Epic TV coverage disappointing

[Pusher]

What happened to last nights highlights?

[Godzilla]

Jeez GoLefty !

 

You think Paul Valstar is GOOD ? Uses the lamest terms an cliches in the business ! He's probably the worst.

Paul Kaye & Gerald De Kok would make a great team.

At least Geralds commentary is at least articulate and somewhat eloquent !

PV is a great host at the finish line -BUT NOT a commentator.

[GoLefty!!]

Pauls imperfections made the commentary entertaining. Mike the Mike bungling through English made it even more so.

 

Gerald De Kok moonlights as a hypnotist

[kosmonooit]

They do, but not in rural mountain ranges over a large distance. Most of the stuff is from static zones, not roaming cameramen.

 

Re: RedBull media, I was talking mainly in terms of the quality of their streaming service, also their general production, and its free.

 

Live broadcasting en-route on a marathon obviously ups the game considerably in terms of technology / expense, helis must cost a fortune per hour. One option is to have a few stationery cameras at certain points, and/or how about live streaming from the riders themselves? Would just be a matter of a WiFi link signal, maybe one can have a few hotspots on tethered ballons.

[Danger Dassie]

Re: RedBull media, I was talking mainly in terms of the quality of their streaming service, also their general production, and its free.

 

Live broadcasting en-route on a marathon obviously ups the game considerably in terms of technology / expense, helis must cost a fortune per hour. One option is to have a few stationery cameras at certain points, and/or how about live streaming from the riders themselves? Would just be a matter of a WiFi link signal, maybe one can have a few hotspots on tethered ballons.

 

Have you tried live streaming mobile? It would be great, but it's nigh impossible on broadcast or streaming quality, even Dakar can't get it 100s. Battery life would be limited and who is going to ride with a full power pack and camera at an extra 5-10kg?

The WiFi alone would have to be huge bandwidth alone, not just a hotspot.

[kosmonooit]

Have you tried live streaming mobile? It would be great, but it's nigh impossible on broadcast or streaming quality, even Dakar can't get it 100s. Battery life would be limited and who is going to ride with a full power pack and camera at an extra 5-10kg?

The WiFi alone would have to be huge bandwidth alone, not just a hotspot.

 

I believe the technology is there for a HD stream from the athletes bikes en route - just takes some will, creativity and $ to put it together (yes I am up to the challenge).

 

You will only be streaming one link at a time, so some 802.11 connection will be fine, perhaps the rest will be sending bit maps (still pics) every few secs so you can at least see where they are, then you can command one for a least a 720p HD vldeo link (3.2M bps, 802.11n gives 320M bps)

 

There will be a network of tethered balloon wireless routers (that could be solar powered) to create the path back to home base. Google have been doing balloon based WiFi and I see Facelessbook wants to fly drones for the same purpose.

 

All the pros will have to ride with the rig, so that will level the field, I think you will be able to set up such a package that will last 5+ hours for under 500 grams, the miniaturisation in electronics continues unabated.

[CleatsnCleavage]

Jeez GoLefty !

 

You think Paul Valstar is GOOD ? Uses the lamest terms an cliches in the business ! He's probably the worst.

Paul Kaye & Gerald De Kok would make a great team.

At least Geralds commentary is at least articulate and somewhat eloquent !

PV is a great host at the finish line -BUT NOT a commentator.

Valstar is a frikking legend! Laugh a minute!

[Fox8]

600 teams @ R50k = a lot of money for better coverage I think.

[Danger Dassie]

I believe the technology is there for a HD stream from the athletes bikes en route - just takes some will, creativity and $ to put it together (yes I am up to the challenge).

 

You will only be streaming one link at a time, so some 802.11 connection will be fine, perhaps the rest will be sending bit maps (still pics) every few secs so you can at least see where they are, then you can command one for a least a 720p HD vldeo link (3.2M bps, 802.11n gives 320M bps)

 

There will be a network of tethered balloon wireless routers (that could be solar powered) to create the path back to home base. Google have been doing balloon based WiFi and I see Facelessbook wants to fly drones for the same purpose.

 

All the pros will have to ride with the rig, so that will level the field, I think you will be able to set up such a package that will last 5+ hours for under 500 grams, the miniaturisation in electronics continues unabated.

 

I've worked on film before, co-owned a stills/filming agency working with broadcast. The theory is sound, but for broadcast it doesn't work, it's been looked at by all the top production houses, locally and internationally for feasibility and it's prohibitive. Maybe in the future, but currently no.

Using solar for a full network system is high risk and unreliable, especially in the that terrain and climate fluc. No DoP/producer in their right mind would apply that infrastructure.

There is absolutely no way every pro can be made to ride with a rig either, no matter the weight.

 

Big big difference between integrating into a broadcast and high end production to what social media FB and Google do. The penaltys are a lot higher as well if the feed fails.

[kosmonooit]

Only punted the Solar Energy thing to make it 'relevant' ... 'green' and whatnot, Why not have the skin of the balloon made of flexi solar cells? reckon if could pump 500w at a guess when the sun is shining. But of course there will be decent batteries up there. Make even a remote controlled cam as well? Small WiFi routers, no problem, there are many, and lots of antenna options.

 

This technology is evolving / maturing rapidly, mark my words. Sven Nys was talking it up last year at the Vagas Cross event, but its currently not allowed by UCI apparently.

 

Why not get the riders view of things? can only add value, would be great in XC as a well.

[Danger Dassie]

I agree with you in principal. But it must be robust and 100% reliable with some kind of failsafe, even in the near future it can only realistically form a part of the total production framework, at great expense. There is potential and stuff like that will come, but it's just not quite there, yet.

[SwissVan]

I saw about 10 minutes of live coverage today on swiss tv, unfortunately i had to go running so could not watch it all. What i saw looked pretty good and i think u okes moaning are spoilt... its not a freakin rugby or cricket game inside a stadium and to compare it to the Big Tour's Tv coverage... well ja TDF and Giro are pretty good hard to beat BUT they have been doing it for a lot longer and i bet you their budgets are a LOT bigger.

 

[goya-goya]

@godzilla... Gerald De kock articulate and eloquent ??

 

Don't know which school you went to: "and -ah and-ah"... I want to vommit every time I hear him trying to figure out what to say... If you have nothing to say shut up... Think about what you want to say and then say it.

 

I've got issues... I know

[Johny Bravo]

@godzilla... Gerald De kock articulate and eloquent ??

 

Don't know which school you went to: "and -ah and-ah"... I want to vommit every time I hear him trying to figure out what to say... If you have nothing to say shut up... Think about what you want to say and then say it.

 

I've got issues... I know

Gerald is not too bad. At least he still rides. He is much better than Ashwin Willemse on super rugby commentary. Mind you, open heart sugery is better than Ashwin.

[Danger Dassie]

I saw about 10 minutes of live coverage today on swiss tv, unfortunately i had to go running so could not watch it all. What i saw looked pretty good and i think u okes moaning are spoilt... its not a freakin rugby or cricket game inside a stadium and to compare it to the Big Tour's Tv coverage... well ja TDF and Giro are pretty good hard to beat BUT they have been doing it for a lot longer and i bet you their budgets are a LOT bigger.

 

 

Once saw partial ARs for airtime slots on broadcast channels across networks for advertising around TdF .... billions tied up in that event.

[GLuvsMtb]

all in good time friends!

Soon the Epic TV rights would make live broadcasts a reality, but with that we will see a few changes:

- Expect the event to be cut to pro's only, with a cap on the numbers (like the Tour de France) of probably no more than say 240.

- Expect the non-pro's to have their own event

- You may even see a split in racing the Elites only and having ladies, Mixed teams, Masters and Grand Masters pooled with the non-pro's

- You will now have a situation where 240 will get reasonably good TV coverage as they would not be up to 5 hours apart on the course. The coverage of the rest of the field will then be very secondary.

- You will also see huge limitations on stage locations to ensure that live broadcasting equipment can be used. This will not make for the best / most rugged terrain, but it would look good on TV.

- Expect pro's that are outside of 15% of the winners time to be cut from the event. This way you can focus on the front 50% more.

- Expect riders to only start at 2pm in the afternoon so that they can finish around 6pm to maximize live TV and accommodate the European TV schedules.

- Expect transitions inbetween stages that will drive costs for non-pro's even higher.