The Supercars Championship trophy. Image: InSyde Media
Supercars’ Driving Standards Advisor Craig Baird has a new tool at his disposal to monitor pit-to-car radio communications.
First trialled last time out at the Sandown 500, an Artificial Intelligence-powered app is being used to record, transcribe and store radio messages.
The app is the work of communications engineer Johno Harries, whose diverse experience includes a stint working on Supercars broadcasts through partner Gravity Media.
It has been developed primarily to improve the use of radio communications in TV broadcasts, likely starting next year.
For now, though, Baird said it allows him to use radio messages in any recommendations made to stewards during races.
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“I already scan the radios, but I wouldn’t have access to recordings until post-race,” Baird told Speedcafe.
“This app records all the communications and spits it out verbatim in front of me. I can also go back and select any of them and either hear it or print out what they said.
“If something happens and I go back and push a time stamp or a lap, I want lap 23 and I want that car, that car and that car, that’s everything that was said on lap 23 by all those people.
“It allows me to use the radio messages in my recommendations to the stewards, where otherwise I’d say I’d heard it, but I didn’t have access to it until post-race.
“If I’d missed it or if stewards wanted proof that it was said, I couldn’t do that until after the race either.”
The technology will likely be rolled out in the Supercars broadcasts next year amid a significant shake-up of the technical side of the TV production.
An overhaul of various technical elements of the coverage is expected amid Supercars’ impending move from Gravity to NEP as its production partner.