flagrag

I thought it was another good Cardiff weekend with the usual excellent atmosphere in the stadium. Just a few points that I think could be improved on for next year As others have said I really did not like the fanzone in that location it was very squashed in especially the autograph signing that should have been moved to the other end to the stage, Personally I think it was better in the street. I understand that will already be changed for 2015 anyway. Although the programme content,editorial and Information was very good I thought the actual production quality of the programme was very poor on cheap paper that got ripped very easily and looked scruffy for the £10 charge I expected and have seen better from BSI on this front. Lastly as this the largest gathering of Speedway fans in the world with 1000s staying over I am very surprised that both BSI and Monster do not arrange a proper after party for fans and the many riders that go to gather,drink,party,listen to bands and DJs. I know that they do this at some of the foreign GPs and generally work very well. To me I feel that there is a big opportunity being missed here by the organisers to provide more and also to make extra money. This weekend most speedway fans seemed to be in Walkabout,Prince of Wales or the Brew house I am sure that most would be happy to pay £5-8 to go to proper Speedway party . Venue wise the ideal places would be Cardiff arms park pitch area or Sophia gardens park, If noise restrictions maybe the Motorpoint arena.

Oh why do some people have to kill these threads off so soon often fun seeing every body trying to guess the dates. Oh well for th ladies maybe they will have Tom Cruise there making a special appearance and another Greg Hancock win as its such a special day for both of them. I see the hotels have already published their usual high rates for the said weekend so best to get onto the smaller properties who may not be aware of the date yet.

This is purely a guess and not sure if would fit in the averages but release Nielsen and Lanham to bring in James Wright who is practicing again around the tracks and Anders Mellgren who is also fit again wanting to ride in the UK.

I think the announcement may be that Simon Stead is becoming a Sheffield asset

Has there been any update to any injuries that the riders picked up yesterday?

The service will also be on the Sky Bet website soon , It will be interesting to see what Go Speed have to say as it was always my understanding that you would have to place bets of a min of £5 but as Speedway is a new sport they may be trying to get more interest in the service and also may not have the systems setup right yet. But I guess it's up to the betting companies how they want to do it as have paid the money for the rights and by the looks of it have paid out for the required uplink equipment at the tracks which is quite a large investment . If they want to show it free if you just hold the money in their account its their choice it's them that has to make it pay Well done Mr Ballinger for arranging the comms but fully agree that you should get your fees for doing so and hopefully can increase your DVD sales if people watch races and want to watch again will buy the DVD.

Norrie Allen said on Saturday at Leicester that if Jason did not have the permit in his hand by Tuesday so that he could arrive Wed/thurs then they would be resubmitting the team with Kenni Larson in his place until Jason can get over here. This is due to Leicester not being allowed a guest and RR would not work.

I noticed at Leicester that they have had a Vsat terminal installed to uplink the pictures from there which will work a lot better than the 4G solution being used at some tracks. I thought the 2nd match was due to be Leicester vs Wolves on Saturday ?

I am not 100% sure the tv broadcast by Polsat is still going ahead as they announced it and I know have desperately been trying to find a UK broadcaster to take the feed as well to help share the production costs. The last I had heard was Sky,Eurosport,BT and Motors tv had all said no as just one off meeting. I have a feeling it may just end up being a 2-3 camera edited highlights programme later in the week on Polsat

I have spoken to a couple of contacts at Eurosport and it appears that it is good news with Swedish league being shown in the UK and across Europe by Eurosport. The coverage should be improved as the host broadcaster are very keen to make this work and will be providing a HD world feed with the main programme interviews done in English and the swedish broadcaster will do own interviews mainly with swedish riders. There will also be full English commentary and graphics You have to remember this is a lot bigger deal both financially and audience size to the Premier sports which was just the UK to a 140-200k subscribers. Now you are talking Europe wide with possibly millions of viewers as is included in a lot of tv packages and even free to air in some countries.

I have a feeling that BT sport may well have gained these rights as have heard from contacts that they are recruiting and setting up another production team for a new content programme with core hours of Mon and Tues this could well be for the Swedish speedway. If it will almost definitely be presented from the UK studios in London

PhilfromCov- When we trialled the LiveU system at Sky we found on average a 64sec delay over a 3G HSPA connection. The delay did drop down when on 4G which should be a lot better this year as will now have access to Vodafone and O2 4G networks.

With regards to time delays on tv broadcasts currently there is a 1.8 -4.6 second time delay on Sky sports live sport epending on location if the pictures are sent from the event along BT broadcast fibre links usually 1.4 gig dedicated connection to a main exchange then down to the tower in London then to the broadcaster who uplink to satellite. If the event does not have BT broadcast fibre link it will be uplinked by satellite truck which will make the time delay about 6 seconds depending on encoders used and which orbital position they use for uplink as some are in inclined orbits. For this new betting project neither of these options will be used its far too costly instead the pictures will be sent over a standard Internet connection or a leased line if available and up to standard as far as I am aware this should be fine at the following tracks Coventry,Belle Vue,Poole,Swindon,Birmingham and Wolverhampton all of which have good connections. I expect delays of around 20 seconds as has to travel over Internet to the server it will be hosted on who will then send it to the betting companies Leicester,Lakeside,Kings Lynnand Eastbourne will be the problematic tracks as they will be using 4G and even 3G mobile connections to get the footage to the servers and will add quite a bit of delay as slower connection and also has to travel all the way around the mobile companies infrastructure first before even hitting the Internet so expect 60-90 second delays. The technology being used is different to what is used for greyhounds as most tracks have fixed SIS satellite links or SIS fibre boxes both of which would have less than 10 sec delay.

I still have large doubts on this project due to the logistics of broadcasting pictures from some of the tracks but also think it is open to abuse as in my experience of the technology they are planning to use there could be 60-90 sec delays

If GoSpeed have sold the UK rights for the Polish league to BT that would be very good news for fans and them as a business as well. I have to admit I know nothing about this possible deal but have a feeling if BT have got a speedway deal it is likely to be for the Swedish league as Tuesday in summer looks light in their schedule they could of course go for both

Skidder 1 - To be honest with you I didn't even know that the betting streaming deal had been agreed upon as ATR are kind of seperate to Sky sports. I had heard that it was being considered and as a Speedway fan as well as being involved technical side of the tv broadcast I got asked how feasible I thought it would be from the knowledge I had of tracks and their infrastructure. I have to admit I do think they will have quite a few obstacles to overcome to stream these meetings I presume they will use some of the track DVD companies to film it but my biggest worry is how they propose to uplink the pictures to their servers. At some tracks this will be easy as the stadium has leased lines or good quality broadband but some others will be a real struggle like Leicester and Eastbourne even KL special broadband lines have to be installed for World Cup just to get basic access Internet to send emails. As I say this is not really my thing I just hope that they are not planning on using the Live U system which Sky trialled last season it works over 4G and 3G HSPA at a push, it's not too bad for static interviews but we found live action a no go as turned it a blurry mess with often lags which will be useless for betting. That system is also very dependent on mobile coverage but also network traffic especially in areas where they are near big built up areas or if track has big crowds like Poole,Birmingham or Belle Vue although all these have good broadband links. It used to work really well at Wolves as EE have a mast right behind the pits. If it works ok good luck with it and I'm sure will be well used although I expect you will have to use a min of bets to get access to the streams

Hopefully now everybody can see and understand why there has been the delay in officially announcing the deal. Any announcements about rights and new services have to be announced to the stock market first before anybody else, I believe there is a law about this hence why Speedway star could not be given the green light to publish an article in today's excellent magazine. But it is all confirmed now and have also heard that a deal has been done again with BSI and an agreement with Eurosport to feature action from GPs during the British Speedway coverage. Just as a side note what would people's views on being given 5-1 cards upon entry like used at darts and 20-20 cricket ?

So where is North planning on basing himself Poole or Swindon ?

The review show does not need the league sponsors to be agreed to to go ahead as in 2013 it was the Sky sports elite league. The tv rights deal announcement my understanding does need to have the sponsor in place but there is plenty of time to announce this. It may be that the bspa agree to announce the new tv deal without the sponsor it would just mean the new sponsor misses out on free prime time exposure and also they will likely buy some ad time on Sky sports news

The Sky sports Speedway review show will start to be produced on Monday as yet it has no screening slot. The delay this year is due to the uncertainty of a future deal back in November/ early December when it is normally done as would not have been able to show it after 31st December if no agreement was reached as would no longer be rights holders. When talks did take place it was then too late to put it together in time for its usual New years eve slot .as the Speedway production team also do the coverage of the Darts on Sky with the world championship taking place for 22 nights during Dec they have all been tied up with that. There has also been the task of trying to tie Nigel Pearson down to do some commentary and foreword with all his other work scheduled in. Charlie is also busy with her personal challenge tasks and variety of other work. Another issue has been rider/Manager interviews with various people going on holiday. I may be wrong on the next bit as not had this confirmed but my understanding the delay in announcing the new tv rights deal is down to the BSPA trying to agree league sponsorship deal so that the sponsor can be included in press releases to gain maximum exposure e.g 2014 Wonga.com Elite league or Cash converters Premier league

It could well be Sheffield as have heard the new owner is looking at changing the race night to accomondate another couple of riders that ride in Sweden on Thursdays one of whom shall I say is like a member of the family

My understanding is that if plans come through British Speedway will be better off financially as they have tv rights deal which will help attract sponsors to clubs as can offer exposure. This is also along with league sponsors who will pay to have their brand advertised at every track i would imagine along other benefits. There is also possible tv coverage sponsors whose bramd will be shown on the tv ad bumpers although this will be majority kept by the broadcaster.

I think some of the brands mentioned on here for sponsors are very funny but think it may all be PIE in the Sky if rumours I have been hearing are correct.

It costs between 28-40k a week to produce elite league coverage on Sky sports depending on location and whether the track is connected to the BT broadcast fibre network. If not and the broadcast requires satellite uplink the costs rise significantly. The amount that is dedicated to production for Speedway will rise again next season

Oh dear British Speedway promotors drop themselves in it again and annoy their broadcast partner just days after agreeing a new deal. I can tell you this slip up has not gone down well at Sky sports as they were not ready to announce the deal today as wanted to produce proper press releases and create some spin. The plan was to feature the deal on Sky sports news and a couple of rider interviews likely to have been Woofy and Nicholls. Nevermind it's done now