User:Twigboy/Sandbox/Instant replay


 * For the album by The Monkees, see Instant Replay (Monkees). For the album and song by Dan Hartman, see that article.

Instant replay refers to a system whereby a television audience of a sporting match can see a recorded video feed of a recently completed event in the game. Typically instant replays will be shown from a different camera angle than the original live video. Since the camera showing the live feed will follow the game action (such as the ball or puck), other cameras can isolate on certain players or positions away from the game action. This aids color commentary by the announcers during breaks in the play of the game.

Instant replay has become a tool to review officiating calls by some of the higher levels of organized professional sport.

Replays before "instant"
In 1959, network broadcasts of American football began using videotape to record segments of a game to replay certain key plays at halftime. At the time this was a novel idea, as videotape was only used to record entire programs.

Out of practicality, the videotape machines were operated in the engineering department at the network control center. Because the tape machine was not able to connect to any other camera than the live camera, replays would show the same angle as they did during the live action.

Bob Trachinger, an ABC network engineer, is credited with the development of a slow-motion replay. Under this system plays were recorded at normal speed, then played back on a machine that recorded at twice the speed. When that second tape was played back at normal speed, the action would appear as if it was half the speed.

While this effort helped to fill the broadcast during an inactive time such as halftime, a significant amount of inactive time also existed between plays.

Introduction of "Déjà View"
Tony Verna has been widely credited with bringing the concept of the instant replay to fruition. There were many hurdles to bringing the first instant replay to air:


 * Logistics. Early videotape machines were very large and sensitive to motion, it was inconceivable to transport them to the game site with the rest of the broadcast equipment.
 * Expense. Videotape was expensive and in relatively short supply.
 * Interdepartmental politics. At the time, videotape operations were the domain of the engineering department. Therefore the development of such a system by a director would not be met favorably by the engineering department.

Verna was able to first experiment with the instant replay concept during the Army-Navy football game on December 7 1963. For the first broadcast use of instant replay, Verna secured a five-minute segment of tape from an old episode of I Love Lucy and the approval of CBS executive Bill McPhail.

Early use of videotape images was not entirely reliable, and often took a few seconds to "lock in" an image. To compensate for this, Verna had his audio engineer place a beep on an unused track when the team broke a huddle and two beeps when the ball was snapped. This allowed Verna to determine if the video had stabilized enough to be broadcast. Despite several attempts, the first and only use of the replay in that game came on a fourth quarter touchdown run by Army quarterback Rollie Stichweh. This led game announcer Lindsey Nelson to enthusiastically proclaim "Army did not score again!"