Tour de France 2020: SMT Powers the Ticker From Across the Atlantic Facility in North Carolina inserts AR, tracking and results graphics By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Tuesday, September 15, 2020 - 1:50 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The Tour de France is under way, and the world's best sports event for anyone with a case of unfulfilled wanderlust is being produced in a completely new way by rightsholders and their production partners around the globe.
Lee Brinson at work inserting graphics for the Tour de France from SMT's Durham, NC office.
Over the years, SMT has become a big part of NBC Sports' Tour de France effort, which traditionally would involve three mobile units onsite: a main production unit, an edit unit, and a truck for the studio show. Those three vehicles would be part of the Tour de France circus, rolling from town to town, stage to stage.
In a typical year, Lee Brinson, director, special events, SMT, would be part of that cavalcade along with SMT staffers. SMT powers the tickers as well as any insert or key graphic that has any type of data on it.
Whether it's stage results, sprint results, speeds in the group, any insert graphics are ours, says Brinson. There is a [character generator] at NBC Sports that does more of the editorial things. We also do the iso tracking pointer on the rider.
This year, Brinson's forgoing the food and wine of France for home-cooked meals in North Carolina and a daily commute to the office (albeit at very unusual commuting times).
Being on the Tour itself can be a bit like Groundhog Day, says Brinson: You wake up in your hotel, check out, figure out how to navigate the traffic, park, prep, and go through your normal day. Then you pack up the truck, get on the road, get to a new hotel, and start the whole thing over again.
COVID-19 has changed that (although it still can feel like Groundhog Day). This year, NBC has only a satellite truck, traveling from finish line to finish line to send video to Stamford, CT. All of the augmented reality and tracking graphics are inserted at SMT's broadcast facility in Durham, NC.
We are connected to NBC in Stamford via the internet, Brinson explains. Basically, NBC receives their video, patches that up, and sends it down to us.
What's interesting, he adds, is that the SMT machines are physically in Stamford and the operators are in Durham. Over the internet, we get our KVMs to our machines so we can control them. We also get all the returns so we can tie everything to the broadcast.
Data comes in directly from TVData, a Belgian company that has provided all the data for the Tour de France for a number of years. The results and peloton data are delivered to viewers, and the dimension data, for things like real-time gradient and speed, is integrated separately.
The group data goes directly from the TVData truck at the finish line to Durham, says Brinson, and we pipe it up to Stamford and our machines.
One of the challenges is bringing together multiple pieces of data from multiple providers and combining them into one.
Historically, operations on the Tour de France are a fairly tight affair in terms of spacing. But this year, says Brinson, two SMT production staffers are located in a space that normally holds upwards of 16 people. And the challenge for the team back home is that they can't just look and easily see what the producer and director are looking at.
You really have to follow them and listen to their voice to know where they are going, and then you also need to pay attention to the announcers, says Brinson. It's about knowing where they are going and anticipating what they're going to talk about. Hopefully, we have the same reaction time that we would if we were there in person.
That need to listen is all the more important because it isn't possible to have access to 20 video feeds that are available at a glance in the production truck on the Tour.
The Tour de France is part of a super-busy slate of activity for the SMT Durham facility (as well as its Jacksonville, FL, operation). The company is still doing NASCAR and also did the Kentucky Derby, NHL playoffs, and football.
The Tour de France is such a unique race because there are so many different competitions within the race itself, adds Brinson. We can take the data and isolate each one of those races in a way that the common fan can know what is happening. There's the King of the Mountain race and a sprint race and a young-rider race. And we can explain that all with data.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
13/11/2026
The UIM E1 Series wraps its third season this week with the Bombay Sapphire E1 Miami GP, Nov. 11-14, on Biscayne Bay at the Miami Seaplane Base on Watson Island...
13/11/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
13/11/2026
Singer-songwriter Benson Boone will headline entertainment for the Discover NHL Winter Classic between the Utah Mammoth and Colorado Avalanche at Rice-Eccles St...
13/11/2026
Blackmagic Design has announced the Blackmagic Ambisonic Microphone, a 7th order ambisonic microphone array that captures spatial audio for immersive video prod...
13/11/2026
SMPTE has announced that The Studio B&H and Riedel Communications will provide the video infrastructure and communications technology for the Solutions Hub at t...
13/11/2026
The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) has announced the theme and program focus for the 2027 HPA Tech Retreat, which takes place Feb. 14-18, 2027, in La ...
13/11/2026
Football Manager 27 Touch is available on Apple Arcade starting today. The game ...
13/11/2026
MotoGP has announced a two-year media rights agreement with ESPN covering the Un...
13/11/2026
Apple Sports, the free iPhone app, has added the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to its lineup of supported sports, in time for Saturday's UFC 334. The...
13/11/2026
The NBA and Fanatics Studios, the joint venture between Fanatics and entertainme...
13/11/2026
ESPN held its annual EDGE Innovation Conference last night and offered up an ove...
13/11/2026
Regional sports network gives Ithaca College, SUNY Cortland students a platform to thrive
One of the biggest games in Division III college football will be pla...
13/11/2026
Studer-inspired 500-series PWM compressor unveiled
The HLabs range already includes a couple of Studer-inspired offerings in the form of the PRE169 and EQ16...
13/11/2026
Download Now!
To view the white paper, please enter the following details:
--
First Name* First Name
Company*
Country* Please select your countryA...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Blue Lucy, the workflow orchestration and integration platform for broadcasters, rights owners and localisation companies, today announced an integration with c...
13/11/2026
Krotos announces Black Friday offers on Studio Pro and Studio Max
Brie Clayton November 12, 2026
0 Comments
First-year annual plans start at US$195.99...
13/11/2026
Blackmagic Design Announces Blackmagic Ambisonic Microphone
Brie Clayton November 12, 2026
0 Comments
New 7th order ambisonic microphone with 108 MEMS...
13/11/2026
Meet the Berklee Student Setting Planetary Motion to Music With his compositional platform SoniKosmos, Javier Roqueni aims to make the universe the ultimate i...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , er...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , er...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Amagi, the media industry cloud company, today announced a partnership with Golden Times Media Technology (stock code 920021.BJ), a Beijing-based media and tech...
13/11/2026
CGI (TSX: GIB.A) (NYSE: GIB), one of the largest independent IT and business consulting services firms in the world, together with its Malaysian partner, Cedar ...
13/11/2026
SMPTE, the home for media professionals, technologists and engineers, today announced that The Studio B&H and Riedel Communications will provide the video infra...
13/11/2026
iWedia, a global leader in connected TV software solutions, will present its software-first approach to DRAM optimization at Android TV APAC Summit 2026 in Bang...
13/11/2026
Beginning today, November 13, Apple HomeView is available for purchase at Apple Store locations, on the Apple Store online, and in the Apple Store app in select...
13/11/2026
From pediatric research to smart hospitals, AI is helping care teams spend less time on routine tasks and more time with patients.
Health systems and startups...
12/11/2026
Industry leaders examine how Dynamic Media Facility, Media eXchange Layer, and c...
12/11/2026
The junior Tar Heel is embracing the technical and creative challenges of live production while emerging as a leader and mentor in the control room...
12/11/2026
Gracenote, Nielsen's content intelligence business, has released its fifth a...
12/11/2026
RTL Deutschland will bring the NHL to free-to-air TV in Germany starting Nov. 30...
12/11/2026
Clear-Com supported On Air 2026, a 24-hour student-led broadcast connecting 45 u...
12/11/2026
uniqFEED has opened a Remote Operations Center (ROC) in Madrid, Spain. It is already operational, delivering virtual advertising for LaLiga matches. The ROC is ...
12/11/2026
Disney, ESPN and the NBA will present Dunk the Halls, the third real-time animated NBA game using Sony's Beyond Sports data visualization technology, on Chr...
12/11/2026
Van Wagner has launched Van Wagner RELAY, a digital platform for official athlet...
12/11/2026
Deal brings together two of the industry's most established graphics brands and significantly expands Vizrt's footprint in U.S. sports and regional broa...
12/11/2026
Euro TV Production GmbH of Austria has upgraded its outside broadcast vehicle with Lawo technology. The mc 36 Classic console in service since 2019 was replaced...
12/11/2026
Tagboard has launched Spark Resize, an AI-assisted tool now in beta that takes an existing graphic and produces a new version for a different aspect ratio or sc...
Tour de France 2020: SMT Powers the Ticker From Across the Atlantic Facility in North Carolina inserts AR, tracking and results graphics By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
