Race Day Streaming Video availability????

[Elmo Zoneball]

Does anyone know what the status is of real time streaming video of the Races for this year?

The info on the cmuTV website is ambiguous.

Can BAA bring any influence to bear to try to make it happen?

[swiftsam]

cmuTV's website is not up to date, but they will be streaming the races online again this year. We'll have a prominent link to the feed on our front page as we have before. We also plan on having a live chat room again to accompany the feed so that everyone has someone to banter with while they watch.

We (the BAA) would be happy to help improve the experience if there's something we can do. The technical requirements of streaming live to a big audience are probably better handled by cmuTV as they've done a decent job in the past and I wouldn't know where to start. If anyone has suggestions for cmuTV, I can pass them on, we're meeting on Thursday.

[Elmo Zoneball]

That's good news, and huge relief ..... thanks for the prompt response.

[TXDERBY]

What software was used to place the team names under each buggy at the start?

Ever considered using a satellite card on multiple PC’s with cameras and then using Ustream Producer to switch between each cam feed during the race (to eliminate significant Ustream “lag”). This is the multi camera approach I will use at the 2011 NDR race including the Ultimate Speed Challenge race (used a single cam on a PC during 2010 NDR nationals).

[swiftsam]

cmuTV's tech is pretty professional actually. They rent actual TV cameras (some of which are the same ones used to televise the Steelers games) and a big 30+ foot production truck in which they do the switching and mixing. I think the weaker part has been how that production gets streamed to everyone online. They used UStream last year but I think that was the first time they had used it and I don't know if that's the plan this year.

[lemuroid]

I have had a chance to look behind the scenes at the last 2 broadcasts and have come away amazed by the level of technology and professionalism that is applied the broadcast. (broadcasters aside)

I have no idea what the budget is for the event but the broadcast truck, jumbotron(s), cameras, cable runs, microphones, monitors, wireless mics, head sets, back channel communications and the camera towers have to add up to a goodly sum. Even more impressive is the amount of prep and coordination that the folks from CMU tv put into the effort.

We are lucky to have them and wrct helping to share the love on raceday.

[CrzRsn]

We also plan on having a live chat room again to accompany the feed so that everyone has someone to banter with while they watch.

Any plans for a mobile version of the chat room? I'd love to be able to follow the discussion from the truck.

[swiftsam]

like from your raceday uhaul truck? wow, you kids are really plugged in.

I'm open to suggestions of a platform that makes that doable. For the past two years we've used phpfreechat which did the job but is a bit old-school and not very scalable to mobile devices.

What cross-mobile-platform chat protocol would be viable? I guess there are IRC apps for everything and probably an embeddable web-client that I could set up. I'm a bit behind on my cmubuggy website work, but if you have any suggestions I might be able to make it happen.

[DeVos]

like from your raceday uhaul truck? wow, you kids are really plugged in.

uhaul truck? No, I want to be able to follow the commentary from the lead truck!