According to Andrew Kamanga, president of the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ), SuperSport did not avail the FA with “due notices” before employing AI cameras to broadcast the league.
The continued use of this technology has received a backlash from fans, administrators, journalists and bloggers among others.
It has now emerged that FAZ did not see it coming as the broadcast partner did not inform Football House on time.
“So, at whatever point when these changes [from human operated HD cameras] were happening, we were obviously caught at the tail end of it,” Kamanga revealed this when he appeared of Flava FM Football Show on Wednesday.
“They [SuperSport] may not have anticipated the challenges that would come with the shifts from the OB van straight into the into the AI camera.”
“SuperSport Deal Ending This Season” – Kamanga.
“They would have allowed the season to end and then test this during an off season. So that by the time we go to live transmission, all these teething challenges would have been addressed.
“In fact, we even went as far as making inquiries with ZNBC because ZNBC has got their own OB vans. We were suggesting that if ZNBC could do the production, then Supersport covers that element and then we’d still be at a point where we’d get the same quality being given to the soccer fans for those who are watching from home,” Kamanga said.
Kamanga also said the SuperSport contract is coming to an end this season and some of the concerns over the Ai Camera will be taken into account before a new deal is agreed.
“But from where we stand, we think that when the contract is coming up for review at before the beginning of the next season, we should be able to ensure that all these elements are addressed going forward,” he said.
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