Let there be light! After years of rain-flecked lenses, sound mikes buffeted by gale force winds and vox pop interviews with bedraggled tourists trying to be polite while looking as if they wished they could be anywhere else on the planet, RTE was yesterday given the gift which all outside broadcast units dream of - glorious sunshine.
You could almost hear the sighs of relief from the behind-the-scenes technicians. "In the past I've had great sympathy for many of the participants and spectators," admitted Derek Davis.
In truth, the national broadcaster still hasn't quite come to terms with the reinvented celebrations of Ireland's patron saint.
The format remained much the same - helpful explanations from Derek Davis and Sarah Ryder of what each element in the parade meant, who made it and where it came from, and street-level vox pops with the obligatory tourists.
The vox pops, as usual, tended towards the ingratiating. "Do you think we're all mad?" one bright young thing pressed a large, lugubrious Hungarian on O'Connell Street.
We in Ireland know the way to respond to this particular question - adopt a pained expression, mumble something inaudible and move away as quickly as possible - and, to his credit, the Hungarian visitor did exactly that.
Of course, most of the interviewees were thrilled to bits to be here, hugely impressed by the parade and pleasantly surprised by the weather. After a while you were longing for the visitor who would point out that Dublin is filthy and grossly overpriced and that the food is still terrible.
Perhaps RTE needs a Sean Moncrieff type on the show to undercut all the self-congratulation a little.
North-siders disgruntled by the parade's southward tilt of recent years might have cause to complain about the national broadcaster's coverage, which massively favoured events around the Patrick Street end of the route.
Was this yet further evidence of Dublin 4 bias? Well, probably not. As the 1.45 p.m. cut-off point loomed, it became clear that it was the only way to cover the whole shebang without cutting into coverage of the hurling and football.
However, since most of our memories of the televised parade are of the march past the GPO, the pictures gave the impression of an event which has changed not just its style but its city.
It's a long time since Patrick Street was the centre of Dublin, after all, and its widened streets and new buildings come across on screen as more suburban than metropolitan.
It was a sensible decision, however, to minimise the shots of Westmoreland Street, currently looking like 1945 Berlin with its huge building site at the College Green end.
The parade looked glorious, probably for the first time in its televised existence. The bright colours, huge shapes and vibrant movement created something for the camera crews to get their teeth into for a change.
In the past couple of years, the would-be carnival atmosphere has looked strained at times in the face of the unfriendly elements - yesterday it was triumphantly justified.
This only served to emphasise the main point of such parades: even at their most successful they are essentially live events, impossible to capture fully on videotape.
And, really, it was no day to be sitting indoors watching television.