Hotspot warms up UK

Sky Sports will be showing another new addition to its cricket production when Hotspot is unveiled on TV screens during this week's first Test of the summer.

It's a great tool. Channel Nine first unveiled the technology during the Ashes whitewash and it is complemented by a decent chill out track, too.

In fact, the technology couldn't be more contrasted as to its uses elsewhere on the globe. From the serene quarters of a cricket pitch, Hotspot is mainly used to tracker fighter jets and tanks. Channel Nine spent months secretly looking into the technology before they purchased the rights from a French company.

Read the Ashes Hotspot post here.

1-2-3-4... 5-0

Whitewash complete: today's brief showing from England summed up their tour. As Ian Chappell said today on Channel Nine: "England have been like candy floss - bite in the middle and there's nothing there".

Well, at least there has been one positive from Nutley's point of view. I have seen first hand the Aussie mockery it gives opponents when its own is winning. Nutley has chronicled most of the Australian media's backpages and you can view them here at flickr and over the coming days. Here's a taster from The Age backpage after the MCG Test:

Ashes players in the hot spot

It's 100 percent accurate and is mainly used to track fighter jets and tanks. No, this isn't the Army's blog. Yes, Channel 9 has added to the various cricketing TV gimmicks with the new 'Hot Spot' technology.

The kit was picked up from Paris in time for the first Test and has already been crucial in a number of replays. It uses two infra-red cameras positioned above the field of play which sense and measure heat from friction generated by a collision. A black and white negative image of the incident is then generated into a computer which shows the ball’s precise point of contact. (These pictures were taken off the TV, but you should get the drift).

I watched a morning's worth of Channel 9's coverage the other day and witnessed Justin Langer's edge to slip. Hot Spot was summoned and it showed a great series of images where the ball was tracked right onto the shoulder of Langer's bat. It's the best gadget yet and the Nine network continues to impress.

Oh, and I hear the slow motion theme music is 7 Mile by Grooveyard, while Nine's main cricket song is the theme music from an Australian detective series called Bluey...

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Watching Nine's coverage can be infuriating as adverts roll in after every over, but that's the only gripe (am I right?). One such advert which has been heavily promoted features Australian swimmer Grant Hackett and the channel's coverage of the national trials in Brisbane. National trials!

The ad serves up gladiatorial-type music, muscular bodies and, like the Ashes battle, says to the viewer: "Bring it on". It sums up Australia's attitude to sport.

A colleague here told a TV news reporter how ITN doesn't even have a sports desk and the Aussie was rightly flabbergasted; every channel here has a nightly round-up and spotlights everything. As far as UK swimming is concerned, a grim Sunday afternoon on the box featuring our British swimmers compete in the pool at Sheffield is, unfortunately, a turn-off. That's the difference.