Downtown Race
Tredz Downtown Race
MultiStream were commissioned to provide live webcast coverage of the second UK Downtown Race, the first time urban downhill mountain biking has hit Wales. The concept was simple; for professional mountain bikers to negotiate a hard-hitting urban mountain bike course as quickly as possible, with berms, steps and jumps in abundance to test rider skill and concentration.
Webcasting of extreme sports is becoming increasingly common, although it is believed to be one of first times that a complete mountain bike race in has been webcast live from the UK - and several hundred online viewers joined the thousands of spectators that made the trip to Penarth to enjoy the good weather to watch the action unfold.
The inaugural event took place at Bridgnorth last year and many may have seen the infamous Lisbon Downtown Race on TV and watched Gee Atherton beat a car to the finish line on Top Gear last year. Sirrah D Events organised the Tredz Downtown Race as it came to the leafy seaside town of Penarth in South Wales.
Over three hundred riders took part in the event; including some of the very best in the business – Nikki Whiles winning the Expert, Matt Simmonds the Elite and Tracey Moseley claiming the Women’s. Live commentary was provided by the ‘voice of mountain biking’ in the UK, Dan Jarvis.
Video and audio content for the live webcast was produced by Bay TV who also provided the big screen positioned at the finish line. The course began in the grounds of Penarth Town council’s Kymin House, with the faster riders reaching the finish line several hundred feet lower down the hill on the seafront by the pier in a shade under one minute and twenty seconds.
It wasn’t just the riders to whom the course posed challenges however – the event was covered by 6 cameras manned by willing volunteers from Universities across the region and an experienced Bay TV production crew undertaking the tricky job of covering a fast moving race with five riders or more on the course at anyone time!
The MultiStream crew used portable encoding rigs to take the live audio and video feeds and encode the live streams on site. The resilient encoding fees were then delivered to our global CDN, via specially installed ADSL2 circuits before being delivered to the eager viewing community across the Globe.
The event was open to riders of all abilities and Penarth Town Council Mayor Councillor Gwyn Roberts open proceedings by making the first decent of the course.
Highlights of the Tredz Downtown Race webcast are available on the Tredz Downtown Race website.
Picture Top Right - Jake Ward jumping the steps at the Kymin. Picture Middle Left - Camera operator in action. Picture Bottom Right - Ben Greenland crossing the line.