Why TV screens went blank during India-New Zealand ODI

Power outage in the broadcast compound (Photo by Sahil Malhotra from TimesofIndia.com)

Mount Maunganui: The broadcast of the fifth ODI between India and New Zealand on Sunday was briefly halted due to a power outage in the broadcast compound. The backup generator took nearly ten minutes to switch on before television sets in India resumed receiving the live action.It was also learnt that plans to place a LiveU camera on one of the camera towers were scrapped because there wasn't enough time. The frustrating wait continued around 9 AM IST (4:30 PM local time), and some devices received feeds from weird camera angles.

Broadcaster Sony Sports Network flashed a ticker in the 19th over of the Indian innings saying, "We are experiencing a technical issue from the venue. We are bringing you limited camera coverage while the issue is getting fixed.

We apologise for the inconvenience".Only the stump camera angle was available for the viewers and some television/digital devices showed a blank screen."The production is with Sky Sports and SONY had no role in that. It was a technical issue related to power and nothing could be done in that case. The backup generator took time, which is why the broadcast was interrupted. It very rarely happens," said a source aware of developments.

Normal operations resumed moment power was back on and the broadcast didn't face any hurdles for the remainder of the match.Brief Scores: India 209 in 42.1 overs (Axar Patel 46, Ishan Kishan 46; Mitchell Santner 3/47, Jacob Duffy 3/60) beat New Zealand 187 in 48.1 overs (Dean Foxcroft 31; Arshdeep Singh 3/30) by 22 runs.