Taking the strain: Warner Bros. Discovery Sports on enhancing graphics with biometric data for the UCI Mountain Bike World Series By Heather McLean
Friday, August 8, 2025 - 09:54
Print This Story
Wearable tech company Whoop, the sponsor of the UCI Mountain Bike World Series, has been working from the beginning with the Warner Bros. Discovery Sports production team to provide biometric data that can then be interpreted into the live production
Live biometric data translated into graphics is a growing part of what Warner Bros. Discovery Sports is adding to its live broadcast of the UCI Mountain Bike World Series. As the host broadcaster working with technical services provider Gravity Media, Warner Bros. Discovery Sports formed the series in 2023 in a deal between itself and the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI).
Wearable tech company Whoop, the sponsor of the UCI Mountain Bike World Series, has been working from the beginning with the production team to provide biometric data that can then be interpreted into the live production.
Chris Ball, Warner Bros. Discovery Sports' vice president of cycling events, explains how this has evolved: Whoop is a consumer product, so that's been a really interesting and really good challenge to bring a biometrics health wearable onto a live broadcast.
In year one [2023], we brought in live heart rate, which was a development from a project that we'd run with the Giro d'Italia, bringing live heart rate from the peloton into our broadcast, continues Ball.
Because of the control we have [over the production of UCI Mountain Bike], we can bring much more to the production, and with the teams and the athletes. We brought live heart rate in, which was the initial step to really focus on how we get the data from the [wearable wrist] band onto the bike using Bluetooth, and then out wirelessly into the course and then into our broadcast graphics. Once we got that connection running and stable we use a lot of proprietary equipment that's not off the shelf we've started to embellish that with more data that we can take from these bands.
Warner Bros. Discovery Sports' presentation and reporting team are able to take advantage of the plethora of new graphics containing biometric athlete data at the UCI Mountain Bike World Series 2025
Taking the strain
In year two 2024 Warner Bros. Discovery Sports bought biometric data called strain' into the broadcast's live graphics to further explain the competitive nature of the sport to viewers. Ball explains what strain data consists of: Strain is a huge part of what the band [from Whoop] provides, which is basically how hard someone's working. It's a combination of different metrics: you've got heart rate variability (HRV), you've got heart rate, you've got respiratory rate, and it all comes into one thing called strain.
We brought live strain into working with Whoop, and their APIs into the broadcast, and now we've got live heart rate zones, because heart rate was one thing, but if your max heart rate's 170, mine's 190, and both of our heart rates are currently 140, you're working harder than I am proportionally.
Just the number of heart rate, which is what we began with, didn't necessarily give any context to the viewer, so we now show live heart rate in relation to zones, and we can go up to three riders at a time, head to head [with on-screen graphics] as of this year. So we could say, you're working in zone four at a heart rate of 140, I'm in zone three , and then the commentators can react to that and say, well, look at that, Heather's in the red, Chris is in the green, we're going into the last lap, so Chris has clearly got more in the tank to launch an attack .
Read more:
Watch out for trees: Warner Bros. Discovery Sports on developing a custom drone solution for the UCI Mountain Bike World Series 2025
Pushing creativity: How wild weather and rugged locations are inspiring new production solutions at Warner Bros. Discovery Sport for the UCI Mountain Bike World Series
2025 UCI Mountain Bike World Series attracts recordbreaking viewership milestones
Ball adds on live strain graphics: That's really fascinating because in downhill for example, we're seeing some of the best performances. The rider in the start has a very low heart rate they're super relaxed, super focused and then you see the heart rate increases as the descent continues. And in cross country with the Olympic format of an hour and 20 minutes long, who is where in the red and when and what are they going to do is really interesting.
Guy Voisin, vice president of cycling at Warner Bros. Discovery Sports, adds: The true innovations [of this broadcast] are the capture network to collect the Whoop data on track live all the while the race is on. The collection of the Whoop data to our servers, sent back to the main Whoop servers, and returned to us in a matter of seconds, permits us to give insights to the viewers about the racing athlete that has been unseen before.
We can examine relative effort in the strain gauge, compare athlete effort spent, stress on various athletes and finally heart rate live and historical throughout the race, continues Voisin. We can also examine the recovery of the athlete throughout the weekend, how well have they prepared through the race.
2025 has seen Warner Bros. Discovery Sports bring in head-to-head graphics for the UCI Mountain Bike World Series, and also getting the teams and the manufacturers for the mountain biking industry involved in the broadcast through graphics
Head-to-head
2025 has seen the broadcaster bring in head-to-head graphics, and also getting the teams and the manufacturers for the mountain biking industry involved in the broadcast through graphics. We
North America Stories
06/12/2025
In a live broadcast from the Reagan National Defense Forum, L3Harris Chair and CEO Christopher Kubasik joined Morgan Brennan on CNBCs Closing Bell: Overtime. Ku...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Introducing New Perks to Help You Get Even More from LinkedIn Premium Published on Dec 5, 2025 Categories: Company News, Product News
LinkedIn Corporate Co...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
04/12/2025
Coronal mass ejections caused by eruptions on the surface of the sun can have fa...
04/12/2025
Gracenote Content Connect enables media ecosystem to precisely align ad campaigns and programming based on rich content signals
NEW YORK - December 4, 2025 - N...
04/12/2025
Lightware, a global specialist in AV connectivity, is looking back on a year defined by new advancements, strong collaboration and continued growth. Across the ...
04/12/2025
Riedel Communications today announced a new partnership with Haivision, a leading global provider of mission-critical, real-time video networking and visual col...
04/12/2025
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) and Normann Engineering today announced a major milestone in their strategic collaboration, celebrating 20 successful broadband deployme...
04/12/2025
Creative software developer Foundry today announced Mari 7.5, the latest iteration of its artist-friendly paint toolset that can handle large, detailed assets w...
04/12/2025
Professional Wireless Systems (PWS), a leading provider of wireless audio solutions and RF management, was on site at Dreamforce 2025 in San Francisco providing...
04/12/2025
LTN's purpose-built IP video network brings all-movie diginet to over 100 stations and streaming platforms in just three months while eliminating satellite ...
04/12/2025
Bitmovin, the leading provider of video streaming solutions, today announced a strategic partnership with ThinkAnalytics, the global leader in AI-powered data a...
04/12/2025
The HELM, a global expert in cinematic live broadcast and high-end production workflows, has signed a partnership agreement with Keslow Camera, one of North Ame...
04/12/2025
At ISE 2026, LiveU will showcase its expanded IP-video EcoSystem, enabling broadcasters, sports, production companies and pro-AV professionals to share their st...
04/12/2025
Since the beginning of commercial television, advertising has been a key part of broadcasting. Over the years, the technology for inserting ads into programs ha...
04/12/2025
MUNICH and MILAN Warner Bros. Discovery said HBO Max is expanding into Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein on Jan. 13, 2026, and ...
Taking the strain: Warner Bros. Discovery Sports on enhancing graphics with biometric data for the UCI Mountain Bike World Series By Heather McLean 
