23 replies to this topic

[Keith Tanaka]

Last year Cheater did the first live webcast (that I know of) of a slotcar race. It was a milestone in our hobby.
Since then, Cheater has done several more webcasts. I did my first webcast last December. This January, Cheater helped me do a webcast of the 2010 Checkpoint Cup at BPR. Since then, I've done 2 more webcasts.
Our hobby is in dire need of more exposure to slotracing fans as well as the general public. Slotblog and some other websites have done a good job of covering slotracing. Live webcasting is a relatively new media for slotracing and should help promote our hobby.

This forum/thread will hopefully help others to start their own webcasts of slotcar racing. The more webcasts online, the better it is for all of us.
Also, I would like to solicit any comments/advice/opinions on making webcasts more effective, i.e.- attract more viewers.

Later, I will post some of my experience on how to do a webcast. Or better yet, maybe Cheater can also chime in with his experiences with webcasting.

So far, I've encountered problems with webcasting, mostly to do with insufficient upload bandwidth. That's tech talk that simply means I needed more internet speed when uploading the webcast to the internet.

Live webcasting of slotcar racing is just beginning, so I expect to see a lot of improvement in the broadcast quality in the future.
Keep in mind that so far we are only doing "free" webcasting, so it doesn't compare to commercial or professional webcasting.


Keith

[Dennis David]

I love the webcasting because I feel that I am there but I would also like to see something that is edited as well. Is that possible with the software/service that you are using?

[68Caddy]

I agree with you Dennis, I fell that the stationery cam is not following the live action and Keith is absolutely right about the speed
of the upload is not there, but hell its free.
Maybe someone needs to be there to change the angle of the cam when the action is changing?
Hell I still had fun watching the show but it had it's limitations. Its not like Keith has a camera crew
on hand to make this a full production, I think he has his hands are tied up with taking pictures and give us
a great race report time after time.

Nesta

[Keith Tanaka]

I agree with you Dennis, I fell that the stationery cam is not following the live action and Keith is absolutely right about the speed
of the upload is not there, but hell its free.
Maybe someone needs to be there to change the angle of the cam when the action is changing?
Hell I still had fun watching the show but it had it's limitations. Its not like Keith has a camera crew
on hand to make this a full production, I think he has his hands are tied up with taking pictures and give us
a great race report time after time.

Nesta

Nesta, in most cases, there's probably only one person doing the webcast. This limits how much camera action/movement you get during the webcast.
I tried to use two channels at the Checkpoint in order to have two webcam views at the same time. It worked for awhile until we had problems with one of the channels. It would be nice someday to have multiple webcams broadcasting at the same time. This would require more upload bandwidth (about 500kB per webcam). This approach would provide as many different views at the same time as you have webcams/channels.
I did see online a webcast of a drag race (JDS Nationals at T/R Motorplex) this past weekend. They have a nice permanent webcam setup with 4 cameras.
It displays all 4 views at the same time. It's very good, except each image is too small to see much detail.
Eventually, someone will have a nice one man webcasting setup which displays multiple views at the same time.

Keith

[MG Brown]

First of all Keith, thank you for starting this topic. I feel that it is a topic that can lead to interesting discussions if we keep a sharp focus on realistic and obtainable results.

I am not yet convinced that live video streaming is at a point where the production values can be high enough so it is interesting to watch or of benefit publicity-wise to slot racing events, but that's just my opinion and others are certainly welcome to their thoughts.

Having some small background in media, when people start talking about adding effects, multiple cameras, editing, etc. I have to wonder if they consider the manpower and equipment needed to produce these production values.

History has shown that it's difficult enough to get one person to volunteer to collect and publish still photos and results in a timely manner at most major slot racing events; I feel it goes without saying that it would be exponentially more difficult to have a larger, well coordinated crew with more responsibility at any given event.

The old maxim "follow the money" applies here- is there a benefit to the event organizers for sponsoring the webcasts? Can the organizers measure an increase in business from coverage or does extensive event coverage actually hurt future event participation and business?

To be blunt- I feel the money, equipment and talent isn't currently available to support anything other than the most basic video streaming of slot racing events at this time, and I don't see this changing unless there is some major leap in technology soon to be delivered.

Event coverage of any sort (live or pseudo-live) doesn't just "happen", it's a lot of work and requires a solid commitment on the part of the event organizers and participants as well as those putting forth the effort to deliver the coverage to the enthusiast press and or the public.

Having said that, I do think live event webcasting is interesting technically so I have been keeping an eye on the progress that systems such as USTREAM, etc. have made.

Lack of bandwidth to serve a high number of frames per second seems to be a key factor that holds back all but the most basic web streaming of live events of all kinds; if anyone finds a published guideline or similar information for bandwidth, etc. it would be appreciated if it could be published here.

[okibono]

wow....

Great thread Keith, and I will find you next time I am @ bp.

For the other folks, I will say this: The drag world LOVES the live streams that TR is doing for their big races. Can we see the pinstripes on the car? Nope. Can we see the grey hairs in the dudes handlebar 'stache? Nope. But is it a vast improvement over the previous methods (pics, 'net, blazin cell phones) of following a race you were unable to attend? Yes sir...

Keith, for BP's drag side, we were looking at 2 cameras, one on the top end to show the results, and one on/behind the the starting line showing the contestants or one facing the contestants prior to the start of the race. What cameras did you use? And how did you hook them all up?

Great stuff here...

[Keith Tanaka]

wow....

Great thread Keith, and I will find you next time I am @ bp.

For the other folks, I will say this: The drag world LOVES the live streams that TR is doing for their big races. Can we see the pinstripes on the car? Nope. Can we see the grey hairs in the dudes handlebar 'stache? Nope. But is it a vast improvement over the previous methods (pics, 'net, blazin cell phones) of following a race you were unable to attend? Yes sir...

Keith, for BP's drag side, we were looking at 2 cameras, one on the top end to show the results, and one on/behind the the starting line showing the contestants or one facing the contestants prior to the start of the race. What cameras did you use? And how did you hook them all up?

Great stuff here...

Octavian, for the Boola Bash drag races I had one webcam behind the drivers at the starting line and another camera (camcorder) showing the finish line result.
Both of these webcams were connected to my Macbook Pro laptop. Using "uStream", I switched from one view to the other. It worked ok as you can see by the video recording: Boola Bash drag races

Keith

[MG Brown]

And then there are the situations where bystanders stand in front of and block an unattended camera, people who try to have an unrelated conversation with the camera operator if it is attended ("are you filming this?"), or subjects just "stand there" thinking that a still photo is being taken.

So far I haven't seen someone holding up a sign saying "John 3:16" during a slot racing webcast, but I am sure it's coming. Maybe they will substitute "Gilbert 3:16" (with a tip of the hat to "Stone Cold" Steve Austin).

[Marty Stanley]

Keith,

I thank you very mucn for putting the forum on Slotblog. I think if we all work together to put more webcasts up, perhaps we can draw in folks to slot car racing.

One of the big problems, in my opinion, is that there is NOT enough information out there. As an example; I raced as a sponsored racer from 1965 thru 1967. Then the USAF had me go to work for them, and I spent 3 plus years out of the country. When I returned to life as a civilin, there were no slot car raceways any where in the northeastern United States. A few years later my new wife and I moved to Vlorida and have been here since 1974. I was a Field Service Engineer for a large telecommunications manufacturer and traveld all over our start for several years. I was in towns large, small and tiny, but never did I see a slot car raceway, nor did I hear of one.

Then in 2007 I was out with my grandson driving to the Home Depot to pick up some supplies to make a semi-permanent layout for the SCX Comaact slot car set I had bought us for his birthday. As we pulled in, there was a sign, "Slot Car Racing" so I had to go and check it out. You can imagine my amazement when I walked into a mid 60's looking commercial slot car raceway. It was then that I found out slot car racing still existed and had been quite active ever since I was in Florida.

That would tell me that either there is not enought information being given out - at least it was in my case - or folks just are not responding.

Now that we have this low cost method of 'broadcasting' live slot car racing, I think it's fantastic. I was going to get my feet wet in January, but the raceway's data feed was not stable and I decided that I'm not going to waste my time if it is not what it should have been.

However, on March 27th, we are having our 2nd GRRR racing event at the same raceway and I've been told that we will have 1 GB transmit rate right in the building. If that is the case, then we'll be on the air for the race.

I just itching to read your article on how to make this happen and I want to take your process and follow it to put the 2nd GRRR race 'on the air' on march 27th.

Once again, thank you.

[Keith Tanaka]

And then there are the situations where bystanders stand in front of and block an unattended camera, people who try to have an unrelated conversation with the camera operator if it is attended ("are you filming this?"), or subjects just "stand there" thinking that a still photo is being taken.

MG, too bad we can't get the viewers to yell at the people in front of the camera to get out of the way
If only Skype could handle a lot of people at one time, then the webcast audience could be interactive!

Keith

[Keith Tanaka]

Now that we have this low cost method of 'broadcasting' live slot car racing, I think it's fantastic. I was going to get my feet wet in January, but the raceway's data feed was not stable and I decided that I'm not going to waste my time if it is not what it should have been.

However, on March 27, we are having our second GRRR racing event at the same raceway and I've been told that we will have 1 GB transmit rate right in the building. If that is the case, then we'll be on the air for the race.

I just itching to read your article on how to make this happen and I want to take your process and follow it to put the second GRRR race 'on the air' on March 27.

Once again, thank you.

Marty, as soon as I have time, I will try to post on Slotblog a how-to on live webcasting. Of course, Cheater and anyone else out there is welcome to do the same.

Cheater has found and used a better way to broadcast video by using Adobe FME (Flash Media Encoder) along with uStream. FME provides a smoother video feed than the standard ustream video feed. It only works with PCs (or Macs using Bootcamp with Windows).

Here's Cheater's webcast of a recent SERRA race which shows a better video feed using Adobe FME with uStream:

Cheater's webcast

As long as the upload internet speed is fast enough, the jerkiness of the webcast will be reduced significantly using FME.

Keith

[Cheater]

Keith,

Thanks for persevering with this idea, which you mentioned to me some time ago. I got busy with some other things and just forgot about it.

I am going to create a Webcasting subforum in Tecnical Info & Advice and will move this initial thread there.

[Keith Tanaka]

Thanks, Cheater, for creating this subforum just for webcasting.

Keith

[Cheater]

You're welcome, Keith.

BTW, I was definitely not the first to try to webcast a slot car race. It has been done before at a few of the wing car races. But when I stumbled on the uStream website, I realized webcasting was going to be a lot easier than in the past and decided to give it a try at the last Sano.

I'll try to post the procedure I use with the Adobe Flash Media Encoder when I have the time.

[Marty Stanley]

Cheater,

Thank you very much for this and all that you do for Slotblog!

You are appreciated.

[Tex]

Dallas Slot Cars has jumped on the webcasting bandwagon also, having webcast several races now.

At DSC, the race director (DSC owner Shontel Howard) is the person also directing the webcast. She has a laptop in the race director's stand, showing the webcast; when someone stands in front of the camera, she let's them know to move! Of course, we act like clowns when the camera is on, sneaking up from off-camera and slowly rising up with bug-eyes about 6 inches from the camera.

[Dennis David]

Please don't take any of my contents negatively. I love what you guys have done for those that can't go to the races.

[Pablo]

Just my 2 cents worth,
For some weird reason, I get a bigger kick out of watching the lap counter monitor than I do watching people. Maybe a split screen with views of both lap counter and the track would be nice ?

[Keith Tanaka]

Just my 2 cents worth,
For some weird reason, I get a bigger kick out of watching the lap counter monitor than I do watching people. Maybe a split screen with views of both lap counter and the track would be nice ?

Pablo, if BPR ever gets a faster internet service we'll be able to have "2" webcast channels at the same time. One would be the race monitor and the other would be the track view. This would provide the internet viewer with both screens available to watch at the same time. During our recent webcast of the D3 Western States at BP, I was able to use three webcams and switch between them by using a program (Camtwist) with my MacBook Pro laptop.
Hopefully, some day in the future we'll have HD webcasts which would rival regular tv broadcasting quality. It's certainly possible, but too expensive to produce at this time.

Keith

[Pablo]

Cool. When I was watching Nesta reel off fast laps in the C main, it was like a slot machine addiction, watching the monitor. I was, like, holy cow, look at Nesta go !! Much better than watching fuzzy people !

[Tex]

Much better than watching fuzzy people !

I dunno, Paul; depends on what you do that makes them look fuzzy.

[SlotCarsten]

Hi Guys.

Let me take this opportunity to pitch my LapMaster program and its unique feature the "LiveTiming".
LapMaster is first and foremost a very capable slotcar lap counting and race administration program.
However when you combine it with the internet, it becomes awsome. The "LiveTiming" feature allows you to mirror the counter directly on the internet in clear text and graphics. No hard to read webcam picture of the monitor.
You might have seen what we did for this years national wingcar championship at Dallas slotcars.
With LapMaster it dosn't take anything else than a homepage to do LiveTiming. You can virtually set it up from LapMaster at the push of a button. You don't need any servers or other fancy computer stuff.
A simple 64kbit upload internet connection will be fine.

If you also want to have full web-cam video and chat, you can use the LapMaster/UStream setup. UStream is free and reasonable simple to work. You sign up for a free account at www.UStream.tv
Press "Broadcast" and answer "yes" to allow UStream to access your webcam, and you are "on".
(Running UStream requires a bit more upload capacity though, minimum 256 Kb/sec per channel in my opinion. You get better quality with higher speeds. viewers also need the receive speed to match.
If you also broadcast the race monitor instead of using the LiveTiming, then double the requirements.)

To integrate UStream with LapMaster, you select the "Full video/UStream" option in LapMaster, run the setup wizard again, and copy the "embed codes" you get from UStream into the files you are prompted to edit, and presto, you
have a full scale LiveTiming/Video/Sound/Chat system running on your own home page.

Furthermore you can have LapMaster automatically publish all results and statistics the second the race completes.
All it takes to do that is a checkmark in the LapMaster setup.

And by the way, we first did "LiveTiming" at the Danish Plafit Championship in 2008, but ofcause no webcam at that time, they have been added since.

To have a look at LapMaster you can download it from www.slotcarracing.dk/LapMaster/LapMasterPR.htm

Best regards,
Carsten Groennemann.

[SlotCarsten]

Hi again.

There is one very important part that have not been talked much about in this thread.

The chat.

Having worked intensely with these issues for a number of year, I have found that the chat feature that comes with UStream is very rewarding.
In particular doing the Wing car championship in Dallas this year, the chat was extensively active with comments from fellow racers all over the world.
Really for all of those that could not attend in person, the Video, the liveTiming and not the least the chat, made all the difference. It was literatly the next best thing to
actual being there. I for one think I made a lot of new slot frinds at the chat.

Best regards,
Carsten Groennemann.

[Tex]

AND you get to hear a nice female Danish voice tell you when you have a track call, how much time is left, etc.! If ONLY Miss Cristina's visage could accompany the voice... (sigh)... there's be a lot more track calls for sure!