Into the Great Unknown: Extreme H Sliding Smoothly into More Data and Telemetry in Broadcast for the New Era of Hydrogen Racing

Into the great unknown: Extreme H sliding smoothly into more data and telemetry in broadcast for the new era of hydrogen racing By Heather McLean

Friday, October 4, 2024 - 09:44

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Extreme H, is gearing up to launch next year as the natural successor to Extreme E, as hydrogen-fuelled vehicles overtake electric

The world's first hydrogen racing series, Extreme H, is gearing up to launch next year as the natural successor to Extreme E, as hydrogen-fuelled vehicles overtake electric.

Hydrogen as a fuel source for racing vehicles is relatively unknown, and as such, the broadcast of the new series has a lot to encompass.

Says Matthew Beal, director of broadcast at host broadcaster Aurora Media Worldwide, on how it is approaching the new series: Spec wise, it's all open because it's all uncharted territory; we have to sit down and go, what can we do? . Now we know what the car can do because the car's brand new and it is ready to rock, so we will tweak the sporting format, but from a producer's point of view, I want to keep it ultra clear, simple to understand and exciting and keep all the great stuff we have, which is great action, great overtakes, and some huge moments where the drivers are right on the edge and take the audience with them. If you make it over-complicated, we start losing people, as we know in sport.

He adds: We're walking into the hydrogen era. We're going to see a subtle change in editorial, but we need to go for the data and see what we want to do. I need to also take the audience on the journey of hydrogen. No one knows about it really; I still can't get it in my head how hydrogen works!

Sports-led athlete data is going to pay a much bigger part in Extreme H because we're building on the legacy of Extreme E. So that's huge for us coming into the new season, so the whole look and feel will change with a brand reset

Now I know the data tells us there's quite a lot of positive sentiment around people wanting to explore hydrogen, and are open to having hydrogen cars. The sentiment on hydrogen cars is higher than electric was 10 years ago when Formula E booted up. Also, you only keep green credentials if you use responsible hydrogen green hydrogen made from using green and sustainable sources, so we have to tell that story as well.

We're going to spend a lot of time in graphics demystifying hydrogen and taking people on that journey, how it works and how the technology is going to develop in front of you, and that will mean telemetry. It might be that we see a hydrogen boost in the race, so we might see the hydrogen levels play out on screen. We're going to see telemetry and data on screen play out more to allow the commentators and the audience to go on that journey with us, including in the racing strategies.

Telemetry is going to pay a bigger part in the viewer experience of Extreme H, compared to Extreme E

Smooth slide

On the value of telemetry data going forwards into the Extreme H era, Beal says: A hundred percent telemetry is going to pay a bigger part. We're going to rebrand the whole graphics pack for the new season and we're going to start exploring.

Read more: Bright future: Aurora Media Worldwide the new hydrogen-powered era of Extreme H 2025

That exploring is about where graphics should sit on the screen for the viewer. Beal says: We can't really run a vertical ladder [of graphics] down the side [of the screen]; we're thinking of putting all the graphics on the horizontal. The reason is if you look at F1, in the main F1 is a vertical sport; cars come to you down the straight so most of the action happens in that pillar in the middle [of the screen], but obviously you get pans and there's always exceptions to the rule. From Extreme E we've seen however that we operate the sport quite a lot on the horizontal. It's all about great big views, deserts, vistas, ice caps; it's all panoramic.

So we've learned over the years where our graphical real estate is, and more and more that's the top and bottom, he continues. So we're going to explore where our real estate is on a horizontal spot. That was a massive learning for us and now is the time to apply those learnings going into Extreme H.

Virtual reality (VR) is another area that is going to be important for the new series. The VR, which has been the big win for us in Extreme E, is super important [for 2025] because landing more data in the virtual world of who's using hydrogen, what's recharging, and how telemetry plays out, is going to play a big strong part in that as well, says Beal.

We're also going to double down in the suite of graphics much more of now we have four years of data to hand, he continues. Going into Extreme H we can start doing driver form guides, head to heads, and we've had people like Catie Munnings [rally driver and Extreme E driver for Team Andretti Altawkilat] with us from day one, so now we have a legacy inside the sport to start exploiting and particularly these female athletes who are, in my view, quite unique in sport and start building up the athlete's profile based on their careers. They're not new to the sport, they're established professional athletes competing against world champions.

So that's the other thing; sports-led athlete data is going to pay a much bigger part in Extreme H because we're building on the legacy of Extreme E. So that's huge for us coming into the new season, so the whole look and feel will change with a brand reset.

We had two big rolls in Scotland. Massive, massive crashes, with two female drivers; they barrel rolled three times and the car shed body parts. It's testament to the character of the drivers and to be fair, the build of the cars, but they both co

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