SUPERCARS will introduce a major change to its in-house broadcast production model starting with this weekend’s Darwin Triple Crown.
It’s not as extreme a hub system as seen for a period in the Shannons SpeedSeries (and other some other sports) whereby commentators operate remotely.
Rather, all television talent will be on the ground at Hidden Valley, with an array of behind-the-scenes personnel working from NEP’s Andrews Hub in Sydney.
“Basically, all the production staff that normally sit inside the OB (outside broadcast) van – so director, producer, pit producer, CCU (camera control unit), EVS (electronic video system) operators – they’re now in a production gallery in Sydney,” Supercars head of broadcast Nathan Prendergast explained to V8 Sleuth.
“And all those feeds of all those things that they normally control and manipulate from site are actually sent by two discrete 10GB fibre parts back to Sydney.
“So what it means is 32 percent of people will no longer travel and 68 percent of people still go to site.”
That shift has two substantial benefits, according to Prendergast.
“It opens up greater production opportunities because the digital team now that are located in Sydney, they can see all these feeds coming into the gallery so it opens up a larger opportunity for content creation,” he said.
“It is a big cost-saving too.”
And Darwin is just the beginning.
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“Ten of the 14 venues (on the current calendar) will be connected by the end of this year,” said Prendergast.
“Three or four are already done, but the rest will be complete as the championship rolls out. It’s a combination of Telstra and TV Plus doing the connections.”
The exceptions are set to be Wanneroo, Symmons Plains, Taupō and Ruapuna.
“And even though Bathurst is already fibre-connected, given the scale of it, there’ll be a portion of it onsite,” Prendergast added.