I brought up some thoughts on the Counter-Strike broadcasts earlier, and it's time for two quick additions.

The Core's match featured some Picture-in-Picture (PiP) shots, and they used first person and third person views in the two windows. It didn't work as well as I hoped. The two viewpoints were a little confusing, and it was hard to focus on one.

The first-person view as the small window, so maybe it was just me trying to focus on the smaller picture and failing miserably. But it could just be flat-out confusing, no matter which window is larger. You might adjust to it over time, but I doubt that's what the CGS wants to say about their production techniques.

In my opinion, the easiest solution is to use the map overview more. They seem to limit using it to the beginning of each round, but it's the most comprehensive and easily explainable viewpoint. Literally all the action is right in front of the viewer. And it's a more static view, so it wouldn't be as hard to focus on one viewpoint.

Of course, that would also work best with the telestrator, but one step at a time.

The second idea is a more radical solution to the problem of figuring out where to point the camera. I briefly mentioned putting the CS:S teams in a different room, but I only threw it out as a quick example. I think the idea has merit as one of my crazy suggestions, actually.

If you put the Source teams in a different room, you could set up some kind of delay that both the audience and viewers could watch. Basically, they'd be watching a SourceTV feed, and broadcasting like it was live. Only somebody (a director?) would know where to direct the camera. To expand the analogy, he'd be watching the SourceTV (with a delay) and a live scorebot. He'd know exactly what players to watch.

The announcing would be in sync with the audience reaction, and the action would be better, hopefully. I'm not sure if the idea of having the Source teams in a separate area would sell, though. Although it would be nice if they could actually hear footsteps, which is a concern in any live setting, it's still really foreign. But, just like the original ideas, it might spark something worthwhile.