New changes for LiveRC broadcasts

 

Over the years, our broadcasts on LiveRC.com have been constantly evolving to bring you the best quality broadcast possible.  What started out 7 years ago as a single fixed camera soon changed into multiple fixed cameras, then a moving camera, then multiple moving cameras, and so on.  With each change, we made it a new feature or purchase on top of our existing plans. Now, 7 years later, we have what we feel is our best quality product so far, however it has become very confusing for many users and there are too many different purchase options. With that in mind, we decided it was time for our first rewrite from the ground up since 2007.  Over the past few months, we have been working on an all new version of the LiveRC broadcast screen.  Soon, we will be releasing a public beta, and around the end of summer we will be switching over to this new system completely.  Our two main goals in this rewrite are to make things simpler, and give everyone more and better video.  With that in mind, we want to give everyone a heads up of what we are planning on, and ask for your feedback.  First and foremost, we will NOT be raising any prices, and all the changes we are making are made with the intention of making LiveRC easier to use with better quality broadcasts.

 

To explain things fully, we currently have 3 tiers of events on LiveRC.  Tier 1 is a local track that broadcasts their own events.  These generally consist of 1 fixed camera.  A tier 2 event is when we send 1 or 2 crew members to setup 3 fixed cameras, and occasionally we provide a free moving camera for our existing Bonus Lap members. A tier 3 event is when we bring in a full production crew and have 3 fixed cameras and multiple moving cameras with a "TV-style" broadcast.  Tier 3 events have an extra fee for this coverage which is called an All Access Pass.

 

Before we started the rewrite from the ground up, we gathered all of our statistics and spent hours studying how users are using LiveRC and what cameras are getting the most views.  Our end conclusion was that nearly every user with a Bonus Lap membership spends all of their time on camera 3 and tier 2 and tier 3 events.  Cam3 is a camera that has the highest resolution, and from time to time, it will move and follow the racing action.  For All Access Pass members, they never use the fixed cameras at tier 3 events because there are near full time moving cameras.  For free viewers, many of them get sick of waiting in the queue, so they ignore the video all together.  With this in mind, we are going to trim the fat and eliminate the fixed cameras and put the time/money we spend on equipment, bandwidth, setup time, etc into making 1 simple to use video feed that features more moving camera time, and switch over to an ad-supported free preview instead of the queue.  Our new plans will be as follows:

 

Tier 1 Events (club races):  Clubs will provide 1 fixed camera (or moving if the club moves it themselves).  Free viewers will get 2-3 minutes of free video, then 60 seconds of commercials, then 2-3 minutes of video again.  The resolution will be low-medium quality.  For Bonus Lap members, there will be no commercial interruptions and the quality will be as high as the clubs upload speed supports (even HD for some tracks)!  For tracks that have multiple tracks and a camera on each one (WCRC, Mikes Hobby Shop, etc), there will be separate track accounts created, one for each track.

 

Tier 2 Events (most national level events): At these events, we will send 1-2 LiveRC crew members to broadcast the race. Currently, we have over 20 of these events scheduled in 2012.  There will be 1 video feed provided with more time and effort put into providing more moving camera action.  For free viewers, they will get 2-3 minutes of free video, then 4-5 commercials, then 2-3 minutes of free video, etc.  The video for free viewers will be low-medium quality.  This will eliminate the 2-3 hour wait in the queue, while generating more ad revenue to put towards our moving cameras.  Bonus Lap members will receive the same video feed, but in much higher quality and with no commercial breaks.  One of the main added features of consolidating into 1 camera is that we can use the bandwidth we normaly put into the fixed cameras into providing a higher quality moving camera stream, sometimes in HD when the internet connection is fast enough.  Our crew will also be able to setup faster, which means the broadcast starts sooner, and they can put more time into manning the camera instead of monitoring the fixed cameras.

 

Tier 3 Events (most international events, some national events):  Tier 3 events are what we currently offer the All Access Passes at.  For these events, we will continue with just the 1 video feed, but at these events it will have near full time moving cameras, instant replays, pit reports, etc etc.  We will also have 2 separate audio feeds at this event which will be available to the different levels of purchase. The free viewers will get the same thing as at a tier 2 event; 1 low-medium resolution feed of our tv-style coverage, but it would be heavily ad supported, and the audio feed would come from the track announcer, not our dedicated broadcast announcers.  There would no longer be a 2 hour wait in the queue, but the viewing time will be less than the current 10 minutes.  For Bonus Lap members, they will get a good resolution standard definition feed of our TV-style All Access Pass, but there will be no ads*, and the audio would come from the track announcer.  What this means is that Bonus Lap members will get a BETTER feed that what they get right now (currently, its 3 fixed cameras with track announcer audio).  However, the audio will be from the track announcer, so when Bonus Lap members see an interview taking place in the pits, they will still be hearing the track announcer instead of the super cool audio feed that All Access Pass members get.  We feel that this is still much better than a fixed camera though since you can see what is going on, and you will get moving cameras to see more action.  For members who upgrade to the All Access Pass, they will get our full broadcast crew announcers, high definition video, no ads*, and all the bells and whistles.

 

*No ads means that there will be no ads that interrupt the racing action.  We still play ads between races for the sponsors of the event, but they will not be played during the racing action.

 

In addition to these changes, we have also enhanced the live scoring.  These enhancements will be revealed when the public beta is announced.  The new enhancements will only be available to Bonus Lap and All Access Pass members.  Free viewers will still get free scoring like what they have now, but without the new features.

 

Lastly, and quite possibly our biggest announcement, is the addition of archived footage which will be coming late in 2012/early 2013.  By simplifying our broadcast to the one video stream, it opens up the possibility for us to record everything we do live on our servers, while automatically adding "chapters" that mark the start/end of each race.  What this means is that almost immediately after each event is done, you can go back, view the list of races, click on it, and rewatch it.  Additionally, this adds DVR functionality to our live broadcasts, so you can pause and rewind it if you miss something.  These added features will be available only to All Access Pass members.  Additionally, we will be adding an "Annual All Access Pass" membership that you can purchase which gets you access to these features for every race that takes place on LiveRC.  Club races will be archived for 2 weeks and then removed.  All tier 2 and tier 3 events will be archived for 2 years or longer.

Well, if you made it this far into into reading this, we sincerely thank you.  Please please please send us your feedback!  We don't want to be like NetFlix and change our entire service without giving you proper notice.  We really do care what you think, and we will read each and every comment.  We are confident that everyone will enjoy these new changes, but if not, its still early and we can pull the plug if everyone prefers to keep things as they are.

 

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