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
Print This Story
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
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
19/11/2025
Sphere Sound Kicks Up Its Heels at Radio City Music HallUltra-immersive system from the singular Las Vegas venue is also ready for sportsBy Dan Daley, Audio Edi...
19/11/2025
The Future of Stadium and Arena Video Control Rooms: Tech Leaders Talk 4K, IP, a...
19/11/2025
One Year at Intuit Dome: Walking Through the Stunning Arena's Advanced Video...
19/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: IMG's Francois Westcombe Goes Inside IMG's Annual Digital ...
19/11/2025
Inside Brighton & Hove Albion's fan-first media machine By George Bevir
Tuesday, November 18, 2025 - 10:10
Print This Story
Brighton & Hove Albion'...
19/11/2025
Rock Chalk Rebuild, Part 1: Kansas Athletics Brings New Production Power to Rebu...
19/11/2025
Rock Chalk Rebuild, Part 2: A Pro's Guide to Kansas Athletics' New Video...
19/11/2025
MLB Media Rights Shakeup: NBC Inks Three-Year Deal for Sunday Night Baseball, Pe...
19/11/2025
Rohan Parashuram Kanawade attends the premiere of Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival at Egyptian Theatre on January 26, 2025, in Pa...
19/11/2025
Awards season is heating up, and the International Documentary Association just ...
19/11/2025
Aerojet Rocketdyne President Ken Bedingfield and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders were joined by state and local officials to celebrate the groundbreaking o...
19/11/2025
L3Harris and PentenAmio formalise their teaming agreement at MilCIS 2025, streng...
19/11/2025
Calrec gives Phoenix Broadcast Solutions its full support in strategic multi-year enterprise partnership New Singapore OB company invests in Calrec technology f...
19/11/2025
October brings a larger audience in front of TV screens. The cooler autumn weather and the continuation of new programming schedules brought increases in both t...
19/11/2025
IRVING, Texas Nexstar Media Group and Tegna filed applications on Nov. 18 with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking its consent to transfer broad...
19/11/2025
Vitec has acquired Datapath, a developer of real-time video processing for large-scale video walls, AVoIP content distribution and KVM control in mission-critic...
19/11/2025
NEVADA CITY, Calif. Telestream has introduced ARGUS Version 2.3, which introduces Live Look, a feature that lets operators inspect live and on-demand streams vi...
19/11/2025
STAMFORD, Conn. and NEW YORK Charter Communications, Inc. has announced a major deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS) that establishes AWS as one of Charters stra...
19/11/2025
TOKYO Atomos has announced a major firmware update that brings integrated camera control to the Ninja TX GO and Ninja TX its new CFexpress-based monitor-recor...
19/11/2025
Berklee's Signature Series Reimagines the Musical and Visual Artistry of Col...
19/11/2025
PlayBox Neo departed the NAB Show New York 2025 on a high note. The company's all-new PlayBox Neo Suite made a splash on the show floor, drawing strong inte...
19/11/2025
AAVBR (American Audio Visual Baton Rouge), a leading full-service event production company serving Louisiana and the Gulf Coast region, has enhanced its product...
19/11/2025
In its mission to deliver live event services combining advanced engineering with a creative approach to captivating live sports and entertainment experiences, ...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK Short-form vertical video has exploded across platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, but a new survey commissioned by Media.net, a provider of c...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK YES Network, the regional sports network home of the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Nets, and CAMB.AI have struck a partnership they said will leverage ...
19/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has issued detailed guidance on filings that were disrupted by the government shutdown. While many of those fil...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK The popularity of NFL games is largely responsible for continued seasonal momentum in TV viewership into October (measured Sept. 29-Oct. 26), according...
19/11/2025
DirecTV has announced that its MyFree DirecTV streaming service has added seven new channels. Those include four sports services, NBA FAST, Red Bull TV, DAZN Ri...
19/11/2025
SURREY, U.K. Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC) has launched Flair Bridge, a compact device that transforms how operators control the company's motion-contr...
19/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission, which is continuing to rapidly ramp up its operations after the end of the federal government shutdown, has se...
19/11/2025
IRVING, Texas Nexstar Media Group and Tegna filed applications on Nov. 18 with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking its consent to transfer broad...
19/11/2025
Martin Freeman, Jessie Buckley, Wu-Tang Clan's Raekwon, Eddie the Eagle and ...
19/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz collaborates with Broadcom to enable testing and validation of n...
19/11/2025
Back to All News
Innato, starring Imanol Arias and Elena Anaya, arrives on Netf...
19/11/2025
Back to All News
Guillermo del Toro Sits Down With Troll 2 Director Roar Uthaug...
19/11/2025
Some projects feel monumental from the moment the first phone call comes in. When BCE, the host broadcaster appointed to coordinate the national coverage, asked...
19/11/2025
November 19 2025, 08:00 (PST) BAY AREA HOST COMMITTEE AND DOLBY PARTNER TO DELIVER IMMERSIVE FAN EXPERIENCES
During the Week of Football's Biggest Game...
19/11/2025
Michael D. Higgins: Ireland's Ninth President features RT Archives footage and interviews across seven decades
Watch Wednesday 19 November at 9:35pm on RT...
19/11/2025
Scripps Research scientists receive $1.1 million to advance AI modeling for HIV vaccine development New AI system helps scientists rapidly pinpoint the most pro...
18/11/2025
Independent media across Central America are operating under intensifying financial pressure, yet there is a clear appetite for models that can sustain both ind...
18/11/2025
NBA Debuts New Comms Infrastructure and Systems for RefereesTwo-phase rollout is intended to improve game flow, enhance officiating accuracyBy Dan Daley, Audio ...
18/11/2025
Platinum White Paper: How Aggreko Delivers Certainty For Broadcasters On The Wor...
18/11/2025
Kiswe Extends DTC Products With Kiswe Core Cloud-Based Tool for Distributing Con...
18/11/2025
Spanish Basketball Federation partners with ScorePlay to power digital transform...
18/11/2025
HBS selects BBright encoders and decoders to connect ST 2110 live production wor...
18/11/2025
Ashes to Ashes: Inside TNT Sports' hybrid and maverick' production plan...
18/11/2025
SVG All-Stars: Mimi Fotopoulos, Director, Talent and Production Operations, Tenn...
18/11/2025
SVG LIVE! Conference Explores the Tech Side of Sports and Entertainment ConvergenceLive sports and music productions increasingly share gear and infrastructureB...
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 
