Ubiquitous reach: World Rally Championship on creating fully flexible broadcasts with all available transmission technologies
World Rally Championship (WRC) will use mobile transmission technologies in 2025 to give its production teams more flexibility if issues strike their airborne RF squad.
“The fans want to see how the story unfolds and we need to capture it. Whatever circumstances are out there, if it’s really windy or if it’s really rainy, then maybe RF is influenced, but maybe we still get the signal out on 4G or we still get a satellite signal out. So whatever happens, we want to be prepared”
Currently, WRC uses a combination of relay planes and helicopters using RF, plus satellite and mobile network technologies on the ground. Looking ahead, it is working with its technical production partner NEP Finland to provide every aspect of its production units with all available technologies, including Starlink, to minimise disruptions and increase flexibility.
Increasing flexibility
Senior director of content and communication at WRC Promoter, Florian Ruth, explains: “Obviously we’re always trying to improve and stabilise our production. One of the biggest topics is to become, I wouldn’t say independent from, but to become a bit more flexible than only relying on planes. For example, at a few rallies we faced issues just due to traffic at the airport, holding patterns, or a plane arriving late at the stages, so we didn’t have onboard cameras relaying for some of the race cars, and so on.
“To overcome this, we are looking more and more at becoming independent from the plane,” he continues. “We don’t want to replace the plane, but we want to have an alternative, to have more options with 4G and 5G in the onboards, in the helicopter, for all our stage cameras and crews, all our line cut trucks – the OB vans at the stages that provide the pre-cut clean action feed – so they all have all options ready. So all our line cut trucks and all our mobile camera crews, they will have mobile units with satellites, they will have the RF links to send via the plane, and they all will have LiveU units together with Starlink to send over the internet.
“That’s what I’m heavily focusing on and what I’ve been developing with NEP Finland during this year,” says Ruth, “so that every camera position and every camera unit really becomes more or less independent from one source, to have several sources to get the footage so that whatever happens, we still get the footage out live”.
Investing in the fans
That investment is large, notes Ruth, but he adds: “But that’s what we owe the fans. The fans want to see how the story unfolds and we need to capture it. Whatever circumstances are out there, if it’s really windy or if it’s really rainy, then maybe RF is influenced, but maybe we still get the signal out on 4G or we still get a satellite signal out. So whatever happens, we want to be prepared.
“We’ve had those situations during the season a few times this year where we had issues logistically, where just the tower of an airport didn’t prioritise our plane as it was agreed, as we had booked it in and as we had paid for. And then we just suddenly last in the queue, while the stage starts and our plane is still at refuel. So what do we tell the fans?
“The fans want to see the rally car, because the championship is unfolding and for those moments, we just need to be prepared,” he continues. “Or we had really bad thunderstorms where the helicopter cannot fly and the plane is on the edge of the storm, and so on, but the rally still goes on. So we need to face all those conditions as well, and get our broadcast out.”
The WRC Central European Rally takes place from 17 to 20 October 2024