Travelling Light
In the comments recently Trig pointed out Sidepodcast has a habit of making him want more gadgets and gizmos. It reminded me I was supposed to write a behind the scenes post about recent changes to our live setup. This is that post.
Know Your Limitations
Last year, around the time of Silverstone testing and the British Grand Prix, we put in place a rudimentary system that allowed us to follow comments on this site, upload photographs and even stream some live video. In most respects everything worked as planned, but we found ourselves with an excessive amount of equipment to carry, whilst being severely restricted by battery life. Additionally as soon as a website thread hit more than 500 comments, it became nearly impossible to load it over the air.
For 2009 we intend to solve those issues and improve our coverage, without breaking the bank.
Keeping it Real
More by luck than judgement, the real time commenting system that was introduced to help us follow conversations during a live show, actually appears to solve the limitations we experienced connecting via 3G.
Previously it was necessary to load a whole thread’s worth of comments just to catch up on the most recent submitted entries. With the new system however, we’ll be able to quickly access only the latest comments and add to the conversation with the minimum of fuss. The amount of data transferred is relatively small (and we’re working on reducing it further), which means costs should also be lower than before.
With no effort whatsoever, the commenting limitations can be ticked off our list.
No Expense Spared
Reducing the amount of hardware we carry was a bigger problem, but technology marches ever forward and thankfully costs continue to fall. The picture above details our revised hardware line-up for 2009, which is smaller, faster and better in so, so many ways.
I should point out that the Sidepodmug is in shot only as a guide to the relative size of the surrounding equipment. It provides no purpose other than to contain liquids, and we’ve no reason to carry it anywhere.
Paranoid Android
Although Christine’s mobile phone did a reasonable job of tracking comments last year, she returned from Silverstone with very sore thumbs. Thankfully her contract expired recently meaning she could grab herself a brand new HTC Googlephone, free of charge and for the same monthly rate. With it she gets a decent keyboard, a proper web browser and improved 3G connectivity. It ticks all the boxes in terms of cost and productivity, but it’s pretty much the same size as the old one.
On the photography front, a compact Panasonic LX3 was purchased recently at a handily discounted rate – which earns it points on the cost front. It’s much smaller than the usual DSLR we carry around, took good pictures at the recent trip to Red Bull’s factory, but struggled with the shadows at Williams HQ. We’re still 50/50 on whether we should rely solely on the compact during this weekends Autosport International outing, but its size makes that a tempting prospect.
Lastly we have the laptop. I can’t explain how unbelievably heavy the old Windows machine was to carry around, but by Sunday at Silverstone my back was in agony. On top of that, the damn thing lasted for just an hour on a single charge, meaning I was lugging a brick around for the best part of the day.
To improve matters, we bought a cute little Asus Eee PC, which has a tiny screen and an even smaller keyboard, but features a built in card reader for transferring pictures, and a USB slot suitable for an already owned 3G modem. The machine comes with a poor version of Linux pre-installed, subsequently upgraded to the latest version of Ubuntu, but we’re still suffering some teething troubles on that front. Thankfully the device has a runtime of about 6-7 hours on a full charge, plus it’s lovely to carry around. The downside to the Eee PC is the purchase price, which we could probably have done without.
When All Else Fails
So that’s a long winded way of saying outdoor things should see an improvement this year. Nothing is perfect by any means, and we’re still planning to keep Christine’s mother-in-law on hand back home to ensure we can relay messages via telephone and keep in touch with the site if everything else fails.
We have no solid solution for video streaming as yet. The process is battery hungry and 3G bandwidth is limited, but it’s on our list of things to address in the future.
If you’re attending any F1 related events this year, please do let us know what equipment you’re planning on taking and if there’s anything you recommend we should be using or need to consider.
Incidentally, if you have a relatively modern mobile phone, the Real Time Doohickey is excellent for keeping up with the flow of conversation around these parts, whether attending races or just away from your desk for more than say, five minutes.
You shouldn’t let him...
Both, and add happy to the mix as well.
January 5th, 2009 at 17:20 #1 - Lukeh said:
I found that a really interesting read for someone who’s still catching up with how you guys operate and what you do.
January 5th, 2009 at 17:32 #2 - Alex Andronov said:
Oooh I like the look of that Lumix. Mmmmm. Would you recommend it?
January 5th, 2009 at 17:42 #3 - Alex Andronov said:
It’s funny that in the review you link to for the camera it says, “The autofocus system is also extremely impressive, both for its speed and for its amazing low light ability, which is among the best I’ve ever seen. It has a small and not terribly bright AF assist lamp, but even so it is able to focus in almost total darkness seemingly as fast as it does in daylight.”
January 5th, 2009 at 17:48 #4 - me said:
yup. haven’t tried many other compacts though, so best seek additional advice.
my favourite moment with it so far, is the face recognition technology. i aimed it at the red bull faces for charity livery and it went completely mental
January 5th, 2009 at 17:50 #5 - me said:
if you were really, really close to a subject then maybe. but it’s useless when faced with a collection of dimly lit f1 cars.
January 5th, 2009 at 17:55 #6 - Alex Andronov said:
I have been suggested something by Cannon but personally I have an undefinable preference for Panasonic and Lumix. No real idea why. Katherine has a Lumix DSLR.
January 5th, 2009 at 17:58 #7 - Alex Andronov said:
I think you really need this accessory for it Me:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/i-nique-Panasonic-Lumix-DMC-LX3-Dude/dp/B001KSG4CY/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1231178209&sr=8-5
It’s called a Dude bag!
January 5th, 2009 at 18:16 #8 - Christine said:
It’s called a Dude bag, yet it comes in pink!
January 5th, 2009 at 18:32 #9 - Flibster said:
Some “Dude’s” like pink…
For example – Graham Norton, George Michael, Julian Clary..
January 5th, 2009 at 21:06 #10 - Andy Taylor - trying to break Lou\'s comment record one post at a time... said:
Playing with an ex-colleague’s camera last year we discovered that its face recognition was confused by upside-down faces and if you held your hand in front of one eye. It did a pretty good job on photos of people too.
January 6th, 2009 at 00:12 #11 - Alianora La Canta said:
My gizmo complement for Autosport and karting will be small:
My PDA (aka “the lean mean blogging machine”) – a HP iPaq hw6995. It’s really handy to have, and I plan to pre-load it with several items:
- a PDF map of the NEC in case I get lost again
- the route map from my house to the NEC
- a record of how I expect to get from the NEC to Birmingham International
- a record of how I expect to get from Birmingham New Street to the karting
- the PDF of the karting tips provided by Teamworks
- any other karting tips I find this week
- a list of information relating to who is coming to the karting
- the terms of the karting event contract in case I need to reference them
- phone numbers for everything from my mum to Teamworks
- some music and documents in case I need to amuse myself
- my blog in “Favourites” in case I am tempted to spend a pound making a blog entry while I’m there
In addition, it has a basic 1.3 megapixel camera (quite good, but my dad’s cameraphone is better), Excel Mobile (in case I need to calculate anything), a picture gallery, a microphone recording facility (in case I’m dumb enough to try podcasting at the venue) and a sudoku game to stave off any remaining boredom.
That’s the only gadget I need, to be honest.
January 6th, 2009 at 04:48 #12 - Trig said:
Ha! Love it!
This might be a bit of a n00b question, but do you guys have a press pass to Grand Prix? You get access to areas and facilities that us mere mortals can only dream of?
January 6th, 2009 at 04:55 #13 - me said:
nope. twice we’ve been guests of usp content in silverstone, which has provided us pit access prior to the race. but holding an official pass for a combined total of 1 hour is as good as we get.
January 6th, 2009 at 07:07 #14 - Trig said:
That’s harsh… what criteria needs to be satisfied before you guys get press pass access? Have Bernie give me a call, I’ll vouch for you.
January 6th, 2009 at 09:58 #15 - Stuart C said:
Morning all,
X marks the spot where my shoes start to draw blood (about 150 metres from the hotel car park).
http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/accreditation/Pages/PrinciplesProcedure.aspx
What – is your name? What – is your favourite colour? Etc.
January 6th, 2009 at 10:11 #16 - me said:
do you agree with everything max says, and promise not to criticise the way he runs the sport in public?
how has the man not responded to jackie yet?
ooh, i may need new shoes.
January 6th, 2009 at 10:20 #17 - lou said:
maybe he is bidding his time before he releases a very angry response, or he is too busy coming up with stupid ideas for f1 to even read the papers or go online. Perhaps he was simply so stunned by what he read he has had to take some days of work to recover
i’m just guessing though 
January 6th, 2009 at 11:59 #18 - Alianora La Canta said:
X marks the spot where my shoes start to draw blood (about 150 metres from the hotel car park). {Stuart C – 3 comments ago}
Oh no! I think I will not be buying new shoes for the Show precisely because of the bedding-in problem. However, I will have nearly-new trainers for the karting (a bright blue pair – a most impractical shade, but they make me feel good and are easy to put on my feet).
May I also infer from this that you will be at the Show in your capacity as an F1 Racing staff member?
January 6th, 2009 at 12:01 #19 - Alianora La Canta said:
do you agree with everything max says, and promise not to criticise the way he runs the sport in public? {me – 3 comments ago}
I don’t think that’s necessary – I think you just have to promise not to bring the sport into disrepute. The trick is figuring out how that is interpreted by the powers that be and how to fit your own writings into the boundaries the powers-that-be implicitly set.
January 6th, 2009 at 12:01 #20 - Alianora La Canta said:
how has the man not responded to jackie yet? {me – 4 comments ago}
He probably can’t be bothered right now. Either that or he’s perfecting exactly how he will make a fool of himself this time.
January 6th, 2009 at 12:18 #21 - me said:
that’s not what jackie said yesterday.
January 7th, 2009 at 22:35 #22 - Alianora La Canta said:
that’s not what jackie said yesterday. {me – previous comment}
Stuart C didn’t appear to agree. But then again interpreting what the authorities mean by “not bringing the sport into disrepute” can be tricky at times…
January 11th, 2009 at 01:55 #23 - me said:
just thought i’d post a quick follow up comment.
predictably, the NEC’s wifi was beyond useless. the 3g modem and the g1 did the trick though.. we managed to keep up with comments and post images as planned.
the only flaw is the photo editor. gimp, is awful. we need a faster way to resize and position images on the fly, but that’s for the future. we’re v.happy with the way things turned out.
June 25th, 2009 at 00:27 #24 - Keeping in Touch | Sidepodcast : All for F1, and F1 for All said:
[...] already covered in depth changes made this year to our hardware setup. Whilst in the background, Sidepodcast commenting [...]