Super Bowl On The Road II

While Rafat performs his coast-to-coast Super Bowl media marathon, I’m a passenger in a car heading to St. Louis from Chicago on Interstate 55. The home TiVo is set for 5-10 p.m.; we should be home around halftime. Meanwhile, we’re listening to Westwood One/CBS on NFL Radio on Sirius (former Seahawk standout and CTIA president Steve Largent was just being interviewed between plays); we also can switch to the home radio feeds for each team. Feeds also are available in a variety of languages including French (the French term for quarterback is “quarterback”), Mandarin Chinese, two variations of Spanish, Danish, Japanese and even the Queen’s English via the Beeb. Using the Verizon Wireless broadband card I’ve been reviewing, I’m tracking multiple sports sites — and Super Bowl ad coverage — via my laptop; I had a good run of broadband access closer to Chicago but it’s picking up the lower-speed national access now.
As for mobile, I’m not having much luck getting ESPN on MobiTV via my legacy AT&T Nokia 6620. I had hoped to have Mobile ESPN, which launched officially today, but I’ll have to save that test for another day.
Halftime:Still in the car. I know the Super Bowl is made for TV but that shouldn’t mean shortchanging listeners on quality. The live Rolling Stones performance sounds beyond muddy and Mick is more unintelligible than usual.
Post-game: We made it home by the end of halftime. Instead of using the TiVo to speed through commercials, we’re zipping through the plays so we can watch the ads. In the tech category, Sprint Nextel’s “locker room” spot with two guys playing one-up over handsets is a winner. The Mobile ESPN ad shows off the network’s assets with a veritable parade of high-profile athletes and a varied menu of sports. Haven’t had a chance to check out all the ad galleries but AOL has a very slick set-up — easy to find and watch specific ads or check them out a quarter at a time. Users can vote for the best ads from Super Bowl XL and for the best classic SB ad. A little sibling synergy here: it’s presented by HBO’s The Sopranos and the presentation includes an exclusive online trailer for the upcoming season.

The half-time show played much better on TV as did the game itself. Rewind just doesn’t translate to radio. The laptop and phones could only supplement, not replace the living room experience for this made-for-TV event.

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