The Mint 400 is the oldest and most prestigious off-road race in America. The organizers wanted the 116-mile desert race to be captured from different angles, provide ancillary behind-the-scenes content, and expand the race’s reach.
Racing enthusiasts from Mad Media, a California-based production company, were tasked with creating a multi-camera production to cover different vantage points around the track. In the past, The Mint 400 has been live streamed using RF technology; however, “with several 4,500-foot peaks, there was no way to get point to point RF in those conditions.” In addition to the challenging elements, the lack of title sponsor for the event meant the production needed to be leaner and more cost-effective.
The production team was introduced to LiveU and immediately made plans to use it for their massive remote production, which brought in fixed camera views, live shots from two helicopters, and live coverage from race trucks to give viewers an inside look at the action. The team leveraged LiveU HEVC units and Xtenders, which offered more reliability and less bandwidth in the harsh desert conditions and in the air, where connectivity was scarce or non-existent.
The solution allowed the Mad Media team to capture the live content and send it to the onsite production facility, where the event was live-switched with graphics and commentary, then sent to the organization’s OTT and social media platforms. The Mad Media team recorded significant cost-savings and saw tremendous increases in viewership and engagement on the streams. This is a testament to the level of cinematic production they created with LiveU at the heart of the live streamed production.
“We invested in the LiveU technology to cover parts of the course we’ve never been able to show before. Our viewers are motorsport enthusiasts and don’t want to just see the commentators. We have to give the viewers the action and this year the production was a total game-changer with LiveU technology.”
Jason Markham Producer, Mad Media
