IPL Finals
I caught the IPL 2010 finals, which they streamed live this year on YouTube. I haven’t seen much cricket while I’ve been in the States, but apart from a reasonably entertaining match, I noticed a couple new technological innovations. The first is when the commentators started talking to Rudi Koertzen mid-over. Koertzen was the square leg umpire at the time. I don’t think any other sport has this, but it’s pretty cool.
The other cool thing is the introduction of Spidercam. Spidercam is basically a gyroscopically stabilised video camera which is strung up by four cables. The cables are attached to four corners of the field on very high pylons. By tightening or loosening each cable, the camera can travel anywhere on the field in three dimensions and shoot from any angle. There are some great shots of a close up of a batsman’s face, follwed by a slow pan out in a wide spiral until we see the entire field from the top. Pretty amazing technology, and makes for some awesome shots.
2:20pm 
