How IMS Productions and FOX Sports scaled coverage of the 109th Indianapolis 500.
The last lap of this year’s Indianapolis 500 delivered the kind of ending broadcasters pray for and viewers remember for a lifetime. A dramatic final straightaway pass settled the closest race finish ever, record-breaking 0.0233 seconds and most competitive races in recent memory, capping another exhilarating month of May at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
For IMS Productions and FOX Sports, the race also represented one of the largest and most technically demanding productions of the year, with more than 100 cameras, 32 onboard feeds, extensive replay resources and an expanding graphics package feeding into the live programme.
The race itself is one of the marquee events in motorsport and enjoys an iconic status in America. “It is a spectacular event,” says Jason King, Director of Engineering for IMS Productions. “There’s a lot of history and storytelling that goes behind it. It’s still, in large part, capturing the spirit of Memorial Day weekend. I can’t usually express to people how intense it is to hear 350,000 people when that Taps horn is playing through the facility and echoing across the grounds.”
The speedway’s grounds sit at a vast 559 acres, with the action taking place on a 2.5-mile rectangular oval racetrack featuring shallow banked turns and massive straights. “This year, we were just tipping just over 100 cameras for the show,” explains King. “Then you have all the replay channels and all of the onboards. We had 16 onboard cameras with dual paths simultaneously pulling two video signals. That gives us 32 feeds before you even start looking at clean and dirty versions.”
Managing all of those cameras and feeds, plus replay systems, graphics, telemetry and dozens of race-specific feeds is an expansive team operation; and a successful one, which King apportions to the burgeoning relationship between IMS and Fox Sports.
“The last two years with FOX being our partner, it really has felt different than any other network relationship I’ve ever had,” he says. “You can see their passion in what we’re doing.”
Bringing viewers into the car
That investment has been most visible in the way the race is presented on screen. Steve Dixon, Supervising Engineer and Engineer in Charge for IMS Productions, says that innovations introduced for this year’s race added a new level of immersion for viewers. “FOX brought in a lot of additional graphics packages this year, mainly to do with the onboard cameras, and it looked spectacular. The fans loved it.”
One system automatically tracks camera movement and adjusts graphics overlays as the onboard camera pans around the cockpit. “FOX has come up with a system that automatically keys in the “HUD” Graphic over the Roll Hoop camera as it pans. It makes it look like the graphic is actually there and part of the car,” he explains. “That ‘Top Gun’ look, or the driver’s-eye view, is really cool and everybody loves it.”
For King, developments such as these are fundamentally changing how audiences are now enjoying the sport. “You’ve never been closer to the action. Moving the camera down in the cockpit a little lower than it used to be, adding those graphics and bringing in more telemetry from the cars has changed how you experience racing. It really is taking you into the cockpit with the driver.”
Managing the growing workload
For many years, Grass Valley production switchers have been at the center of IMS Productions’ live production workflow. Indeed, King says that in all the years he has been involved on the broadcast side, Grass Valley has been the only car in the race. “We’ve never considered another switcher. It’s what our company trusts and it’s what our network partners trust.”
As the production has expanded, so too have the demands placed on the equipment supporting it. “We buy the biggest thing the Grass Valley guys make and we still suffer,” King jokes. “A lot of stick-and-ball sports fit perfectly within the available resources. Auto racing is different because we have so many unique sources.”
For the Indy 500, IMS Productions utilized its Kayenne K-Frame SXP-I system and asked for an additional loaner video processing frame. Grass Valley deployed a K-Frame VXP switcher to support sub-switching workflows during the event, something King suggests they may end up installing permanently.
“The sub-compact VXP came in and took care of all our replay switching and worked really well,” adds Dixon. “It allowed the main show TD to keep everything onboard-based in the switcher while the Tape Release TD handled replay resources separately.”
Even with those additional resources, the team was operating close to capacity. “Even with the VXP, they maxed out all 48 inputs,” Dixon continues. “Every onboard and replay is recorded, and we’re recording both clean and dirty feeds.
Kings adds that the technical directors want access to all available feeds, quickly. “They want everything at their fingertips: all the clean feeds, all the dirty feeds, all the replay resources. We can’t always give them everything, so we have to be smart about how we share those resources.”
The need for speed
The Indianapolis 500 may be decided in a matter of hours, but the production effort begins weeks before race day. Mobile units, replay systems, routing infrastructure and control facilities all need to be assembled and integrated within a tight operational window.
This year, FOX Sports set up a dedicated central engineering facility designed to streamline those workflows across the compound.
“It really is a game changer,” says King. “No more throwing things into belly bays and running cables across the compound. We were largely ready to go before they arrived because so much of the infrastructure was already connected.”
Looking ahead, Brad Cheney of FOX Sports sees IP workflows playing an increasingly important role in supporting future growth.
“Being able to have multiple Grass Valley switchers tied together and working cohesively in an environment that allows us to speed up production to meet the speed of racing is hugely important,” he says. “As we’ve embarked on this new IP world, we’ve done so knowing that we have a lot of opportunities over the next couple of years to really push forward with connectivity, flexibility and the creative capabilities we’ve been looking for.”
King puts it simply. “We’re moving fast. We’re growing fast. The sport’s growing fast,” he says. “We need our equipment to be right there with us and Grass is in for the ride.”
