CCRN (That's Chump Car Radio Network)

[ChumpStang]

If you read every "Race Report" that John posts on here, what is the one thing you ALWAYS see? People asking questions. Whether the questions include "What car is the number XX?" or "What happened to the number YY?" or "What were the final standings?", etc. I thought of an idea this weekend while the radio chatter of corner workers was "broadcasting" a turn by turn coverage of a great battle between the Blitzen Benz and the Meal Time Honda: Why not do a Chump Car webcast? Have a laptop with a webcam and mic hooked up, and broadcast races over a website like, say, tinychat.tv or whatever. I wanted to put this idea out as a feeler to see how much interest it would generate. We already have a crew to do it set up, and we can buy the necessary equipment, we just want to know if it would be worth the expense (and driving time to go to races to broadcast) to do so. So, fellow Chumps, what say you?

[chisek]

I will be attempting to run a webcast at Sebring next week. It all depends on the internet connection. We were all set up to do this at Roebling but we couldn't get an internet connection. Sebring should have one so we will see how this works. Can't promise any commentary though....

[Jeff G 78]

There is a LeMons team that does a wonderful job at the races they attend. They do a live webcast the whole weekend. They conduct interviews with the judges, comment on the race, etc. My favorite part is that there is a live chat throughout, so viewers can ask the cameraman real-time to follow a specific car. It costs them a bunch of money to do it, but people do donate to the cause. Depending on the track, their bandwidth is usually the limiting factor, but the quality can be pretty decent at times. I've seen as many as 250 viewers at once following a race. The chatting gets crazy.

[Guest TroubleOnWheels]

I will be MORE THAN HAPPY to support anyone that is going to try something like this for ChumpCar. For the obvious reasons that we all share (lack of time, money, resources) ChumpCar can't do this ourselves right now, but if someone wants to coordinate with the staff somehow just let me know!

[chisek]

I will be MORE THAN HAPPY to support anyone that is going to try something like this for ChumpCar. For the obvious reasons that we all share (lack of time, money, resources) ChumpCar can't do this ourselves right now, but if someone wants to coordinate with the staff somehow just let me know!

Great, you just volunteered yourself for Sebring. I'll set it up and you man the camera. Make sure you catch the Camaro in one of it's 4-wheel drifts.

[ChumpStang]

Erik, from how I imagine this working, we would provide a lap top, camera, and mic to do the webcast itself. What we'd need from Chump Car would be 2 (maybe 3 later on down the road depending on how this bird flies) headsets to have the guy running the computer keep in touch with our "field reporters" that would be watching the race from around the track and talking to teams in the pits. Also, we'd want to set up the lap top/etc. in the tower so we could have an overview of the track for the commentator and also be able to watch your timing computer to keep a live running order.

[Guest Sparky the ZomBee Racer]

Erik, from how I imagine this working, we would provide a lap top, camera, and mic to do the webcast itself. What we'd need from Chump Car would be 2 (maybe 3 later on down the road depending on how this bird flies) headsets to have the guy running the computer keep in touch with our "field reporters" that would be watching the race from around the track and talking to teams in the pits. Also, we'd want to set up the lap top/etc. in the tower so we could have an overview of the track for the commentator and also be able to watch your timing computer to keep a live running order.

This is good.

[Jason]

I love it! Man I hope this works out.

[Guest TroubleOnWheels]

Great, you just volunteered yourself for Sebring. I'll set it up and you man the camera. Make sure you catch the Camaro in one of it's 4-wheel drifts.

No, I'm the beer drinker. Um, I mean no, I have a job to do.

Erik, from how I imagine this working, we would provide a lap top, camera, and mic to do the webcast itself. What we'd need from Chump Car would be 2 (maybe 3 later on down the road depending on how this bird flies) headsets to have the guy running the computer keep in touch with our "field reporters" that would be watching the race from around the track and talking to teams in the pits. Also, we'd want to set up the lap top/etc. in the tower so we could have an overview of the track for the commentator and also be able to watch your timing computer to keep a live running order.

Yeah.... so some of this will work. We could give someone a radio that is on the track frequency, but they wouldn't be able to ask questions or interject commentary (i.e. control radios are pretty sacred ground). None of our people have the time/bandwidth to be talking with the live reporters. Live timing is available to everyone with a laptop at most tracks.

Maybe I should re-phrase: I'll be happy to help anyone get set up in such a way that they can do this themselves

[Jeff G 78]

FYI, the LeMons crew that does live broadcasts was told that the track frequency cannot be broadcast. I guess it's because you never know when they have to call for an ambulance because a driver is in deep trouble. This rule came from the tracks, not LeMons staff.

[ChumpStang]

No, I'm the beer drinker. Um, I mean no, I have a job to do.

Yeah.... so some of this will work. We could give someone a radio that is on the track frequency, but they wouldn't be able to ask questions or interject commentary (i.e. control radios are pretty sacred ground). None of our people have the time/bandwidth to be talking with the live reporters. Live timing is available to everyone with a laptop at most tracks.

Maybe I should re-phrase: I'll be happy to help anyone get set up in such a way that they can do this themselves

Okay, some adjustments:

1) The guy walking around with a headset would not be doing any commentary, just reporting anything he sees or hears.

2) Would it work if we tuned the radios to a different channel than race control?

3) I just meant have the broadcast computer set up within eyeshot of the timing computer, so the guy doing the broadcast can keep an eye on the running order.

And FYI we will be using a 4g internet card for our internet, not stealing any bandwith you would be using.

[SoFlachump]

Hope your internet card will work at the track, some phone services have little or no reception at all. The track does have its own wifi but there is a lot of dead spots all over the track area. I think it costs like $10 a day or so.

[Guest VRO]

All the tracks we visit, and some (like TMS) are high rent, we've never had solid wifi at more that spitting distance from the club house/lounge/offices.

That said, I'm all for this if it can be made to work. Cost factor included.

[ChumpStang]

We are hard at work to try and make this work. There are definitely some potholes to fill, and no doubt some of them of decent size. But we're really trying hard to make it happen.