Ready For High Definition Formula One
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.
Yes, three-dimensional television, the kind where we’ll get to sit on our sofas wearing a daft pair of glasses, although hopefully they’ll be slightly more subtle than the red / green cardboard variety popular with cinema-goers in the ’80s.
The wheels are apparently in motion and Dominic points out that:
The BBC made a test broadcast of the Six Nations rugby in HD 3D, and plans to do the same with Formula One.
It’s beginning to sound like there’s more to this new rights deal than meets the eye.
Apparently Bernie’s also turning up to every race this year with a new broadcasting facility described by some as a “tented town” such is the vastness of the operation. This appears to be reminiscent of Formula One Communications digital television facility (dubbed ‘Bakersville’, after the guy that ran it) that debuted during the ‘96 season.
Back to Bakersville
Bakersville was ludicrously ahead of it’s time in terms of both technology and consumer requirements, but a number of events are pointing to a comeback.
For example Digiflag, F1’s much vaunted electronic marshaling system - which is due to debut this year in Singapore, but has already been partially tested and was visible during last Sunday’s race - has coincidentally been in development for the last decade, with the original plan presumably being for Bakersville to control it.
It’s taken over ten years but finally consumer demand has caught up with Bernie’s original vision, and although he appears to be taking it more steadily this time, the plan for a cohesive broadcasting operation coupled with an integrated and intelligent circuit management system, at last looks to be coming to reality.
Digital Switchover
As a final thought, while television broadcasts have taken a whole decade to catch up with Bernie’s ideas, the Web has literally exploded during that same timeframe. Of course once you’ve got your data as zero’s and one’s, putting it online is but a trivial process.
The business model still needs to make sense of course and that depends on consumer demand, which takes us right back to Seetha’s quote.
May 13th, 2008 at 4:34 amDan Brunell said:
Not the biggest fan of Bernie but this is a nice development. I think HD technology has proved itself quintessential to any sports broadcast. Earlier this year they showed a outdoor hockey game (which was played in a snow storm) in HD and it was absolutely mind blowing. I cannot wait to see the first race in the wet with a HD broadcast. It’s going to be awesome.
Since they are reviving previous ideas, how about the commercial free subscription service that they had a few years back. I would gladly give the same for F1, commerical-free in HD as I would for the current NFL (American football) “Sunday Ticket” package that I pay every fall. Heck if that happened and was available in the stateside, I would almost be willing to forgive Bernie for the bad haircut, annoying daughter, curt/obtuse interviews, and for helping destroy F1 in America… well… maybe not that.
May 13th, 2008 at 7:17 amMy Sidey sense is tingling! said:
Time to go buy that Sony/Samsung 1080i LCD TV just in case we get that too. Or will I need a 1080 x 1080 x 1080 for 3D? Bring on Laser television.
May 13th, 2008 at 8:10 amJourneyer said:
This is one of those times when you acknowledge just how much of a marketing genius Bernie can be. Mind you, it doesn’t always show, but when it shows, it shows itself to be absolutely brilliant.
I second Dan’s idea on commercial-free F1. But I think that will largely depend on the willingness of the local broadcasters to do it. (like RTL’s Premiere PPV Channel in Germany - which is basically what’s left of Bernie’s old Digital F1)
May 13th, 2008 at 12:18 pmAlianora La Canta said:
Hopefully this means that Bernie has finally figured out that pitching race prices way too high on TV leads to few viewers, especially when the idea is new.
HDTV is unlikely to affect me in the near future (my house has trouble getting digital through an aerial and planning rules prevent the analogue dish being replaced by a digital one), but it is good that F1 is catching on to the new technologies.
May 13th, 2008 at 6:03 pmMacLaren said:
Hmm…I wonder…3D F1 races and news that Danica Patrick is looking to get a test ride in F1…hmmm coincidence?
*wink*
May 13th, 2008 at 6:34 pmSteven Roy said:
What we really need is TV coverage with proper noise and I don’t just mean no James Allen and while I am in wildly optimistic mode proper racing smells. Because the noise (and the smells) are an important part of the experience.
May 13th, 2008 at 6:38 pmDan Brunell said:
There is a Christine/a-certain-french-driver(s) follow up joke here but I dare not say it.
Danica is a talented driver and hope she does well. With that said, I don’t see the appeal in the looks department.
May 13th, 2008 at 6:44 pmDan Brunell said:
That is a good point. Is F1 presented in some sort of surround sound like THX or Dolby Digital? I don’t have a system, (on the list of toys to get) but interested if F1 has gone down that route.
It would be awesome to mike up the track and do those track-embedded cameras that NASCAR seem to have.
May 13th, 2008 at 6:51 pmdp said:
As an American - and with great desire for an American F1 representative, I sincerely hope that it is NOT Danica. Listening to her radio communications is like listening to my 8-yr. old daughter whining about my 16-yr. old son.
She would not be able to handle the first turn of the first lap of any race. Can you imagine her post-race comments if she had experienced Kimi’s first turn at Turkey? She’d have started a war with Heikki over it.
May 13th, 2008 at 7:19 pmSidepodcastFan said:
Agreed….. It could happen but it would take a Grand of these…. how I would manage a room full of tire smoke will be an entirely different question?
May 13th, 2008 at 7:21 pmme said:
i’m inclined to agree… quite like her sister though.
*runs and hides*
May 13th, 2008 at 7:24 pmme said:
play havoc with the smoke alarms that would.
as for the question of sound, i have no idea, apparently it’s very good during the cinema screenings though, so hopefully they have that covered too.
May 13th, 2008 at 7:30 pmChristine said:
If you’re running from me, you don’t need to. I have my list already
However, I’m slightly worried that you don’t even know her name.
May 13th, 2008 at 8:06 pmme said:
brooke apparently… i just googled it.
May 13th, 2008 at 9:02 pmlou said:
So ‘me’ has a list too and on it are Brooke, and Vicky Butler-Henderson (from the British GP podcast).
May 13th, 2008 at 9:07 pmme said:
goddamn it girl you have one heck of a memory, even i’d forgotten that i liked her!
May 13th, 2008 at 9:08 pmSteven Roy said:
Erm, I didn’t even know she had a sister.
May 13th, 2008 at 9:15 pmme said:
there’s a pic in drop.io if you’re interested, not the best pic in the world though.
May 13th, 2008 at 9:21 pmSteven Roy said:
Does Brooke still race?
May 13th, 2008 at 9:25 pmlou said:
lol yep! When it comes to F1 and sidepodcast them my memory is not bad ;)… however as it turns out… its not good with latin :S
well kinda. observant enough to notice comment editting is not back yet, is it causing alot of trouble to fix the gliches, or whatever it had? any idea what day the weekly podcast will be out? just wandering! really looking forward to it. a nice 30-40 min relaxing break from revision! 
Im observant too!
May 13th, 2008 at 9:26 pmlou said:
Does this mean that Christine can put a pic of Franck on drop.io now?
May 13th, 2008 at 9:29 pmSteven Roy said:
Christine has a whole site full of Franck
May 13th, 2008 at 9:36 pmlou said:
Its still only fair there is a pic of Franck on Drop.io
May 13th, 2008 at 9:37 pmlou said:
yay! comment editting! Thanks ‘me’!
May 13th, 2008 at 9:51 pmme said:
cheers for reminding me, it’s gonna take us at least a week to fix the issues with live commenting, but the current solution, should be fine until then.
May 13th, 2008 at 9:55 pmlou said:
oh and i posted a pic of Franck on drop.io for Christine
May 13th, 2008 at 10:03 pmMichael Roberts said:
Anyone catch the “exclusive video cut” of the Turkish GP on Formula1.com? It’s probably the best one this year- more of a focus on the racing and less on the “beautiful people”.
May 13th, 2008 at 10:13 pmme said:
much better, there’s cars and stuff
May 13th, 2008 at 10:17 pmlou said:
Yep! i have! its great! I suppose sometimes they have to fill it out with ‘beautiful people’ cause there is not enough action. But Turkey was full of exciting overtaking etc so they had plenty of footage to include in the video.
May 13th, 2008 at 10:23 pmlou said:
I just realised (watching it again) Kimi really does not look pleased to be on the third step of the podium. He just seems to be staring, smiling slightly and rubbing/clapping his hands…..
May 13th, 2008 at 10:30 pmDan Brunell said:
Nice video..
BTW, has anyone been in the F1 store on the site? I am encouraged that they are offering things that people would actually want to buy (IE not carbon fiber mouse pads and that junk.)Even if half of the wears is Ferrari and most of the teams are missing, it’s a pretty good sign. Even those button down BMW shirts look pretty appealing.
May 13th, 2008 at 10:35 pmlou said:
yeah i saw that….its nice…but it would work best if it had merchandise from all of the teams. Not sure if it does now, last time i looked it was just afew teams.
May 13th, 2008 at 10:44 pmBruce McLaren said:
@lou - Kimi doesn’t always look that excited when he wins, so why would he make an effort for third?
I just watched the F1.com video - what a welcome relief that they are putting a proper edits package together. The first 1/2 of it still looked like a media friendly advert, but the remained showed some clear racing.
I live in New Zealand and we get the F1 covered by our pay-site SkyTV. We didn’t even get the race live this weekend - I had to cut work for a 3 o’clock screening the following day (remember they are usually at midnight). BUT it was screened without ads. Always hilarious to hear the ITV team ‘come back’ from an ad break in the UK - you get a lot of interuptions, that is for sure.
May 13th, 2008 at 10:59 pmlou said:
good piont. He just looked abit strange
it caught my attention. but yeah good piont
May 14th, 2008 at 2:35 ambrendan stallard said:
“the Web has literally exploded”
Me,
That is where it is going to be: and the TV companies are going to have to play ball, danged if I see where they are going to put the advertising though. I’m sure NOT going to pay a subscription price for an event to have it suffused with adverts. However: that has to be the way to go: because you can have the races whenever you want, local time is good: and old dogs like me who can’t manage to get up for 1 am for Australia: simply will download it like a podcast and watch it when I get up.
The one thing that does surprise me though: are most folks domestic tellys ready for HD?
Everyone and his dog is buying Big Screens, but are they all HD ready: and still further, is the wiring ready?
brendan
May 14th, 2008 at 2:36 ambrendan stallard said:
“He just looked abit strange”
Me,
On the podium: he looked ratsed off, completely. He was not happy with that result, the next couple of races could be very interesting.
brendan
May 14th, 2008 at 10:29 amJourneyer said:
I’ll take it one step further: at the post-race TV unilaterals, while Felipe and Lewis were answering Peter Windsor’s questions, Kimi was at the side, minding his own business. In fact, he seemed to be preoccupied with… well… cleaning his nails, I think! He spent a good minute or so making sure they were all clean. Check the videos over at YouTube and you’ll see what I mean.
May 14th, 2008 at 6:36 pmlinks for 2008-05-14 » vee8 - a Formula 1 blog said:
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