4K Seeks Its Place in Auto Racing Coverage

[dfergie]

OTTAWA—Few sports are as demanding to cover as auto racing, be it NASCAR, IndyCar or Formula One.


Meeting “the need to cover speed” has led to the development of highly specialized video cameras, typically provided as turnkey systems by the companies who make them. They include Broadcast Sports Incorporated’s (BSI) wireless-connected in-auto cameras for capturing shots of the drivers and views from their perspective; RoboVision’s remotely-controlled robot cameras—with pan bar controls that allow them to be remotely operated like conventional pedestal-mounted cameras—and Vision Research’s Phantom high-speed cameras, which can shoot and capture video at up to 2,500 fps.
Today, auto racing is being shot in 720p, but 4K is beginning to make its way into the picture. “In fact, we’ve begun experimenting with 4K cameras for most of our NASCAR long shots,” said Mike Davies, senior vice president of technical and field ops for Fox Sports. “The extra resolution helps us digitally zoom further into the pack, to get 1080p-quality images. That said, we are still trying to figure out what place 4K has in motor sports.”

tvtechnology.com

 

[harshness]

Imagine the bandwidth requirements of up to 43 cars with aiming and self-cleaning capability on one or more cameras.

Small cameras with the processing power to make that happen are surely astronomical in price.

Something like 4K can do fine on optical disc with no practical limit on the amount of forward-looking compression technology applied, but when you have to compress things in real time it requires a quantum leap in power.

 

[navychop]

Very high bit rates. Processing - well, you nailed it.


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