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MillimeterHot Shot
Nov 1, 2008 12:00 PM,
Story by Bill Miller
Photos by David Egy
Producing interactive television for NASCAR HotPass.
Paul McCauley follows the cars around the track from the roof of the grandstands using a Sony HDC-1500 with a Canon Digi Super 86X field lens.
The action is directed in a cubbyhole about the size of an Amtrak sleeper berth. The producer sits in the middle chair flanked by his broadcast associate (BA) and director/technical director (TD). In a small closet behind them is the EVS operator. The producer watches the action on a large Sony monitor, which mirrors the touchscreen switching monitor manned by the director/TD, who does his or her own switching. There are different prebuilt layouts used on the switcher with code names such as “three-up” or “big left.” The touchscreen switcher software is proprietary to Reality Check Studios of Los Angeles. TD Stephen Toth tells me they can put multiple sources on the screen all at once.
In the other boxes, there may be one of four dedicated HotPass cameras or any of a number of other cameras being used by the network, including in-car cameras. During green-flag racing, the network will always be in the upper-right corner so the viewer always sees what is on the network air. There is also race information, stats, and telemetry coming from the track and the racecar. “It's the future of where TV is going to be,” Toth says. “[It's] a great way to put on a great show inexpensively. We do the job of three or four trucks.”
According to Kevin Dresser of Reality Check Studios, the guts of the switcher is a Thomson Grass Valley Kayak HD 1.5 M/E switcher. Reality Check Studios developed touchscreen software to control the Kayak. It also speaks to the Vizrt Viz Engine, a graphics platform with realtime 3D rendering. So with the punch of a button, HotPass wipes, driver wipes, dissolves, or effects wipes can be activated.
Broadcast Associate Patrick Armstrong is in charge of timing the show, keeping track of stats, and building and airing graphics.
Next door, in their own production trailer, are the audio and robo departments. Sumner Thompson, of Bath, Maine — one of four HotPass audio mix engineers — has been with the NASCAR HotPass since it started in 2007. The program is mixed on a Yamaha M7CL-48 board, which Thompson says was designed as a PA board but works well for this application with 48 inputs.
At home, a button on the remote allows the viewer to select a number of different audio feeds — including network announcers, in-car chatter between the four drivers HotPass is covering for that race and their crew, and the announcers assigned to the individual drivers. There is also the option of listening to the in-car communications of 12 other drivers in the race. Viewers can vote online on the Wednesday before the race which drivers' voice communications will be carried.
In addition, there are two race announcers for each of the four drivers HotPass is following; one sits in an isolated booth and calls the action, while the second is down in the pits where he or she can interview drivers and crew chiefs or get the scoop on what's going on behind the scenes. Thompson says a lot of compression is used to suppress the loud background sounds and let the announcer's words come through clearly. (It amazed me they could be heard at all. I was down in the pits reporting on this story, and it's astonishing any on-air reporters can do their job. The decibel level is beyond human endurance; as you enter the pit area, one of the security guards hands everyone earplugs. Did I mention the smell of fuel exhaust and burning rubber?)
Continue the discussion on Crosstalk the Millimeter Forum.