Sidepodcast

YouTube announced an update to their stats pages yesterday, and although I’m still quite mad at them, statistics are something I can never resist.

We like a good pie chart here at Sidepodcast and YouTube delivers the goods with their latest update, in fact we also get our hands on some demographics we’ve never had the opportunity to see before - ages and gender.

First up I should say that this data set is slightly flawed, because it relies on viewers not only being logged into das tube, but also that they tell the truth in their profiles too. Additionally, it doesn’t account for viewers logged in as someone else (as so often happens here when I browse using Christine’s profile).

That said, the charts are of a certain amount of use so for the basis of this post I’ve picked stats from last week’s Turkey Preview video. It’s been live for almost 7 days and offers plenty of data to work with (at the time the screenshots were taken 4,478 unique views).

Let’s take a look at the demographic data relating to ages:

Of note, the two most popular groups are the 35-45’s and the 45-55’s. For some reason I imagined we were targeting a younger audience, in fact the group I thought we’d be targeting is the 18-25’s but that’s one of the least popular age brackets.

Following on from this we can peek into the world of the Sidepodcast viewer’s gender:

Here we see a significant proportion of the viewers being male, but I’m slightly surprised that the female viewership isn’t greater. Certainly a quick look on sidepodcast.com shows that three of the top five commentors are female.

I’m not sure what we can glean from this information, whether it tells us more about YouTube’s user demographics, our own viewer demographics or those associated with Formula One in general? As we don’t have this information for our own downloads, we can but guess. What we can do is return and compare these figures against future shows.

If you have any theories or spot any trends I’ve missed, do let us know in the comments as always.

I don’t want anyone to think that I’m obsessed with Formula One television coverage, but when I saw this fantastic demo the other day, the only thing I thought was - Bernie needs to see this:

If you play the video and sit back, all you’ll see is a ride on board a VW Beetle around what I’m assuming is New York City. However, grab your mouse, click on the video and drag for a few seconds and then the thing really comes to life.

360° interactive images have been available on the web for years and years, but to the best of my knowledge they’ve all been static. You could look around a room, or you could get a nice panorama from a cliff top. I’ve never seen them be interactive and contain motion before.

Take a Look Around You

The technology that enables the above visuals has been developed by a company called Immersive Media and they’ve created a housing containing 11 lenses called the Dodeca 2360. It’s about the size of a small ball and I think FOM needs to buy about 20 of them.

Imagine watching an onboard shot during a race and being able to spin right around to see who’s following or who’s to the side. Envisage being able to watch the start of a Grand Prix from the center of the pack in 360°. Or catch an overtaking manouvre, but instead of seeing the beginning from a reverse angle and the end from a different one, you just follow all the action in one sweeping pan. The possibilities are endless.

Pan, Tilt and Zoom

There might be one spanner in the works though, in that as far as I can tell the technology only allows for post-processing viewing, so no live action as yet, but that’s bound to change soon and in the meantime even using it for replays would be a major step forward.

Incidentally NASCAR already use something along these lines, although their’s appears to be a single lens on a motorised platform and could easily miss much of the action. Additionally only one person can control that camera’s direction, but when everything is recorded from every angle, anyone can look anywhere.

How much would you pay to be in control of your own race viewing, to be able to follow your favourite driver yet see so much more than they ever could? I’d put that right up there with the desire for high-definition coverage, what about you?

Prior to the Turkish Grand Prix the McLaren team managed to humiliate their number one driver by having him dangle from the rafters while a folkdance troupe performed below. Now say what you like about that particular fiasco, but at least it was original.

Unlike say, the idea of encrusting a racing drivers helmet with some expensive diamonds, just in time for the Monaco Grand Prix, which, for some reason has something of a familiar ring to it.

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It’s been around for a while, but when Jenson revamped his website, a new feature appeared. The Design-a-Helmet section. The idea is you get to play around with a helmet designer, submit your fabulous piece of art, and then a winner will be chosen. The winning design will be on JB’s helmet for Silverstone.

I absolutely adore this idea, and I checked it out when Lou first talked about it in the comments, and promptly forgot. Now, I’ve just discovered it again, and thought it worthy of a mention.

Looks Okay In My Head

I’m not an artist. I always find I can picture things in my head but they never come out. Therefore, when I play with the helmet designer, it appears as horrible splotches of colour. Some of the people, however, are really doing an amazing job.

Wow.

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As pointed out by Scott in the comments earlier, RTL have released a 3D animation detailing Heikki’s crash at the Spanish Grand Prix.

The video shows the front left rim exploding, the tyre deflating and then the front suspension giving up altogether, before the car careers headlong into the tyre barrier.

RTL also created a similar sequence for Kubica’s crash in Montreal, so they’re getting pretty good at these. I don’t know if they have access to any specific crash data although it seems likely, but assuming this animation is accurate then that barrier deformation is somewhat frightening.

Okay, it was pretty much a given from the moment the BBC announced they’d acquired the rights to broadcast F1 in the UK, that HD was factored into the deal somewhere. But it’s nice to get some form of vague confirmation from the beeb anyhow.

Yesterday, the corporation’s head of HDTV Seetha Kumar posted a blog entry responding to consumer feedback regarding the channel’s recently launched Freesat service. One of the first questions answered was related to F1 and of this Seetha said:

Regarding F1, we hope that this will be available in HD as soon as possible within our new contract, but this depends on demand from other international broadcasters as well as from us.

So by the sounds of it, the BBC at least have the technology side of things ready and following the launch of Freesat, potentially everyone in the UK now has access to a subscription-free HD channel.

Take Your Brain to Another Dimension

On this subject Dominic Wells of The Times recently noted that in addition to any planned HD transmissions, the BBC are also investigating the possibility of showing F1 races in 3D.

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Race day in Istanbul, and unfortunately while it’s overcast it’s likely to remain dry throughout.

A key point of today’s race could well be the warm up lap, Ferrari have struggled to get temperature into their tyres in Turkey’s cooler climate and with Massa on pole you can expect a hard and fast lap from the Brazilian. Will it be enough though? The good news for Felipe is the run down to the first corner is short enough that he should be able to cover his position into the tight left-hander, the rest of the lap could be tricky though.

Further down the field we have Coulthard in a significantly better position then previous efforts, but can he avoid a first lap collision from the middle of the pack? And can Heidfeld come through the traffic from his relatively lowly qualifying position?

We’re opening this thread a little earlier than usual, so please let us know your pre-race thoughts and predictions. Tell us where you are and what you’re watching too.

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As very kindly pointed out by Kathi during live commenting earlier, FOM appeared to be trialling a new type of camera in the pitlane today.

Displayed without any fanfare (and completely missed by us) was this shot of Nico Rosberg refueling during qualifying this afternoon:

That seems like a pretty handy thing to have around, and you can easily see the engine venting is the toastiest area of the car, glowing white hot in the screenshot.

I’m surprised at how warm the tyres are in comparison to the engine, and it looks like the lower cross-section of the rear wing has taken a bit of a hammering from the engine exhaust.

Kathi has kindly uploaded a high quality clip if you fancy seeing it in action.