
Capturing the sights, sounds and sensation of the Le Mans 24 Hour motor race places unique demands on the team behind the TV production. Ahead of this year's event, TVBEurope talks to WBD's Eurosport's Will Brooks about the challenges they have to overcome
By Matthew Corrigan
Published: June 14, 2024 Updated: June 17, 2024
Capturing the sights, sounds and sensation of the Le Mans 24 Hour motor race places unique demands on the team behind the TV production. Ahead of this year's event, TVBEurope talks to WBD's Eurosport's Will Brooks about the challenges they have to overcome
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin> Capturing the sights, sounds and sensation of the Le Mans 24 Hour motor race places unique demands on the team behind the TV production. Ahead of this year's event, TVBEurope talks to WBD's Eurosport's Will Brooks about the challenges they have to overcome
https://www.tvbeurope.com/features/how-eurosport-captures-the-spectacle-of-the-worlds-best-known-motor-race title=Share via Email class=share-email>
For motor racing fans around the world, the name Le Mans is special. Alongside Monaco and Indianapolis, the event is steeped in history and romance, bearing witness to some of the most spectacular performances ever seen on a race track over more than a century of top level automotive competition.
(Photo by James Moy Photography/Getty Images) This weekend, upwards of a quarter of million eager fans will make their pilgrimage, descending en masse on the Sarthe circuit in the north of the lush Loire region. But millions more will watch at home, following the action as the race-worn pack charges on through the night.
For the Eurosport team, there are obvious comparisons to be drawn with the teams who are lining up to contest this 92nd iteration of the 24 Heures du Mans. In every pit lane garage, the men and women behind the cars that will be heading out on track started their preparations as soon as last June's race finished. So, too, did the TV production crew.
It's an ongoing planning operation, Will Brooks, senior producer at Warner Bros Discovery, tells TVBEurope. The team works across a lot of different productions. This weekend, we have Le Mans but we also have World Superbikes at Misano, British Superbikes at Knockhill and Speedway Grand Prix in Malilla, but this is Le Mans. It's something we think about right from the beginning of the season.
The intensity of broadcasting a dynamic, fast-moving event necessitates a pattern of rotating shifts for the production crew, explains Brooks, similar to the stints pulled by the drivers and pit crews. A team of around 30, including the presentation team, five camera operators and audio engineers are on site with an equivalent number in support at WBD's London facility.
At 4:00pm CET, when the waving tricolour signals the start of the race, the rolling pack will begin the charge in earnest. As many as 62 cars will start this year's race, with entrants split into three different categories. The sheer size of the grid makes capturing the spectacle in all its sound and fury a challenge all of its own.
A Le Mans grid is rather large, says Brooks, with amusing understatement. To cover it with two cameras is tricky, so we have three RFs for the start and then we go down to two for the remainder of the race. One camera has full grid plus pit lane coverage and the other has wider paddock coverage to get a bit of the colour of the event.
(Photo by Alessio Morgese/NurPhoto via Getty Images) RF cameras are used, with audio provided by specialists from Tall Audio. On site, the host broadcasters use AMP Visual TV, which WBD is able to tap into. Feeds are brought back by Evertz encoders connected to the Globecast backbone that feeds WBD's colocation based in Paris and London.
In order to minimise delay, the cameras come back using J2K compression. This year the onboards, seven timing pages and heli-cam will be fed back to London using a mixture of Haivision SRT and AMP Let's See Cloud.
In contrast to many other motorsport formats, endurance racing demands the highest performance over a long period of time. Teams must be resilient, able to withstand adverse conditions for hours on end. Once again, stark comparisons can be found in the approach taken by the broadcast operation. To ensure reliability, WBD is adopting a tried and tested methodology, as Brooks explains, Because of the duration we've gone for a robust set up rather than an innovative one. Sony RF cameras, Wisycom audio and AMP handle all the frequencies in conjunction with ANFR. All Intercom on site is provided using a Digigram Iqoya Servlink on direct RTP or SIP.
Further complicating matters, the Le Mans 24 Hour race takes place in part on closed public roads. The infamous Mulsanne Straight, for example, is actually part of the route d partementale RD 338. Overcoming these difficulties is a key consideration for the team.
If we want to go and film anything trackside, we have two options, says Brooks. If we want to go out of range all our RF cameras will record to card and then we can feed whatever we have recorded down the line to London when they're back in range. We also have an ENG kit with us and in the past, we've gone and filmed at night time in the woods, at the back of the circuit. In that scenario, we have a system called Woody which lets us do our ingest over internet. We can ingest to our Grass Valley Framelight MAM and then push to our LiveTouches that we're using for replays and inserts in the gallery.
As the sun slips beneath the horizon, light begins to fade and the unlit sections of the track soon fall into complete darkness. Racing on through the night, the attrition rate grows as the teams battle mechanical failure, an inevitabl
Europe Stories
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
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...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
09/02/2026
Book a meeting or demonstration at ISE 2026! Please enter the following details. (Tick the relevant box for a meeting or demo):
--
Meeting / Demo*
Meeting...
09/02/2026
RT Investigates rapid rise in waiting list for the Central Mental Hospital
am...
08/02/2026
08 Feb 2026
VEON and JazzWorld Launch Invest in Pakistan, NOW! Inviting Inter...
06/02/2026
Music fans know the feeling: A song stops you in your tracks, and you immediately want to know more. What inspired it, and what's the meaning behind it? We ...
06/02/2026
Calrec Wins Best of Show at ISE 2026 for Orchestrating Distributed IP Production
Calrec is delighted to announce that its IP Ecosystem Powered by True Control...
06/02/2026
TV Highlights: Saturday February 7th - Friday February 13th
What can I watch on TV in the UK this week? What can I watch on U&GOLD? What can I stream on U thi...
06/02/2026
The Winter Olympics 2026 in Milano Cortina officially get underway this evening (Friday 6 February) with the Opening Ceremony live on RT Player and RT News ch...
05/02/2026
Since bringing audiobooks to Spotify in 2022, we've helped listeners discove...
05/02/2026
Today, Spotify announced two new updates to give book lovers a more personalized...
05/02/2026
AI should balance automation (replacing tasks) and augmentation (empowering humans). Automate the mundane and augment the creative by applying the right AI type...
05/02/2026
BBC Studios and UKTV have appointed Karin Marelle to lead their Global Acquisitions team, overseeing the sourcing of content across BBC Studios' global chan...
05/02/2026
Thursday 5 February 2026
The Miniature Wife, A Sky Exclusive comedy drama starr...
05/02/2026
Thursday 5 February 2026
Trailer Revealed for Sky Original Film FUZE starring A...
05/02/2026
Rohde & Schwarz at MWC Barcelona 2026: Enabling connections, empowering innovati...
04/02/2026
Lyrics are one of Spotify's most popular features, giving fans a richer way to experience the music and artists they love. They're viewed hundreds of mi...
04/02/2026
Wednesday 4 February 2026
Full cast announced for Saturday Night Live UK, comin...
04/02/2026
Wednesday 4 February 2026
Fear of running out of mobile data (FORO) is a real i...
04/02/2026
Rohde & Schwarz powers next generation television in Brazil with DTV technology...
04/02/2026
Fox Corporation Reports Second Quarter Fiscal 2026 Financial Results NEW YORK, NY, February 4, 2026 - Fox Corporation (Nasdaq: FOXA, FOX; FOX or the Compan...
04/02/2026
Lucas P. Arag n Joins FOX Advertising as Senior Vice President, Creative New York, NY - February 4, 2026 - Accomplished Creative Executive Lucas P. Arag n has...
04/02/2026
Following the passing of our friend and colleague Hugh Wallace, and with the full support of his family, RT will proceed with the broadcast of the new series o...
03/02/2026
Spotify's annual Best New Artist celebration returned to Los Angeles last ni...
03/02/2026
FoMa Antares: Redefining Camera Stabilization for Modern ProductionsIn high-end broadcast and cinematic environments, precision, reliability, and flexibility ar...
03/02/2026
03 Feb 2026
VEON Welcomes Expanded Kyivstar Free Float After the Successful Kyi...
03/02/2026
Mel Giedroyc fronts brand new comedy entertainment format
3rd February 2026, London: U and U&Dave is set to launch brand-new escape room comedy entertainment s...
03/02/2026
Tuesday 3 February 2026
Iconic TV channel Sky One is coming back as the new hom...
03/02/2026
Wuppertal February 3, 2026
Riedel Connects Live Surgery and Medical Professionals at VISAR 2025Turnkey Managed Technology Solution Featuring Riedel MediorNet,...
02/02/2026
February 2 2026, 20:30 (PST) Mahindra launches XUV 7XO as Indias first vehicle ...
02/02/2026
Ahead of the hotly anticipated return of Bergerac to U and U&DRAMA in the Spring, a teaser has been released to give viewers a glimpse at what's in store in...
02/02/2026
Rohde & Schwarz reshapes mid-range market with new 44 GHz FPL spectrum analyzer ...
02/02/2026
In addition to DPA Microphones, the company will also be acquiring Wisycom and Austrian Audio. The acquisition is now being filed for regulatory approval and sh...
02/02/2026
Arvato Systems launches a flexible and standardized billing solution
New SAP S/4HANA Utilities master system combines standardization, economies of scale, and...
01/02/2026
Movistar Argentina is a 15,000-seat capacity indoor arena. Opened in 2019, it is situated in the cultural hub of Villa Crespo, an area renowned for its dance ha...
31/01/2026
Spotify's annual Best New Artist celebration returned to Los Angeles last ni...
30/01/2026
Spotify, Haziran ay sonunda kadar stanbul'da yeni bir ofis a aca n ve T rkiye pazar n y netmek zere yeni bir atama ger ekle tirdi ini duyurdu. Bu kaps...
30/01/2026
30 Jan 2026
VEON Partners with MindBridge to Enhance Financial Analytics, Audit...
30/01/2026
Friday 30 January 2026
Easels at the ready! All new judging line up for series ...
30/01/2026
Friday 30 January 2026
Britain can switch off terrestrial TV in the 2030s, with...
30/01/2026
Two key themes came through strongly:
Inconsistent measurement remains a major barrier to comparing performance across Retail Media Networks
Independent cer...
29/01/2026
Michele Fracchiolla Succeeds Andrew Barr as President of EMEA region from April 1, 2026
London, January 29, 2026
Hitachi Europe Ltd. today announces the appoi...
29/01/2026
29 Jan 2026
Kyivstar Announces Pricing of Secondary Offering of Common Shares Held by VEON NEW YORK, New York, January 29, 2026 -- VEON Ltd. (Nasdaq: VEON), a ...
29/01/2026
X-Rite Pantone Appoints Cindy Cooperman as Vice President and General Manager of...
29/01/2026
New two-part true crime documentary, OUTBACK TERROR: THE FALCONIO MURDER, aims to shed new light on a case that continues to intrigue on both sides of the world...
29/01/2026
FOX Sports Unveils Historic FIFA World Cup 2026 Broadcast Schedule Monumental Slate Features 340 Hours of Live First-Run Programming Across FOX Sports Platfo...
29/01/2026
AI Assistants Head into 2026 on a High Note: Comscore Reports Triple-Digit Growt...