F1 2024: IP upgrades and the almighty challenge of a record-breaking F1 calendar By George Bevir
Friday, March 8, 2024 - 09:45
Print This Story
With a record-breaking 24 races in the 2024 calendar, this year's Formula 1 championship is set to be the biggest yet. Formula 1 director of broadcast and media Dean Locke spoke with SVG Europe ahead of the season opener in Bahrain last weekend, and explained how he and his team have been preparing for the bumper season which begins long before any driver or constructor points are up for grabs.
Testing is a full event we've just been on air last week for three days, each eight hours long so it's really 24 races plus one, which is an almighty challenge. But we've set ourselves up well; if we'd done this years ago, I think we would have found it very difficult. But we've set ourselves up very well logistically and by being cuter with some of our geographical calendar changes.
We've had conversations with broadcast partners and one-stop technical solutions that work for everybody and help to reduce the number of people and kit on site and makes everything more reliable is something we're going to develop this year.
This year, Formula 1 has made efforts to adopt greater calendar regionalisation, with the aim of simplifying the logistics involved in racing in locations around the world and in a bid to make the season more sustainable.
Also, the remote operation that we've got at the Media and Technology Centre means we don't have to move so much kit and people between races, says Locke. We're able to rotate crew so that some at the Media and Technology Centre and some people on the road, which gives us flexibility we wouldn't have had a few of years ago.
Between the end of the 2022 season and the start of 2023, there were major upgrades to the F1 Media and Technology Centre at Biggin Hill, which is some 20-miles southeast of London with the building converted to a remote centre. During the past few months, those upgrades have continued with enhancements to connectivity and distribution paths, plus a new replay system - all of which is part of four-year transition to IP.
Whether that's working with Tata on some of our connectivity paths and redundancies around that, or satellite provision because we have multiple paths we have significant connectivity from the track to Biggin Hill and then distribution from Biggin Hill to broadcast partners and the likes of AWS and IT partners and our own platforms - so there have been upgrades to all of that, and it's also part of the IP transition.
Read more F1 2024: Explaining the action with more kid-friendly broadcasts and a boost to team radio
Locke explains that his team is right in the middle of that four-year transition. A lot of routing and gateways, a large selection of traditional SDI feeds are now gatewayed and routed are now IP, and now we have an IP-based replay system. We're also looking at things like vision mixers and cameras, but that will be the next stage. So, there was a lot of work but not as much as last year when we built a brand-new remote operation.
And the enhancements aren't limited to the technical setup, with a better work environment for Biggin Hill-based staff also part of the overhaul to make the facility fit for purpose .
We have a really good restaurant, social areas, much better offices, and the actual work environment is so much better; our first stab at remote when people are wearing ski jackets at three o'clock in the morning and looking at the bright sunshine in Melbourne was disheartening. But now, it is a really comfortable place to work. And the fact that we've just done three, eight-hour days and people were still smiling is great.
A one-stop shop: Supporting Formula 1 rights holders
Locke says there is a keenness from some Formula 1 broadcasters for the centralized provision of technical solutions. He explains:
We shouldn't all be doing our own thing. We've had conversations with some broadcast partners and they are very into that. So one-stop technical solutions that work for everybody and help to reduce the number of people and kit on site and makes everything more reliable is something we're going to develop this year.
This could potentially include things such as RF kit, camera equipment, connectivity, also data that might not be included in the world feed with efforts to avoid working on the same piece of analysis or graphical representation.
Read more F1 2024: Capturing the action with drones, new camera angles and AI
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
13/05/2026
New Adobe Premiere Color Grading Mode Accelerated on NVIDIA GPUs
Joel Pennington May 13, 2026
0 Comments
New NVIDIA RTX-accelerated features streamlin...
13/05/2026
Grass Valley announced that dB Broadcast has delivered new IP-based outside broadcast (OB) trucks for Cloudbass, featuring Grass Valley LDX 100 Series cameras a...
13/05/2026
Ikegami will exhibit the latest additions to its wide range of broadcast production cameras, control units, viewfinders and monitors on stand 5D3-1 at Broadcast...
13/05/2026
FISE, working with the founding members of the XR Sports Alliance (XRSA), Accedo, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and HBS, have collaborated to develop an immersive...
13/05/2026
Canon Unveils New EOS R6 V Full-Frame EOS Camera and RF20-50mm F4 L IS USM PZ Bu...
13/05/2026
Boston Conservatory at Berklee Honors Beth Morrison and Moses Pendleton at Comme...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Creative software developer Foundry today announced the latest developments on Nuke Stage. A purpose-built application for end-to-end virtual production and in-...
13/05/2026
A definitive portrait of one of Ireland's most influential musicians
New TV documentary airs Monday 18 May on RT One and RT Player at 9.35pm
Watch the...
13/05/2026
Agentic AI is changing the way users get work done. Following the success of OpenClaw, the community is embracing new open source agentic frameworks. The latest...
13/05/2026
Reinforcement-learning agents - AI systems that learn by trial and error - can c...
12/05/2026
Beyond the Hype: A Strategic Post-Hoc Analysis of NAB 2026 If NAB Show 2026 had an underlying theme, it was a quiet, industry-wide pivot from the high-energy sp...
12/05/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D), a Panoptec Technologies Group company, and CT Square, led by Chandresh Shah, have announced a joint venture to distribute G&D and V...
12/05/2026
With 30 days until the start of the FIFA World Cup 2026, Telemundo, the exclusive Spanish-language home of the tournament in the United States, has announced th...
12/05/2026
The NHL has announced the return of Stanley Pup for its third consecutive year, a 90-minute special featuring adoptable rescue dogs competing on a miniature rin...
12/05/2026
NBCUniversal presented its 2026 Upfront to advertisers at Radio City Music Hall, detailing upcoming programming across NBC, Peacock, Bravo, and Versant properti...
12/05/2026
FOX Sports has announced funding for the Fandom and Social Connection Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Publ...
12/05/2026
TNDV and Live Media, both divisions of Live Media Group, supported live broadcast coverage around NCAA Final Four weekend in Indianapolis, including the March M...
12/05/2026
The European Football Alliance (EFA) has announced a content distribution agreement with Fubo Sports Network, the free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channel ...
12/05/2026
For the first time, Spanish-speaking fans in the U.S. will have two separate tel...
12/05/2026
CP Communications led a comprehensive spectrum management initiative on behalf of Churchill Downs during Kentucky Derby week, coordinating RF assets across the ...
12/05/2026
LiveU has announced a strategic partnership with DRONERESPONDERS, a 501(c)3 non-...
12/05/2026
Open Broadcast Systems has announced that BMC TV, a specialist in IP transport of broadcast content, has selected the Open Broadcast Systems 5G Flyaway solution...
12/05/2026
NEP Europe, part of NEP Group, has announced it will deliver broadcast solutions...
12/05/2026
Grass Valley has announced continued collaboration with Ravensbourne University ...
12/05/2026
Stats Perform has announced the launch of Opta Pulse, an AI-assisted video creation and distribution platform for leagues, rights holders, and broadcasters. The...
12/05/2026
FOX Sports has announced a collaboration with Sesame Workshop to integrate Sesame Street characters into FOX Sports' FIFA World Cup 2026 programming. Conten...
12/05/2026
To date, NHL Productions has produced 19 broadcasts with commentary in American Sign Language
NHL in ASL (American Sign Language) may be just one show, but the...
12/05/2026
Google's Brian Albert: creators, athletes, highlights, nostalgia, second-scr...
12/05/2026
A still from Past Lives by Celine Song, an official selection of the Premieres program at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute | p...
12/05/2026
Spotify is where fans and artists come together, turning discovery into somethin...
12/05/2026
Features patented Marco-MMC clocking technology
Black Lion Audio's latest release combines the company's expertise in clocking with their renowned p...
12/05/2026
New Track Panel, sequencer upgrades & more
Following their recent public beta release, Reason Studios have announced the full release of Reason 14. With the...
12/05/2026
One month to go! SBS reveals expansive FIFA World Cup 2026 lineup beyond the pi...
12/05/2026
Rohde & Schwarz presents its advanced solutions for power electronics testing at...
12/05/2026
aconnic AG (ISIN: DE000A0LBKW6), Munich, has developed a modified fund raising p...
12/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/05/2026
Tyrell Corporation, specialists in high-end live sports and entertainment broadcasts, was tasked with delivering compelling broadcast coverage of premier equest...
12/05/2026
Registration is now open for IBC2026 as the global media, entertainment and technology community prepares to converge on the RAI Amsterdam from 11 14 September ...
12/05/2026
Ross Video, a global leader in live video production technology, will present its latest innovations and integrated production workflows at BroadcastAsia 2026, ...
12/05/2026
500 selected leaders from around the world across start-ups, corporates, and venture capital. Over 50bn in assets under management among attending investors, a...
F1 2024: IP upgrades and the almighty challenge of a record-breaking F1 calendar By George Bevir 
