Tech Talk / By Martha Knight

Tony Verna died about a week ago. He was 81. I hope there is a current version of one of the technologies he invented, in active use in the athletic department of our school system.

“Tony Who?” What invention? I hear you ask. Well, this was one of those magnificent hacks that can change things. This one changed television coverage of sports, and videos, how sports are played and even how officials do their job.

Instant replay. Slo-mo too.

Can you imagine a time when there weren’t a multiplicity of cameras capturing action from a plethora of vantage points, at a major sports event?

Why would there need to be all those cameras capturing the action from all those different angles? If what was seen from only one of them would be all that fans would see on their TVs, why bother? But in those regrouping pauses, those waits for some ruling, there is time  to show another view of the action.

TV producers like to have something relevant to show during those waits in football games. It’s also helpful to see what some official has missed. In baseball or basketball, it might be interesting to viewers to see what actually happened, from a spot where some person’s form was not blocking the view. In a horse race it can be important to see whether some jockey had done something the rules forbid, thus disqualifying an apparent winner.

Instant replay is the reality check we now take for granted. But way back when Verna was a 30-year-old network technician working for CBS, before there were any Super Bowls, there was a big Army-Navy game coming up. Sharing a cab with the play-by-play announcer on the way to the stadium, Verna casually mentioned, “We may do something different today.”

Later when the first instant replay was telecast, the announcer had the wit to explain to the wondering viewers, “This is not live! Army did not score again!”

We don’t think it was easy to do replay then, do we? A lot of the gear that makes such messing with time commonplace now did not exist in 1963.

Video recorders were massive. Typically those who would capture the video would take about enough tape with them for the maximum potential length of the game. Tape was expensive enough not to be wasted. Verna couldn’t find enough extra tape to take with him for the added camera to use, so he recorded over some tapes that contained old episodes of “I Love Lucy.” I wonder whether he even degaussed it, or just taped over the Riccardos.

How would Verna manage to match up a particular hunk of tape with what was going on in the game?

Verna’s solution was to have the audio tech put one cuing beep on the tape for the offensive team huddle, two when they broke and went back into action.

That first experiment was much mentioned, but Verna didn’t use the technique again until the NFL Playoff Bowl months later, when it was put to repeated use.

Games as they had been captured. as wide views, then shown to viewers at home, crowded around their black-and-white TV sets, carried little of the kick of the TV football viewers see now. With the ability to use more than one viewpoint, today’s technology allows close-ups and wide views in dozens of possible combinations and sequences.

That applies to Olympics and many other sports, obviously. And even to concerts and operas and other performances, often viewed, and even heard, better on DVD than in the hall.

Why do I hope we have good videos of game action available to our coaches, teams, athletic director, and principals now? And why do I hope that those tapes can be used in various ways in addition to the obvious benefit to the coaches and players as they prepare for the next contest, and the next and the next?

I think it would be great if someone captured the action from the right angle, and could even extract from it a frame or a sequence showing an Austin player’s hand gripping the ponytail of a Lady Gator, and yanking her to a bruising landing on the floor. What the official “misses” in such an episode should be shown and used, later. The score will stand, no doubt, but that unsportsmanlike conduct, and other comparable instances, should not go unnoticed.

Too many teammates and fans saw the incident for it to have been imaginary, or a trick of the lighting. Their eyewitness testimony doesn’t make any difference. But the right video or news shot can. And it would be very interesting to see a shot of that fist clenched around that ponytail, in the sports pages of our paper(s).

Sometimes the only consideration that dissuades public officials, athletes and others who are in the public eye from behaving dishonorably is the fact that their vices may come to light through the media.

Some rules violations that athletes could commit with impunity, years ago, they don’t dare commit now, because of the unblinking eyes of multiple cameras, some at better focus and resolution than human eyes can manage.

Thanks to Tony Verna, a champion among hackers.