Is legitimate Live Coverage of a Point to Point race possible...I think so...time to find out

[Dave Cole 4454]

I'm proud of what we have done with KOH, moreso that we continue to do it on a relatively tight budget. For a few years I have had a dumb idea on how we could do coverage of a point to point race. Thanks to Mike, Jen, and Eliseo at NORRA, I get to find out. Problem is, it really hasn't been done and there is no way to tell if it will work till we go do it

Here's the nuts and bolts, let me know what you think.

• The basic version of LiveStream allows 2 inputs.
• We will have 4 ground positions on each day of the Norra Mexican 1000...I will use Day 1 as the example
• Start Line (Ensenada) RM 90ish (Erindera) RM 300ish (Puerto San Carlo) Finish Line (Bay of LA)
• We will have a shooter in a Heli flying with Corporate Helicopters

The show will be part race coverage and part 'Truman Show' style self shooting reality stuff. Guerrilla coverage. Two man crews...one guy keeping the power and systems up and another shooting and self narrating.

Saturday 4/23 1:00 PM Show comes on with coverage of Contingency and the start of the Bikes in Ensenada with added coverage from Erindera as they come through.

Sunday 4/24
7:00 AM - Live of Bikes in Puerto San Carlos, Cars Starting in Ensenada
9:00 AM - Live from Erindera as leaders come through
10:50 AM - Last Car starts on dirt in Santo Tomas - Heli takes off and shoots every car it passes heading down course.


THIS IS WHERE IT GETS COOL

12:00 PM - The heli flies buy RM 90 and stuffs their SD Cards in a nerf football and throws them at the Ground Camera Man...he picks them up, puts them in his camera and pushes Play.
12:00 - 12:30 Watch 'Near Live' Heli Coverage of the last 20-30 cars.
12:30 PM Live From Puerto San Carlos with Bike interviews from the BoLA Finish Line.
3:00 PM - Heli makes a 2nd drop at Puerto San Carlos

Rinse and Repeat.

We have already tested our satellite internet service at HD+ 5.2 Mbps speeds. I own the cameras and broadcasting equipment...this show will be made or broken by the 'shooter/commentators' and heli shooter. I am extremely confident in the heli guy, I've been using him at KOH for 8 years...he's a badass. Ivor at Corporate Helicopters will get him in the right spots.

The fun part will be the interactions between the commentators/fans in the chat window.

The added wrinkle is the Internet Hotspots we use for coverage also lend themselves as Communication Hubs for racers/sweep/ops. Once we go off the air, we will coordinate with Sweep (Led by Dust Junky Racing) to make sure all vehicles are off the course in a timely and safe manner.

Thoughts?

Dave

 

[NIKAL]

Sounds awesome! The ability to pull this off is huge and I thank you for having the balls to try it.

 

[TJERGENSEN]

If anyone can do it it is you Dave. Ill be watching.

 

[ONE_RJ]

Can't wait to watch it Dave. The Truman Show commentary + live chat should keep the viewers entertained during some down time between vehicles.

Please post a link to the Livestream so we can all follow along and chat.

Saturday contingency would be a great time to test with interviews from the drivers to get some history on the cars / bikes entered along with the usual Mexico street celebrations.



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[green787]

It sounds like you need a video switcher between your camera sources and the two input live feed....That way you could switch between various locations on the race track....

 

[El Mamito USMC]

i had a bad a$$ essay ( yeah it was that good and long) and it got deleted...

 

[Dave Cole 4454]

It sounds like you need a video switcher between your camera sources and the two input live feed....That way you could switch between various locations on the race track....

Livestream lets you switch between 2 cameras. We will bump them off the server as it heads south.

For KOH we bring all 8 cameras into the production truck via our Microwave Network. Not a feasible plan for a 1400 mile race course.

Technology is not quite there where we can edit/cut the show 'in the cloud'...when it is, we are set.

 

[green787]

Livestream lets you switch between 2 cameras. We will bump them off the server as it heads south.

For KOH we bring all 8 cameras into the production truck via our Microwave Network. Not a feasible plan for a 1400 mile race course.

Technology is not quite there where we can edit/cut the show 'in the cloud'...when it is, we are set.

Can you establish a live feed through the internet at a remote location... I think they've been doing that for SCORE with varying degrees of success....???

 

[Dave Cole 4454]

Can you establish a live feed through the internet at a remote location... I think they've been doing that for SCORE with varying degrees of success....???

Yes, the entire race will be broadcast from 12 different remote locations. We are using Exede. It's commercial level Satellite Internet for businesses. It's meant for static locations but gets 3 up and 18 down. We tested HD+ 5.2 Mbps Picture Quality on Friday. Awesome service.

At KOH we light up JV with a Microwave Network, encode the video signal, transmit to my Production Truck, decode and pipe it into a TriCaster. Cut the show like a live TV show and broadcast out to the net on a 60 mile Microwave shot to a fiber hub in 29 palms.

For NORRA we will have to do hard cuts using LiveStreams Broadcaster Pro upload box.

All in budget to do this, including labor and equipment is 10k. That's counting for a nominal fuel cost increase for extra flight time.

d

 

[TOOLBAG]

Awesome - coverage for those that can't be there is better than nothing.

 

[nimrod]

Look ma, I'm on TV!

Awesome job and best of luck!!!

 

[Simon_S]

You got this Dave! I'll be watching.

 

[jcarius]

Dave,

I love the way you guys manage to integrate technology with low level creativity. I've been thinking for a while how to use a vehicle-to-vehicle 'swarm' to be able to pass off data up and down a race course. The nerf? That is elegance in engineering right there.

 

[ONE_RJ]

Now all we need is a live Weatherman feed to listen too.


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[EMS702]

Looking forward to seeing this in action. Good luck. Would be fun to see this in Vegas to Reno, maybe less issues with mobile services.

 

[Fast Eddy]

Sounds awesome. Will you shoot awards?

 

[SuperRanger]

Awesome! Sounds like you have done your homework. I love this race and am glad it will have coverage


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[BANNED4LIFE]

cool idea dave.....ill be down to participate.....and maybe do a live update of the class 3000 shootout each day!!!!

 

[JayQC]

You had me at stuffing SD cards in nerf footballs and throwing them out of helicopters.

I'll be following this

 

[in2baja]

Dave, since our round-table NORRA meeting last week, I have spoken / comm'd with ALL my Pit Captain's & Team Leaders. With 6 very remote locations, and the potential for awesome feeds, if we can assist with ANY aspect of your real-time plan, we are / they are100% enthused and willing.

This kind of out-of-the-box thinking is both challenging and awesome. GOOD on you!

Bill @ MAG-7