Want a clearer view of Valentino Rossi, Ben Spies or Casey Stoner while watching MotoGP this season?
New for 2010, the MotoGP Championship will be broadcast in full HD, allowing fans around the world to watch 18 races in complete clarity.
The series’ organizer, Dorna Sports, has put many years of preparation into this HD debut, considering MotoGP involves a bit more HD camera work due to the miles of racetrack, helicopter shots, pit garages and the riders/bikes themselves. According to MotoGP, the biggest challenge thus far has been on-board cameras, and “Dorna together with Gigawave are working to develop these extremely sophisticated cameras.”
According to MotoGP, in 2010, RTL Club (Belgium), Eurosport (France), Sport TV (Portugal), Digisport (Hungary) and Viasat (Scandinavia) will all broadcast the MotoGP season in HD within Europe. The worldwide reach of MotoGP in HD will stretch as far as Speed TV (US), ESPN (Latin America), Globosat (Brazil), One HD (Australia), StarHub (Singapore), Sky (New Zealand), Al Jazeera (Middle East), ESPN Star Sports (Asia) and Supersport (Africa), with further HD broadcasters expected to come on board during the season.
"Working alongside the most recognized sports broadcasters worldwide and being one of the leading motorsports championships, we have a duty to stay abreast of all the emerging technologies which help us to capture the speed and adrenaline of MotoGP" said Manel Arroyo, Managing Director of Dorna.
3D
In an exciting development, the evolution of the delivery of MotoGP in even more lifelike quality may not stop at HD. With 3D cinematography already being successfully pioneered in the world of cinema, the same technology is now poised to revolutionize sports broadcasting. Last year at the Red Bull US Grand Prix at Laguna Seca and in conjunction with the 3D and digital systems specialists Vince Pace, Dorna Sports carried out a successful trial of the latest HD 3D Fusion camera systems.
For 2010 the Pace team, led by John Bruno who was part of the Visual Effects team involved in the Academy Award winning Avatar film, plans to produce a documentary. This will feature images captured during the MotoGP season, and channels broadcasting in 3D such as ESPN and Sky have already shown interest in delivering such coverage of the sport.
