[doolarsva]

Frem the press release.....

Stages from this week’s Rallye de France Alsace will be streamed live and exclusive on the World Rally Championship’s official website, wrc.com, as part of a pilot project to investigate future digital opportunities for the all-action series.

[doolarsva]

"...
World Rally Championship promoter North One Sport has made a substantial investment in the trial, which will be used to test the latest camera and streaming technology as well as to gauge the appetite among fans for live online coverage and more interactive content.

The pilot is also the first test of a new partnership between North One Sport and digital specialist, Streamworks.

Around 14 hours of coverage is planned, spread across Friday and Saturday’s competition, with the action available to view free of charge on a web media player accessed exclusively from the home page of wrc.com.

The coverage on Friday (30 September) will run between 1300hrs and 2000hrs (local time), with action from Saturday (1 October) shown between 1245hrs and 1930hrs.

On both days content will consist of interviews and atmosphere from the service park and the end of day press conferences. This will be mixed with stage action shot from two helicopters and by cameras mounted inside the rally cars. English and French commentary will be available.

“The digital landscape presents numerous opportunities to further expand the reach of the World Rally Championship and this experiment is a big step forward in our plans to develop formats and content to suit,” said North One Sport CEO, Simon Long.

“We have made a significant investment to get the project to this stage and it’s exciting that we are now ready to try and turn the theory into reality; however it’s important to make clear that this is a trial first and foremost and we expect to learn a great deal. This is unchartered territory, both technically and in terms of programming, but it’s a vital stage in our development plans for the next 12 months"

[pataagusata]

don t bother guys.The wrc.com will break down as always.

[bMc8F9ZI]

It will be worth the look I think.

[olivelappers]

don t bother guys.The wrc.com will break down as always.

It's impossible to watch any of their videos during rally days.

[UpperMan]

Everyone place your bets. How long will WRC.com be functional after 12:00 (GMT) on the 30th September?

[NeroASERCH]

10$ on the server going down, prove me wrong wrc.com.

[VEGLAS - SPB]

Everyone place your bets. How long will WRC.com be functional after 12:00 (GMT) on the 30th September?

Haha
Anyway, am I wrong or wrc.com already did something like this (but smaller coverage) with the 2009 Rally Norway?

[TeksPaisimi]

My £5 is on a blackout just as it looks like Ogier is going to take the lead from Loeb (of course that should coincide with a strike of French technicians)

[pprropeciaaa]

don t bother guys.The wrc.com will break down as always.

lol this was my first thought also.

[Vedun*]

...what about broadcasting like the Fia GT1 World Championship does with DailyMotion? No "crashes", good video quality!

[Appeselve]

...what about broadcasting like the Fia GT1 World Championship does with DailyMotion? No "crashes", good video quality!

I did wonder about that, same as Blancpain Endurance series. Or what about YouTube on the wrc.com channel??

[Vedun*]

For all who doesn't know that, it's something like this video: Dailymotion - GT1 Championship Race from Beijing Watch Again - une vidéo Auto et Moto

[Appeselve]

Audi & Peugeot show the LMS/Le Mans races live on their own websites. Something that Ford, Citroen & Mini could do???

[Vedun*]

Audi & Peugeot show the LMS/Le Mans races live on their own websites. Something that Ford, Citroen & Mini could do???

It's much more expensive to broadcast in that way. IMHO Dailymotion (or, better choice, YouTube) would be a live streaming more "viral" than developing an own website

[xquFzpNw]

Using WRC.com is good idea. all their sponsors are there and they do not depend on any other programs. Eurosport has a good server base and it does not happen too frequently that their coverage is down. It is because they are specialized to broadcast events over the internet. I am not too good in IT but as far as i have understood the main problem is the location of their servers. To my knowledge, to give good quality all over the world you need to spread your servers accordingly. One to Nordic countries, one to western Europe and one to central, one to Asia and one to US probably. Then those servers connect to main server and I as Nordic user am going to connect with Nordic server. Then we can spread the load of those servers geographically. Idea is basically simple, but it costs a lot to establish and costs little more to maintain servers in many locations all around the word. But it should fix the current problems pretty easily.
Sorry, but my knowledge on IT, especially servers is not too good :-)

[Vedun*]

^^

That's interesting...

[VardyCodarexyz]

Will be interesting on how the actual coverage is handled. The amount of talking heads on camera or lack of them. Does this mean that Colin Clarke will have to prove he has a face fit for live TV? Will Becs get a formal studio to broadcast out of, to look nice on camera or remain in whatever space they find for her?

[NumsAmenniams]

I think its pointless to do any comments until we see what is on offer...I hope they focus more on the event rather than in service interviews.

[Hoijdxvh]

+1