Various sponsors and contractors have attempted live GPS-to-TV geotracking for the past three years of ATOC, with no success whatsoever. This year, TV Producers Hatch Entertainment brought in a completely new cast of characters with a new approach, and in a remarkable display of brute-force engineering, we have got it working consistently despite atrocious weather, numerous FAA ground stops of the relay aircraft, high winds wreaking havoc on equipment, and other obstacles.
GPS transmitters out on the course in race vehicles transmit NMEA sentences to aircraft overhead, which relay it up to 100 miles via RF to an absurdly huge crane in the TV compound. This piece of the puzzle is performed by 3G Wireless of Severn, Maryland. The data is then dumped out RS-232 to Broder's Skunkware, which relays it to servers at Adobe via internet for preliminary processing. Partially processed data is then pulled back via internet to an Adobe AIR app (written by an Adobe programmer) on the producer's desk in the TV truck. The producer can associate any of the various data streams with the rider(s) or group of his choice. The producer can also choose one of several different views, such as "course map" or "profile". The final step is feeding the producer's work into an AKISPORT GS2 character generator, which generates the on-air graphic.
ATOC's TV production is being aired live on VERSUS in the US every day for 9 days. It is also going out to > 100 countries on worldfeed, out on the Armed Forces Network, and is aired all day long on webcast at AMGENTOUROFCALIFORNIA.COM
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