WATERLOO, Canada—World Racing Group (WRG) has livestreamed 550 dirt track races from 120 venues throughout the United States and Canada over the past year, contributing to the rapid growth of its DIRTVision brand, with the help of Dejero connectivity solutions, the company said today.
The streaming channel has depended upon resilient connectivity provided by Dejero’s EnGo mobile video transmitters, CellSat blended cellular and Ku-band IP satellite solution and CuePoint return video solution, it said.
“Dejero provides us with reliable connectivity and consistency from venue to venue, which has been crucial to our production of high-quality race coverage,” said Brian Dunlap, director of broadcast services at World Racing Group. “Using this remote production workflow, we were effectively the first in the entire world of motorsports to take a premier series and live stream every event.”
Dejero’s CellSat blended bandwidth capabilities enabled WRG to livestream nearly essentially all its premier racing schedule year-round from a record number of venues as well as push raw feeds back to the WRG studios in Concorde, N.C., with predictable latency, it said.
“Traditionally, races were streamed from tracks using encoders on site, but we were limited by available internet connection,” said Dunlap. “By using Dejero connectivity, no matter where the venue, we can produce live shows, add graphics and final-mix the audio, transmit to our studio and then distribute a high-quality, fully packaged product to OTT platforms for viewers to watch around the world.”
WRG has expanded its mobile production fleet over the past five years, adding two vans with 16-foot trailers and a flight kit to its 26-foot truck. Currently, it is building another 26-footer. Each is outfitted with a Dejero CellSat blended cellular and KU-band IP satellite system as well as the company’s EnGo transmitter, switchers, audio gear and cameras, it said.
It also has deployed Dejero EnGo transmitters at 10 racetracks around North America where WRG has built production facilities to broadcast weekly shows. The EnGos encode video and transmit WRG clean switcher feeds, most via fiber with cellular networks used as backups, it said.
“Since we’ve enhanced connectivity and our production capabilities through Dejero solutions, more dirt track race rights holders have approached us to put their events on DIRTVision - and in turn the DIRTVision brand and the appetite for dirt track racing around the world has significantly increased,” said Dunlap.
“At one point, DIRTVision was strictly web-based, and now we have apps on every major platform from iOS to Android, to Samsung, to ROKU and more. As a result, our audience are exposed to races year-round; it keeps them engaged and now our average subscriber is now buying more tickets to see an event live compared to this time five years ago.”
For about 200 larger events, WRG also used a Dejero CuePoint return video server, which sends low-latency, live program video feeds to the director onsite for confidence monitoring to ensure synchronization of graphics and commercial placements over existing shots, it said.
Two Dejero WayPoint receivers are located at WRG’s studio in North Carolina where final production, including graphics and commentary, take place. The WayPoint devices reconstruct and decode the video feeds, which are entered into a matrix to be shared with the switcher and replay systems. The packaged video is then distributed to DIRTVision’s OTT platforms.
More information is available on the company’s website.
