Iditarod Production Team Weathers Elements, Connectivity Challenges for Live Coverage of The Last Great Race on Earth' Streams will be produced from nearly every checkpoint for 1,000 miles By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Tuesday, March 5, 2019 - 3:34 pm
Print This Story
Story Highlights
Whiteout blizzards. Sub-zero temperatures. Gale-force winds. And - most devastating for a live-streaming production - little to no connectivity to the outside world. It's all routine for the production team delivering live coverage of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska this month. The small team travels via bush planes to cover more than 50 mushers traversing the 1,000-mile trail from Anchorage to Nome, live-streaming coverage from just about all 24 checkpoints along the way on Iditarod.com.
Live-streaming coverage of the Iditarod Trail Dog Sled Race is available throughout the event at Iditarod.com.
It's always a challenge, because you have all these elements working against you, says OTEK TV partner Art Aldrich, who is in his 12th year overseeing the Iditarod video production. Out there, temperatures can reach -50 F, and that's before wind chill. At those temperatures, lenses and cameras can sometimes freeze, and a thin cable will literally snap with the slightest bit of tension. At the same time, everything had to be as lightweight, small, and flexible as possible. Logistically, that can be very challenging.
All About Live: Iditarod Increases Live Coverage Every Year
The race, which kicked off with the ceremonial start in Anchorage on Saturday and the official restart in Willow on Sunday, is expected to last up to two weeks (eight to nine days for the winner and up to 14 days for the last team to complete).
EP/anchor Greg Heister (left) and race analyst Bruce Lee will deliver live hits throughout the Iditarod
For more than a decade, the not-for-profit Iditarod Trail Committee (ITC) has enlisted Aldrich, Executive Producer/on-air commentator Greg Heister, and a small production team to deliver live coverage, daily highlights, and a two-hour documentary chronicling each year's race. Four years ago, the ITC began expanding its live coverage beyond just the start of the race in Anchorage (produced by KTVA Anchorage) and the winner crossing the finish line, originally the only live stream available to fans.
In the past, fans were only able to see the winner finish the race, but they also wanted to see all the other mushers finish as well - sometimes a week after the champion, says Aldrich. Four years ago was the first time we had 24/7 coverage of the rest of the field finishing the race. That was a big hit, and it opened the race committee's eyes to the power of live [coverage] and the interest that the fans had in it.
Since then, the production team has live-streamed the race from various checkpoints throughout the trail, in addition to the start and finish.
It started off with a couple of GoPros running into an AJA converter and streaming it out of a little makeshift control room at City Hall [in Nome], says Aldrich. That was very popular, and it was a game-changer for us. Every year since, we have tried to step it up while still staying on budget, which is always a challenge but also very exciting.
Live, Documentary Crews Collaborate on Two Content Wells
This year, live coverage from throughout the Iditarod trail is being handled by two live-production teams equipped with mini flypacks (rental equipment is provided by Bexel).
Panasonic cameras are being utilized for the live and documentary productions at the Iditarod.
The first follows the leader with a Panasonic P2 AJ-PX270 camera, leapfrogging just ahead of the first-place competitor to always capture a live shot of the musher coming into a checkpoint. The second team, equipped with a GoPro, will cover the rest of the field and jump around the middle of the pack throughout the race. In addition to providing coverage of mushers pulling into each checkpoint, Heister and race analyst Bruce Lee will deliver live hits throughout the race from nearly all 24 checkpoints.
In addition to the live coverage, a footage for a full-length documentary is being captured at the Iditarod.
In addition, five ENG crews are equipped with Panasonic P2 AJ-PX5000 cameras to capture hundreds of hours of footage for the documentary. These teams will also produce 10-20 daily highlights packages for Iditarod.com.
The live and documentary teams are always cooperating. They don't always travel together, but they definitely work together closely, says Aldrich. One of the more challenging factors is, [our teams] move in bush planes so they are [dependent on] visual flight ratings: you can fly only during daylight and when the weather is good. So you can actually be stuck unable able to move as the race may be going by you.
Lack of Connectivity: Streaming From the Ends of the Earth
The most significant challenge for the live-streaming crews is overcoming the extreme lack of cellular and broadband connectivity available in the Alaskan interior.
The Iditarod production teams are utilizing Teradek VidiU Go HEVC/H.265 encoders in order to livestream from remote locations along the trail.
There's not a lot of infrastructure in terms of cellular or broadband throughout interior Alaska, where most of the race is run. It's rural like you can't imagine, says Aldrich. There is hardly any connectivity. A cellphone is usually limited to a couple hundred kbps of throughput, and we typically aren't able to use satellite dishes because they are owned by the villages. So whatever we need in terms of [transmission], we have to basically bring ourselves.
This year, the Iditarod production teams are deploying Teradek VidiU Go HEVC/H.265 encoders for live streaming from remote locations along the trail.
The
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Iditarod Production Team Weathers Elements, Connectivity Challenges for Live Coverage of The Last Great Race on Earth' Streams will be produced from nearly every checkpoint for 1,000 miles By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor 
