Racing ahead: Inside F1's 2023 broadcast plans with director of broadcast and media Dean Locke By George Bevir
Friday, February 24, 2023 - 10:21
Print This Story
From more helmet cams to an overhauled remote production centre, the upcoming F1 season promises a raft of innovations. F1 director of broadcast and media Dean Locke provides an in-depth update on what's in store in 2023, including preparations for the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
When the first race of the 2023 Formula 1 season gets underway in Bahrain on Sunday 5 March, it will mark the beginning of what is likely to be another bumper year for the sport, with the largest ever round of races, a glitzy new weekend of action in Las Vegas and six Sprint races (up from three last year).
Racing at Silverstone last season
It's fair to say that the popularity of F1 is on the rise as well, with the 2022 F1 World Championship season the most-viewed ever on US television, with an average of 1.21 million viewers per race, up 28% on the previous record set in 2021, according to ESPN.
That increase in viewership is attributed at least in part to Drive to Survive, with season five of the Netflix fly-on-the-wall series debuting today (and season 6 in the pipeline). There is also an F1 movie directed by Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski and starring Brad Pitt in the works and set to film over the course of this season at F1 races, all of which is likely to further boost interest in the motorsport.
It is always incredibly difficult to get anything on a F1 car, no matter what it weighs, or what the power or the heat is.
With more racing, growing audiences and an increased thirst for content, it's fair to say that F1 director of broadcast and media Dean Locke and his team have been busy since the fall of the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi in November. The 2022 season ended a few weeks earlier than the 2021 Championship due to the World Cup, but that didn't mean a few weeks of downtime.
I think everybody thought that that would mean we'd have a fairly quiet December, but it was the complete opposite, says Locke. But we're up to the challenge. And it's not just F1; there are more races in F2 and F3, so people are always busy. And I think that's why I'm particularly proud; we don't just say, here you go, here are three new things,' and then not do anything new for the rest of the year. The rollouts are throughout the season at every single race.
Locke has the challenge of overseeing a continuous cycle of innovation in the way content is captured and presented on viewers' screens throughout the year, but one of the most significant changes this season is unlikely to be noticed by viewers. Between the end of last season and the start of 2023, there has been an upgrade to the F1 Media and Technology Centre at Biggin Hill, which is some 20-miles southeast of London.
We've completely converted the building now to be a remote centre, says Locke. The broadcast centre we had in Australia in 2020 was brought back here to Biggin Hill, and since then operated in the same way apart from it was in the hangar in Biggin Hill and wasn't a permanent structure, but we've done things like move the renderers and servers away from the operational positions.
We started that at 6am after Abu Dhabi (the final race of the 2022 season). Kit was ripped out of containers and then put into permanent workspaces and a permanent CAR room. That's been going on all winter, and it's now ready and we've had test signals coming back from Bahrain.
One of the main benefits has been an improvement in the working environment, but it is also part of F1's sustainability initiative. At each race, an Event Technical Centre (pictured, below) is deployed onsite and acquires content, data and feeds which are sent back to Biggin Hill. That operation will continue to be used, but over time Locke expects the remote setup to result in fewer people and less kit as F1 works towards its plan to be net zero carbon by 2030.
Speaking from F1's Biggin Hill base, Locke says: This is more of a dedicated site now. It's a much better environment, with more capability to do more - it enables us to do a lot more of the handover and the hefty, heavy lifting.
We also have a bit of an IP transition, like a lot of people in the industry. So part of the build at Biggin Hill was to facilitate over the next two to three years a big IP transition, and that will open up opportunities. Also, as we reach end of life on some of that kit, it raises the question of how we move that over to IP as well. One of the main things was to get all the fibre infrastructure into this building, and into the new CAR. And now we have to look at a roadmap for replacing some of that kit.
At each of the 23 locations around the world that will host races this season, the broadcast and media team's focus is on the acquisition of data, pictures, audio, along with some mixing of pictures. The main curation and production of the world feed and additional content for rights holders, as well as the F1 TV streaming services, is completed on race weekends at Biggin Hill where the main director and producers are based.
The build of a new full AR, dedicated studio for use by the F1 TV team, sponsors and broadcasters will see more content created at the Biggin Hill site. The majority of the commentary is done here at Biggin Hill now, so we have dedicated commentary booths. We like to keep commentators on site some of the time, because they like to be there. But we will host various broadcasters' commentary here as well, potentially. And a couple of couple of the broadcasters want to do shows here from [the new studio], because it supports their sustainability aims as well, says Locke.
More helmet cams
Getting viewers closer
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...
Racing ahead: Inside F1's 2023 broadcast plans with director of broadcast and media Dean Locke By George Bevir 
