big the stadium is, after watching thousands of meets, a trained eye could spot many things without needing a monitor. However, if he’s commentating for what we see on tv…I tune him out. Ato & Sanya are a little harder to tune out since they’re yelling. But they’re as obvious and redundant as Magic Johnson when he was on TNT.
It was most obvious when he said “Like is running down Femke Bol” when they were coming off that last turn and Bol was obviously pulling away quite easily
And does not have a trained eye. I don’t care how big the stadium is, after watching thousands of meets, a trained eye could spot many things without needing a monitor. However, if he’s commentating for what we see on tv…I tune him out. Ato & Sanya are a little harder to tune out since they’re yelling. But they’re as obvious and redundant as Magic Johnson when he was on TNT.
That may be part of it, but some of it is just poor situational awareness. The Bol race, he didn't really understand that she was racing by herself the entire time uncontested.
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Here is what is going on in case someone at NBC reads this.
1) The audio in the stadium and live NBC video are synced up so that is not the issue.
2) The problem is Leigh Diffey is looking at a monitor in front of him to broadcast the race. This monitor is 2-5 seconds delayed. So everything he says is 2-5 seconds later than it should be.
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