As Formula 1 heads to Italy (16-18 May) for the first stop on the European segment of the 2025 calendar, the broadcast operation will once again be managed remotely from the F1 Media and Technology Centre (MTC) at Biggin Hill, some 20-miles southeast of London.

Over the past few years there have been some major and ongoing upgrades to the MTC, a facility which is constantly evolving with upgrades driven by a strategic move toward IP workflows. Upgrades and expansions happen at the MTC rather than at racetracks, enabling more controlled, scalable tech integration.

Indeed, systems used at the track such as AR tracking and now RF are coordinated and processed through Biggin Hill.

Formula 1 executive director TV production Dean Locke explains:  “We’ve got the main RF control here now this season, so it’s all managed centrally. That means we can keep track of who’s using what frequency and make sure everything’s working properly before it even gets to the track.

“We are continually developing [MTC]. Certainly, over the winter we’ve done quite a few things as part of our roadmap to IP. And so that’s a long process really, but it means we now have new cameras, new vision mixers. They’re all fully IP now.”

IP upgrades are central to the shift in content production and distribution, especially for UHD workflows. And IP enables smoother, faster delivery with less technical overhead, for example in relation to format conversions.

“It’s still SMPTE 2110 inside here at the MTC, and then when we go out of the building it gets compressed down to JPEG XS and then sent to the track. But it enables us to transfer those UHD content a lot more efficiently because you don’t have the need to convert it all the time.”

The Master Control Rooms (MCRs) have seen improvements in both monitoring and hardware.

And collaborations with key partners such as AWS are helping to optimise live broadcast and streaming services.

“Our digital MCR has had a bit of a tweak, and our broadcast MCR has had a bit of a tweak. I say tweak but I’m sure our engineering department would call them fundamental changes!”

Read more

• F1’s Dean Locke on getting closer to the action with drones, new camera angles and more team radio
• F1’s new Ghost Car comparison feature aids broadcaster race analysis
• F1 TV Premium offers UHD HDR and multiview in new era of personalised race viewing

The 2025 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, Italy, takes place Sunday May 18