Category: Behind The Scenes

Interviews and a look behind the scenes with some of the personalities involved in motor sport broadcasting.

The making of the London E-Prix

For the past seven years, Formula E has raced on city streets around the world, from Beijing back in 2014, all the way through to Berlin last month.

The 2020-21 season was the most competitive in the championship’s history, with Mercedes driver Nyck de Vries clinching the title by 7 points in the season deciding round.

The nature of the championship has presented challenges for North One Television and Aurora Media Worldwide, who produce Formula E’s television offering under the FE TV banner.

We caught up with the team in London to find out how the ExCeL facility came to fruition from a broadcasting perspective…

Influencing the circuit design

The London set up is unusual for the television production team, with their facilities laid out across multiple exhibition halls, something Sebastian Tiffert, who leads Formula E’s broadcasting department, describes as ‘luxury.’

“Normally, we’re doing an event in the city centre of Paris, in Rome, where there’s no space. Instead of rocking up with big TV trucks, everything is temporary and small.”

“We travel with multiple pods, built by Timeline. The pods carry all the technical equipment, sound desks, vision, and so on, around the world,” Tiffert explains.

“It gives us flexibility, as sometimes you must set them up around the corner or a u-shape. This [in London] is luxury for us, with everything in a nice line.”

The production layout reminded me of the World Rally Championship service park in Deeside, Wales, the series taking over multiple buildings within the Deeside Industrial Estate for the TV production and media to use.

Preparation for the ExCeL has been years in the making, The Race reporting that the ExCeL was Formula E’s ‘plan B’ option in early 2015, when the fate of the Battersea Park race was hanging on a knife edge.

The indoor start-finish straight for Formula E’s London E-Prix.

One of the key considerations for West Gillett, Formula E’s television director, was ensuring that the contrast between the indoor and outdoor elements of the circuit was noticeable to the viewer watching at home.

While Gillett has no influence on the locations that series organisers choose, his team can influence the circuit design.

“The decision on which venue we’re going to is not something we would be involved in, but we get heavily involved in the track layout,” he tells me.

“Here, I did not want the indoor of the venue to look like outside. I didn’t want all the house lights; I didn’t want the cars coming in and for it to look like daylight.”

“The idea was to have that contrast between night and day, so indoors would be the equivalent of our Saudi race, a night race with the track lights. I’ve been really keen from the beginning to get that contrast.”

Gillett utilises the external camera angles to aid the transition: “Camera 17, you’re taking them indoors, visually the viewer knows now. If we look at the shot [see image below], you can see on the right-hand side it’s light and on the left-hand side its dark.”

Also a factor for Gillett at all of Formula E’s venues is the location of the Attack Mode. Attack Mode gives drivers up to 8 minutes of additional power, the length varying from race-to-race.

To activate the boost, drivers must drive through the activation zone on circuit, which Gillett prefers to be in an area unlikely to feature much action during the race.

“I won’t want the Attack Mode down at corner where we expect there to be lots of overtaking, and then also we don’t want it too near the start.”

Around the circuit, sound equipment in the form of
RØDE Microphones help bring Formula E to life.

“A place that is quite difficult for us is Santiago, because I’ve got to show the Attack Mode and drivers coming down the start-finish straight to establish positions at the same time,” Gillett says.

“Ideally, the Attack Mode is half way around the track, with nothing else prior to it or after it that I need to show.”

Working within the ExCel confines

Living in London has been to Gillett’s benefit, having visited the venue multiple times in the run up to the E-Prix.

The indoor nature of the venue, plus the proximity of the ExCeL to the London City Airport, are obstacles that the team has had to work with from the outset.

“We came down a couple of years ago, and then again around six months ago [before the race],” he recalls.

“For us, it’s looking at the height of venue, the ceilings involved, the podium positions and cameras, making sure we could optimise the coverage inside the venue itself.”

“I was thinking about having a cable camera like we’ve had in the past, but the ceiling is just too low. There’s a lot of things like that that you just couldn’t do.”

“Another example is with the podium: we quite often have a jib camera for the podium, but because the space is really small, we can’t have the swinging jib.”

“Outside, we can’t have the helicopter live because we’re right next to the airport. It’s critically important to get that skyline and the relationship between the racing and the city itself,” Gillett believes.

“We did send a helicopter up on Friday to get some views for the pre-show to tie the London city to the venue, but we couldn’t do it live unfortunately.”

The build starts the week before the race, from the ground up, setting up all the infrastructure required to hold the E-Prix.

“We’re not coming to a venue which is pre cabled, like a football stadium,” Tiffert tells me. “We are starting on a white sheet of paper every time we go somewhere.”

Up close and personal with the start line gantry, all the wiring built, completed and tested in the run-up to the E-Prix.

“You need a crew which is very experienced in what we do, because you don’t have time to adapt. Certain things you can control when the track is finally finished, but the weekend goes so quick for us that you don’t have time to change on the spot.”

“Now, currently is a bit different because we have double-headers, we had a free practice session on Friday, so there’s a bit more space to, to improve and adjust things.”

Keeping the crew safe

The ExCeL is one of Formula E’s tighter venues, even by the electric series’ standards, with very little room for run-offs, making some corners dangerous for camera operators.

In some areas of the track, Formula E uses the Pan Bar system, as Gillett explains.

“Wherever there’s a TechPro barrier, I’ll have cameras that are using a new remote Pan Bar system,” he says.

“We anticipate that where the TechPro is, the wall could move up to three meters, so it unfortunately isn’t safe enough for a camera operator to be standing.”

“If I’ve got a head on shot, the camera operator is not standing there, there’s a camera head there and the lens.”

“The operator is standing five metres on the other side of that fence, in a completely safe location, operating with a Pan Bar system remotely.”

Gillett mounts cameras in unique locations to get the shot that he is looking for, something that is common for all street circuits that Formula E goes to, but more so with London.

“For example, we’ve mounted camera 4 up nice and high on a truss, allowing it to pan round and get the city skyline and the water.”

Inside Formula E’s international gallery, including all the external angles and on-board cameras. Camera 4 in the screenshot is located towards the bottom in the centre, Camera 17 is the angle with prominent BOSS advertising.

“With camera 17, the operator is in the basket of the cherry picker that’s mounted just over the fence. However, the cherry picker base is on the pavement below next to the canal.”

“There’s no room physically there to build a scaffold, because there’s a roof, and for other shots you’re up against the water. There are a lot of fiddly things like that, more machinery, more specialist camera equipment and remote heads to cover this event,” he says.

Reflecting on the first part of the weekend, Gillett was “quite happy” with how things had gone so far.

“Generally, I can visualise it [the camera positions] beforehand, I think that’s our skill set, I’ve been doing this for over 20 years, so can visualise it well. We’re in pretty good shape,” he believes.

“It’s rare that I change things when we’re on-site. I’m actually quite happy with this, I think the track coverage works quite well.”

“Obviously, I’m always trying to strive for getting as much speed, show the driving styles, show the rear of the car sliding, show the drivers racing, but also showing the cities.”

“It’s finding that balance between like wide shots and close up low action stuff.”

Gillett believes that the indoor section of the circuit will be even better once all COVID restrictions have lifted, hoping that a packed grandstand will add to the atmosphere.

Currently scheduled to begin in January, season 8 will take in 12 locations across 16 races, with new events in South Africa, China, Canada. The season finishes in August 2022, heading to South Korea for the inaugural Seoul E-Prix.

Contribute to the running costs of Motorsport Broadcasting by donating via PayPal. If you wish to reproduce the contents of this article in any form, please contact Motorsport Broadcasting in the first instance.

Behind the scenes with Formula E’s television production team

For the past seven years, Formula E has raced on city streets around the world, from Beijing back in 2014, all the way through to Berlin last month.

The 2020-21 season was the most competitive in the championship’s history, with Mercedes driver Nyck de Vries clinching the title by 7 points in the season deciding round.

The nature of the championship has presented challenges for North One Television and Aurora Media Worldwide, who produce Formula E’s television offering under the FE TV banner.

We caught up with the team in London to see how the championship makes its way to fans watching around the world…

The high-level geographical setup

As well as the complexities caused by racing around the streets of cities such as Rome, Paris and London, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused extra issues for the TV production.

During normal times, most top-tier sports keep the same ‘core’ production team week in, week out, ensuring that the quality of the output remains the same for the viewer watching.

However, the late cancellation and rearrangement of events has resulted in clashes, meaning it has been harder for the team, led by Formula E’s TV director West Gillett, to keep providing a consistent product to viewers.

“It’s definitely been a harder season for us, not only because of the restrictions, but also because a lot of the crew don’t want to travel, to come home and have to quarantine,” Gillett explains, chatting to Motorsport Broadcasting from the expansive ExCeL Centre, home to the London E-Prix.

“We’ve had to open up our crew to a much bigger pool of people, and to not have that consistency is hard,” he says.

“We’re having to start afresh every time, and that’s been quite tiring, but we’ve been fortunate enough to have the right people in the right places.”

Prior to COVID, around 20 broadcasters brought their own personnel with them on-site, a number that reduced to just 1 when the pandemic hit.

Geographically split across three different locations, Timeline Television’s base in Ealing, West London serves as production base for Formula E’s wrap-around programming and team radio feed.

Timeline supports broadcasters such as Star Sports in India, and CBS in US, as well as other broadcasters who take the English language feed, with 35 people producing content from Ealing.

Al Kamel Systems operate from Barcelona and houses Formula E’s graphics operators. In addition, a team of 100 people, led by Gillett, produce content on-site.

The on-site team produces the race feed, as well as the ‘big screen’ displays around each venue, linking in with both the Ealing and Barcelona bases throughout.

At any one time, the production team have up to 40 different feeds coming into them. For the London E-Prix, Formula E operated 18 track cameras.

In some instances, Gillett positioned cameras on top of scissor lifts and cherry pickers, with Jib cameras also utilised.

Capturing the speed

The external angles have evolved significantly since Formula E’s first race in Beijing 2014, helping to capture the speed of the machinery.

“We were panning quite wide [in Beijing], and we found the cars to be a bit slow. A little trick is to start wide, and then zoom into the car, as it enhances the speed on the pan,” Gillett explains.

“I also bring the cameras closer and lower, as the closer you are to a subject matter when it comes past you, the faster it looks. When you’re much further away, the subject is moving slower across your eye line.”

“It’s finding the right balance, we have the ground level cameras where we need them, to enhance the speed, and then the higher cameras to show the circuit and the corner.”

Inside the Formula E production gallery with director West Gillett.

In addition, Gillett has 6 high-speed mini cameras, 8 on-board camera angles and 6 RF cameras to utilise during the race itself.

With a limited number of on-boards coming through however, there is a risk that incidents further down the field go uncaptured from a close-up angle, as has happened on occasion during season 7.

Gillett relies on the engineers to “choose the on-board that is most relevant at the time, otherwise we’re going to have 24 cameras coming in, which is too much.”

“If [Sebastian] Buemi is chasing [Lucas] di Grassi down, ideally, if di Grassi has a rear facing camera, I’ll have that on and I’ll have Buemi’s forward facing camera on.”

On the team radio front, a professional motor racing driver, believed to be Charlie Butler-Henderson, listens to the incoming feeds from Ealing.

“He is listening to the feeds remotely through the MRTC, which is the same system that the teams listen to. If we’re focussed on a particular subject, he’ll start listening to that driver and bring in anything of relevance,” Gillett tells me.

Like with the on-board angles, the team may miss some of the ‘juicier’ team radio snippets with only one person from the team monitoring the feeds, however, given the length of the races, it would be impossible to fit in every interesting soundbite.

How replays happen

Formula E generates replays from a separate production booth on-location, with four different operators analysing all the available angles for the gallery to play out on the feed.

Gillett explains, “My VT coordinator will select what’s going to be coming each time. For example, if I’ve got a replay of Nyck de Vries, there might be two or three angles.”

“With any replay, the first angle tends to explains what happens, the second angle would be an effects angle and the third angle an onboard. If I’ve got three angles, I start the first one on line A, the second one on line B, the third one on line C.”

The narrative from the production team helps commentators Jack Nicholls and Dario Franchitti decipher what happened with each incident during the race.

Nicholls, who has been lead commentator on most of Formula E’s 84 races, helps both new and existing fans interact with the electric series through his old-school ‘red car, blue car’ commentary style.

“You don’t want to spoon feed people and make people feel patronised. But I think there are ways you can say things that explain, but also inform,” Nicholls believes.

“If I say, ‘there goes the black and gold DS Techeetah,’ I’m explaining to people who don’t know what it is, but I’m also just describing it in terms of, for example, ‘look at that blue sky.’”

“I think it is important to differentiate especially when we have a mixed-up field here, a lot of whom won’t be household names. It’s important to point out who’s who to the viewer, I also struggle to identify drivers in a team,” Nicholls adds.

Sitting next to Gillett in the International Gallery is Formula E’s television Executive Producer Mike Scott, who Gillett calls ‘invaluable’ to the production.

“We’ve worked together for 23 years now, and he’s calling each session,” Gillett says.

“He’s invaluable because he’s looking at the timing and scoring, seeing who’s magenta [fastest] in each sector, and then telling me that I can get to camera X in time to follow the car.”

Formula E ‘one step ahead’ in innovating

While some aspects of the production have their limitations, Formula E have also innovated their offering through Driver’s Eye, Attack Mode and their full-screen ‘wipes,’ helping their coverage to stand out.

“The [Driver’s Eye] technology works on an RF frequency, coming down one of our on-board lines to us. Over time, we’ve tried different lenses to see [the effect it would have].”

On-board via Driver’s Eye with Porsche’s Andre Lotterer during the Berlin E-Prix.

“We’ve tried some wide lenses, we’ve had some narrower ones, and now it’s got to point where we’ve found which is the right lens for us. We digitise the steering wheel because the teams don’t want us to broadcast it. It really does pop, particularly on low light,” Gillett explains.

“But, it’s a really immersive camera and it’s definitely something Formula E have done well.”

Gillett believes the championship is ‘one step ahead’ on the innovation front, citing the fact that Formula E innovations have since made their way into different championships, such as the driver replay wipes.

“I think the key thing to note is right from the beginning, Formula E have always been pushing the innovation, trying to be one step ahead. We led the way with broadcast graphics.”

“Like, the Safety Car [graphic], it takes over the whole screen, ‘there’s a Safety Car.’ Sometimes people miss the information, so we’ve made it really bold, very clear, and the design of it I think has definitely led the way,” Gillett believes.

“The driver replay wipes, this is something we introduced around four years ago. We’ve done green screens, we cut them all out, with a wipe for each person. It makes it so much simpler; you clearly know, the replay is going to be of Alex Lynn.”

“There is another championship now that’s adopted that, Formula 1, but that was led from Formula E. So, it’s the simple things like that we’ve introduced over the years and the design of it.”

Since Motorsport Broadcasting interviewed Gillett, Driver’s Eye has also made its way over to Formula 1. The camera, homologated by the FIA and manufactured by ZeroNoise, appeared during the Belgian Grand Prix weekend.

F1’s iteration featured no steering wheel digitisation, putting them ahead of their electric counterparts, something Formula E may wish to review with teams.

With fans returning to motor racing circuits worldwide, Gillett is keen to bring fans closer to the action, and from a broadcasting perspective looking to ‘amplify’ that relationship further as the championship heads into season 8.

“There’s always going to be new ideas, for example with the podiums and things like that. We introduced the sequence with the drivers coming through the crowds to the podium which I really liked.”

“I think that’s something that has been missing this last year and a bit now, and I think that in season 8, I’d like to really amplify that relationship between the drivers and the fans in some way.”

Coming up in part two of this feature, we look at how the ExCeL circuit evolved from concept, to reality.

Contribute to the running costs of Motorsport Broadcasting by donating via PayPal. If you wish to reproduce the contents of this article in any form, please contact Motorsport Broadcasting in the first instance.

In conversation with Rachel Brookes

Rachel Brookes has been an integral part of Sky’s Formula 1 coverage since 2013.

Now in her ninth season with the team, Brookes presents coverage of Formula Two and Formula Three, as well as Sky’s magazine programme The F1 Show on Thursday evenings.

New for 2021, Brookes also commentates on the first Friday practice session alongside the likes of Karun Chandhok and Paul di Resta in the booth.

Ahead of the 2021 season, Motorsport Broadcasting caught up with Brookes to discuss her broadcasting career to date, how COVID has impacted broadcasting, amongst other topics.

We start off by talking about how Brookes ended up part of Sky’s F1 team…

When I joined Sky Sports News, I was just reporting on anything and everything, and one day an editor came into the edit suite I was in and asked whether I know anything about cricket. I said ‘yes, I know a little bit,’ and he said ‘we need you to cover a cricket match tomorrow!’

I turned up and started reporting on cricket from the boundary edge. Sky seemed to like it and then they kept sending me to cricket after that. I loved cricket as a sport but I would never have imagined essentially commentating on it from the side of the pitch! I really enjoyed it, though.

And then when we bought the rights to Formula 1 [in 2011], I was a pain in the neck to the bosses saying ‘I want to work on it!’ They put the job out there, and Craig [Slater] and I both applied.

We went through an interview process, I had to put a presentation together like anyone else would, sit there and tell the why. Luckily, I got the job on Sky Sports News, and then moved over to Sky Sports F1 full-time in 2016, but I started working on F1 in 2013.

What sparked your interest in motor sport, is it something you’ve wanted to be involved in from an early age?

My Dad did endurance records before I was born. 24 Hours of Le Mans was nothing, he did 7 days and nights and that record still stands today, I don’t think anyone else has been crazy enough to beat it.

In our living room at home there was a picture of him during one of his record runs, I would always see that as a kid and ask questions about it. I used to watch it with my brothers, because they were older and they were the cooler ones!

Then one of my brothers started racing in the Polo Super Coupe Cup, followed by both my brothers doing some Radical Racing together, so I used to follow them around. I’ve been around motor sport since I was young and it was always something that intrigued me.

When I went to the races my brother did, there was always such a lovely family atmosphere in the paddock that I knew it was a sport I’d enjoy if I got into it in the end. You’ve still got that same atmosphere in F1 that we had at the races at Brands Hatch or Cadwell Park.

We heard recently about the passing of Murray Walker. Do you have any memories of meeting or interviewing Murray?

I never got to interview him, but I did get to meet him, funnily enough when I worked at the Power FM radio station on the south coast [between 2000 and 2005]. Murray was quite local and he used to come into the radio station to do his voiceover work, so I met him on a couple of occasions then.

He was such an idol in my eyes that I was too nervous to speak to him properly. I met him to say hello and to say that I loved watching Formula 1, and that was it, and I really regret actually not stopping and having a really good conversation with him.

He’s the sound in my ears when I think of watching Formula 1 as a kid, I hear Murray, I think most of us do. He really brought the sport alive for so many people. I think he’ll always be the voice of F1 and so he should be.

People call it a childlike enthusiasm, but it was just his genuine passion for the sport and doing what he loved that was awesome, and I think all of us can learn from that.

This year is Sky’s tenth season of broadcasting F1, and your ninth with the team. Do you have any standout features that you remember?

The Sergio Perez trip to Mexico, to see him at home, is always something that sticks out in my mind, probably because it took nine months to set up.

It’s not easy to persuade a driver and their family to let you into their house with cameras and film them and their family. It’s also because of the environment, he was really open, saying that he’d given up on his Ferrari dream and all this sort of thing. That was one that really sticks out, that I really enjoyed.

I’ve got a couple of people at the moment who are tentative yeses. One solid yes, but COVID has just put pay to doing it, which is a real shame. If the solid yes comes off, it’ll be amazing, I’m keeping everything crossed that it happens.

I really enjoy those just because getting them out of the racing environment makes such a difference and seeing what makes them tick when they’re not at a race track is something I enjoy finding out.

The stuff away from the track we really miss, so the sooner that comes back, the better.

From an interviewing perspective, how has COVID changed the interview dynamic? Have you found yourself adapting your questions a lot more than previously?

It’s really hard because so much of the interview is the connection between you and the person you’re interviewing and that face mask is a physical barrier, and that’s a real shame because you lose quite a bit of that connection.

On a practical side, doing interviews in the pen being 2 meters away, and wearing masks, you can’t hear what they are saying at all, so for the first couple of rounds of interviews, I was thinking ‘this is crazy, I need to find a way around this.’

In the end, I plug headphones into the camera next to me and I hear it through the camera in one ear and then try and hear other stuff in person through the other ear and listen to what’s going on.

I didn’t realise how much of a difference it made until I did an interview [before Bahrain] with Lewis, where we didn’t wear face masks.

We sat probably more than two meters away to be fair, but we could do it on the track, and without face masks, and it completely changes the interview. It’s much more relaxed without masks.

It feels like yesterday since the F1 channel started, its already like I said the tenth season. The plan this year is for 23 races, which is a lot.

It’s going to be a very long, very tough season.

I’m fortunate in that I don’t do every race, Natalie [Pinkham] and I share the role, so for me it’s not as tough, but for those going to every race and for the teams, I can’t imagine how difficult it’s going to be. That’s a very long time for people to be away from home, away from their families and kids.

In 2020 there was always something different every race we went to, there would always be a new story.

I really, really enjoyed last year, seeing different drivers on the podium, having different race winners really helped in what was quite a tough year to carry out on the ground in terms of all the restrictions. It was a great year, and it looks like this year might be even better.

Formula 1 as a sport last year did so well to make sure we managed to complete the season and Sky as a team didn’t have any on-site positive tests.

We [Sky] probably played it safer more than anyone else, none of us went to restaurants, we sat in our hotel in a conference room to have dinner and things just to keep us all safe. Formula 1 saw that it worked and we managed to keep on the road last season when other sports couldn’t.

Moving onto a different topic, there’s been a lot of good work done to get more women into motor sport, and the W Series being on the F1 calendar this year should only help in that regard.

Absolutely. I’ve always said that you can’t be what you can’t see, and a perfect example was my niece who went to a Dare to be Different day.

She came along and we all assumed that she’d get in the go kart and love it. Actually, it was the STEM engineering that she loved. They made a hovercraft and made it fly, and for her, she hadn’t done any of that at school, and she was like ‘I love this, I want to do this.’ 

I think the big message we need to get out there is it’s open to everyone, absolutely everyone, and the more we can showcase all of the different people that work in the paddock, that work in motor sport, the better.

We’ve got some fantastic women working in Formula 1 right now, we had Claire [Williams] as a deputy team principal, but we’ve got strategists, we’ve got aerodynamicists, we’ve got people working in the pit stops that you don’t see because they’ve got helmets on, but let’s showcase these people more, and show what they can do.

W Series is another brilliant example, and just this morning there was a tweet from Top Gear with an interview with Chris Harris and Jess Hawkins who’s a stunt driver. Let’s publicise these people, let’s really put them on a platform and say ‘you can do anything.’

It doesn’t just apply to women, it applies across the board, let’s make sure that everyone is given a fair opportunity to show what you can do and what’s open to you, and then hopefully kids growing up will think ‘I can do anything’ which is exactly what they should be able to think.

It’s not soundbite, it’s action that is needed.

My thanks go to Rachel Brookes for spending the time with me on the above piece.

Contribute to the running costs of Motorsport Broadcasting by donating via PayPal. If you wish to reproduce the contents of this article in any form, please contact Motorsport Broadcasting in the first instance.

Behind the motorcycling microphone: Keith Huewen on four decades of broadcasting

MotoGP fans worldwide will remember 2020 for many reasons, and not only because of the COVID-19 pandemic. On track, the action was thrilling, with Juan Mir stepping out into the limelight to secure his first championship in the premier class, and Suzuki’s first since 2000.

The pandemic resulted in changes across the board: a truncated MotoGP season of just 14 races started in July, culminating on November 22nd in Portugal. Some broadcasters stayed away from the paddock, including UK broadcaster BT Sport, who recently extended their deal to cover MotoGP until the end of the 2024 season.

BT based themselves to begin with at Triumph’s UK headquarters in Hinckley, before moving to the iconic BT Tower in London from September. For the personnel involved, 2020 meant a season closer to their loved ones, for the first time in years.

During the Czech Republic weekend, I mused around BT’s temporary Triumph base to see how they were adapting to the ever-changing pandemic, chatting to the stars in front of the camera, including lead commentator Keith Huewen.

But little did I, or perhaps he, know at the time, 2020 would be Huewen’s last with the BT Sport team. Following the season finale, Huewen announced that he was stepping down as BT’s lead commentator.

Here, we look back at Huewen’s broadcasting career…

The early days

Before stepping into the broadcasting arena, Huewen raced across the UK and overseas, like many before and after him, including at Mallory Park, which is just a stone’s throw away from the Triumph building where we recollect about the past.

Huewen raced into his early 30s in the 1980s, when injury forced him onto the side-lines at a “relatively early” age. “I won my last British championship when I was 30, and retired when I was 31,” he tells me.

“The fact is, at a certain age, you know as a rider, that the time is right [to retire]. Some go through denial; others are forced out through injury. For me, it was a bit of both. I had shoulder injuries that were hampering me, and it felt like the time was right to move on.”

It was during his racing days that Huewen met journalist Julian Ryder, a friendship now almost 40 years in the making, and one that has evolved over the years through various commentary stints with multiple broadcasters.

The two began their partnership with Eurosport, before moving to Sky, in an era where satellite TV was just coming to the forefront, and the sports television boom on pay-TV was beginning.

“It was pioneering back in those days,” Huewen recalls. “I always remember my mates at the BBC and elsewhere laughing their socks off when they knew I was going satellite.”

“But, of course, within two or three years, all the sports departments you had at Anglia Television and Look South had gone. A lot of the people I worked with at, say, Anglia are now working with different production companies all over the country.”

“Satellite television really took sport on and improved it in my view. There’s a lot of people that baulked at the idea that sport would cost people money to watch on TV but the fact is sport pretty much lives off the television nowadays.”

Whilst pioneering, there were fewer people involved in front of the screen compared to today, with the likes of Huewen ‘doubling up’ as both presenter and commentator.

Huewen not only presented Sky’s World Superbikes offering from Chiswick in the mid-1990s, but would then join Ryder in the commentary box straight after. Whilst “quite good fun,” Huewen does look back on certain aspects of their commentary slightly differently, and not with rose-tinted glasses either.

“TV commentary has moved on hugely since the ’90s. I listen to some of our old commentaries and cringe slightly. I’m sure if you spoke to Jules, he’d be exactly the same!”

“The professionalism involved in our television broadcast now is hugely better than it was back then, in both the production standards, and I hope in commentary standards,” Huewen believes.

As with many commentators, Huewen has bounced around various places, on both two wheels and four. See if you recognise the commentator in the clip above, published to F1’s YouTube channel, featuring Lewis Hamilton climbing from back to front during his karting days in 1998…

The second coming

With Sky moving away from World Superbikes however as the 1990s ended, the Huewen and Ryder pairing ended, for now at least.

Huewen spent the 2000s presenting Sky’s motor sport portfolio, from A1 Grand Prix to IndyCar, and whilst he admits he “could have ticked over at Sky forever,” presenting motor sport in a studio when other broadcasters were evolving their offering around him, was not where he wanted to be.

In addition, the emergence of Sky F1 at the beginning of 2012 meant that Sky’s existing motor sport rights became even less of a priority.

For Huewen, MotoGP’s move from the BBC and Eurosport to BT Sport ready for the start of 2014 season, presented new opportunities, and more importantly, a potential return to what he loved doing.

“The point here is that I really, really, really felt the loss of not being at the track covering World Superbikes or MotoGP and when BT took MotoGP on, I wanted to be there.”

The jigsaw fell into place for the Northampton-based commentator. Internal support from the powers that be at BT Sport sealed the deal for Huewen, whilst Huewen himself made it clear to Dorna, MotoGP’s Commercial Rights Holder, that he wanted to be back in the paddock.

“I’d made sure that the right people had known that we [Huewen and Ryder] were available to the point where I’d even gone out to Le Mans in 2013 to meet with [CEO] Carmelo Ezpeleta at Dorna to make sure that he knew so that if anybody from BT asked the boss at Dorna his opinion regarding commentators, he would know that I was in the marketplace,” Huewen recalls.

“Grant Best [BT’s Executive Director of Talent, Creative and Programming] at the time decided that he wanted Jules [Ryder] and I back together again. That meant that the likes of Steve Parrish and Toby Moody both very capable commentators, lost out.”

“But they lost out on the BT deal because it was decided that Jules and I were going to get back together again, and the rest is history as they say.”

Huewen is full of praise for the BT team that he leaves behind.

“The team that’s on BT is a well-oiled machine, everybody works well together. We’re very fortunate in that everybody shares information, which you don’t get in broadcasting that often. It’s an unusual situation.”

“Going back to the racing analogy, it’d be like sharing your notes as far as your data is concerned, with somebody that’s outside of your team, it’s rare.”

Commentating with Ryder and Hodgson

Contrary to what some on social media may believe, Huewen and Ryder are genuine friends, even if they sometimes did “aggravate each other” in the commentary box!

“People often ask ‘do you actually like each other.’ And we really do, we are good mates. We’re opposites in many of our viewpoints, but we always end up properly agreeing.”

“Our arguments have always been whoever can argue the most reasonably wins. If you’ve got the most reasonable argument over the other person, you win, eventually.”

“He’s never hit me. Although I think he probably wanted to.”

Hopefully not in commentary…

“It’s been close! I’ve had to stand up in front of the screen so I can get a go sometimes.”

Joking or not (reader, I will let you decide), Huewen’s and Ryder’s friendship goes beyond the commentary box, and the two still speak regularly about the action on track.

“Yeah, we still speak every week about what’s going on. We’re all connected in our field, journalists, riders, mechanics. We’ve known each other for decades.”

“Motorcycling is your life, and the fact you’re broadcasting now, even though it is a job in comparison, you’re still just as enthusiastic about it as you were then. I’ve spent nights lying in bed, looking through time sheets. Some people think that’s bloody ridiculous,” Huewen laughs.

“And it’s not because I have to, it’s because I want to!”

More recently, Neil Hodgson has succeeded Ryder in the commentary box alongside Huewen, a pairing that in Huewen’s eyes has worked “really well.”

“He’s got personality and he knows what he’s talking about at the end of the day. He’s like me, man and boy came up through the paddock. I knew his Mum and Dad for a long time, and I of course commentated on a lot of stuff Hodgy had done.”

“We have a very similar sense of humour, which always helps. We’re like brothers from a different mother, and that works really well.”

Citing the “unexpected positive effect of the pandemic,” Huewen stepped aside from BT’s offering following the conclusion of the 2020 season, but is also keen to emphasise that, like Ryder a few years earlier, he is not retiring.

What next then for both Huewen, and BT Sport’s MotoGP coverage? Who will succeed Huewen in the BT box? That is the next chapter to follow…

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On location with BT Sport’s MotoGP team at Triumph’s HQ

For all stakeholders across motor sport, the restart of sport since the COVID-19 pandemic has meant a change in the ways of working, as everyone adapts to the current landscape – inside and outside of broadcasting.

So far, project restart has gone remarkably well, with no flare ups causing significant disruption to major championships.

Many have taken the decision, voluntarily or not, to remain away from the paddock, reducing the risk of COVID-19 transmission for everyone involved.

One broadcaster, BT Sport has remained off-site for their MotoGP coverage, instead opting to base themselves at the home of Moto2 engine supplier Triumph.

Now in their seventh season covering the championship and with the team settled into their temporary home, Motorsport Broadcasting took a trip up to Hinckley in Leicestershire to see how things were shaping up…

The three ‘bases’
Luckily for me, Hinckley is only a short drive from where I live, so getting to Triumph was not a problem, but upon arrival to BT’s new base, two things are immediately clear.

Firstly, BT really have taken over museum element of the Triumph building; and secondly, those working on the production in Hinckley take social distancing seriously.

As mentioned by Series Editor Kevin Brown in our chat last month, only the key people who need to be in Hinckley are on location, again to reduce the potential risk.

The Triumph team consists of the on-air presentation line-up, key technicians across sound and vision to fix emerging issues, as well as an Assistant Producer who doubles up as a COVID-19 supervisor, ensuring all present follow the guidelines whilst off-air.

The bulk of the production team remains down in London, with some working remotely, all communicating with those on-site in Triumph to help bring the show to life.

Hinckley (Triumph HQ) London
5 x Presenters / Commentators 1 x Series Editor / COVID-19 supervisor
1 x Sound / Tech Supervisor 1 x Director
2 x Sound Assistant 1 x Vision Mixer
2 x Camera Operator 1 x Sound Supervisor
1 x Assistant Producer / COVID-19 supervisor 1 x Assistant Producer / EVS Operator
1 x Vision Guarantee 1 x Script Supervisor
1 x Uplink Engineer 1 x Resource Manager
1 x Generator / Electrician 1 x Broadcast Engineer
1 x Sound Guarantee
1 x Media Systems Engineer
Remote On-Site (Dorna staff)
1 x Production Manager 1 x Floor Producer
1 x Junior Production Manager 1 x RF Cameraman
1 x VT Co-Ordinator 1 x Sound Technician
1 x Assistant Producer  
1 x Graphics Operator  
1 x Digital Producer  
2 x Editors  

Despite the drawbacks of not being on-site, the consensus from many, including MotoGP lead commentator Keith Huewen, is that the Triumph setup has worked.

“I have to say that, at first you do think, ‘ugh I’ve got to do it back in the UK’ rather than being at trackside,” he tells me.

“Am I going to miss the information that I need to commentate? Normally you’re walking down pit lane, you’re bumping into people; you run the track and you bump into mechanics and crew chiefs.”

“You come here [to Triumph] for the first time with some trepidation, am I going to be stunted in what I can put out.”

“But, the answer to that is not really, because you have personal links to the track, you have links to the officials, you use the phone to get in touch with them and find out what’s going on.”

From a facilities perspective, Huewen believes there is ‘no better facility’ than Triumph’s base, Huewen chatting to me in the Hinckley sunshine prior to MotoGP qualifying.

“The commentary booths are brilliant; sound and vision are all good for us. So, from a technical point of view, it couldn’t be better. In my view, there is no better facility than the one we’re working out of here,” he adds.

The Triumph layout and how it has benefited the team…
Split across two floors, the main studio and touch screen is located on the ground floor in the main museum area, the back drop perfect for BT’s MotoGP programming.

A plethora of cables, laptops and generators sprawl the floor, all necessary for getting the show to air, a collaborative effort between BT Sport, MotoGP commercial rights holder Dorna, production partner North One Television and technology provider Timeline Television.

BT Sport Triumph - main studio.jpg
The view that presenter Suzi Perry sees when presenting BT Sport’s MotoGP coverage from Triumph HQ.

Also, on show was plenty LED lighting and four state of the art 4K Ultra HD cameras, three for the main studio set and one for the touch screen further round the museum.

BT used both the video wall behind the main studio and the touch screen to great effect: conducting interviews with those in the paddock throughout the opening weekends, the set up unintentionally providing benefits to BT’s output.

“I’m doing interviews with people actually a bit easier than when you’re at the racetrack because [Dorna are] bringing them to our position [within the paddock], whereas normally I’m chasing round for like three hours at the end of the day trying to find people to interview,” resident interviewer Gavin Emmett tells me.

“The riders have been accommodating on the other end of things by going to a position, and they can’t see me, even though I can see them and they can hear me, so having a fairly relaxed, normal conversation with them has been good.”

“The team managers are normally tied up with meetings on Sunday’s, whereas now they’ve been able to speak to Suzi [Perry] directly in the couple of hours before a race, which is really handy. I’m pleasantly surprised at how well it has all gone.”

Historically, journalists and broadcasters have conducted post-session MotoGP media interviews from the comfort of the teams’ motorhomes, but Emmett believes that the COVID-19 pandemic may result in permanent changes within the paddock.

When asked by Motorsport Broadcasting, Emmett noted that the introduction of a ‘media pen,’ akin to the current Formula 1 set-up following qualifying and the race, would only be a positive for the two-wheeled community.

“Having a mix zone has worked for us, and I think it would work for the teams and the riders, because they know that they come there, they do their thing and that’s it, done, and they don’t need to go to different places, different times.”

BT Sport Triumph - touch screen.jpg
BT Sport’s touch screen set up at Triumph HQ.

“I think it’s a great idea. Teams are bringing their backdrops to the mix zone and putting them in, understandably they want the sponsor logos displayed. I hope it’s something we continue in the future because it does help everybody. It helps us know what the lights, the sound, everything is going to look like.”

The touch screen has proved its worth for BT already in 2020, Neil Hodgson using it to analyse the horrifying accidents during the Austrian Grand Prix weekend, illustrating how close MotoGP came to multiple fatalities that weekend.

At the other end of the ground floor in Triumph’s canteen area is the sound booth, whilst upstairs are BT’s four commentary booths, all separated by Perspex screens.

If anything, the commentary set up works better than your traditional on-site circuit set up. All four of BT’s commentators have their own monitors, giving them more space to work within than at a normal race weekend.

Thanks to the close relationship between the BT Sport team and many of MotoGP’s riders, the team has still been able to relay critical information about the riders back to the viewer at home.

Huewen, who retired from racing and started his broadcasting career thirty years ago, knows many of the current riders’ relatives. In some other cases, the working relationship between the rider and broadcaster is so close that the riders themselves message the BT team directly!

“Before the start of the [Czech Republic Grand Prix FP3] session this morning John McPhee sent Michael [Laverty] a voice message saying ‘we’ve been banned for the first 10 minutes the session, we’ve just found out.'”

“That was him sat in the garage, sending the information back to Michael from the garage in the little voice note, and that’s great,” Emmett says.

“He probably wouldn’t have done that if we were there! He’s aware ‘Oh, you know, I need to let you guys know because you’re going to be commentating on this session’ and the fans also wanting to know what happened, well this is what happened.”

The only inconvenience for Emmett from a commentary perspective comes when teamed with Laverty, the two positioned the furthest away from one another, however in the grand scheme of things it is a minor issue (as Hodgson was keen to point out to me in a friendly manner, he rarely looks at his co-commentator anyway…).

Post-COVID
Whilst the COVID-19 pandemic is (hopefully) temporary, many of the techniques BT Sport and other broadcasters have utilised over the past four months will remain a permanent fixture in the years to come, as broadcasting transitions to a remote, environmentally friendly, model.

The plan for BT Sport was to begin looking at MotoGP remote production this year, although clearly COVID accelerated their plans further than they anticipated.

With no fans and fewer personnel on-site, Hodgson believes that there is little incentive for the team to head back overseas whilst the paddock is ‘still empty.’  In the longer term, however, Huewen believes on-site presence remains ‘critical’ to BT’s output.

“My view is that trackside presence is critical,” Huewen says.

“At the moment, we can manage as we are, but this is a short-term thing. Is a long-term solution to production? No.”

“Dorna are helping us massively from trackside, facilitating the interviews. Moving forward, I think for the impromptu paddock views, meetings and information, you’ve got to be there on-site.”

The two-wheel series takes a break until September 13th, with nine rounds in eleven weekends to bring the 2020 season to a conclusion. The current plan is for BT to remain at Triumph for the next three races, but the broadcaster is reviewing plans on a regular basis.

There may not be many things guaranteed in 2020, but with Marc Marquez out injured, 2020 will certainly see a new MotoGP champion. Quartararo? Dovizioso? Miller? Binder? Your guess is as good as mine.

It really is all to play for in this strangest of years…

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