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by Tony Ware | Published Dec 8, 2023 2:00 PM EST
Watch the soul-stirring symphony of motorcycle racing at Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas.
MotoGP Class motorcycles at Circuit of the Americas Track, Austin, Texas, April 2023. DORNA Photo
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I’m laughing uncontrollably, but nothing’s funny. I’ve been secured for days behind chain-link fences, surrounded by men in towers with shotguns. Now I’m in a car going 150+ mph, overwhelmed by feelings of terror and freedom.
It sounds like a fast and furious getaway, but the only thing that’s been captured is excitement. The barriers line the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) racetrack, the camera risers are armed with shotgun microphones, and the vehicle is a professionally driven BMW M2 safety car. I’m taking what we’ll call a victory lap to get a final feel for the physical and logistical course that Dorna Sports S.L. productions and Audio-Technica mics navigate as they choreograph an immersive broadcast of the MotoGP Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas motorcycle race, held April 14-16 outside Austin, Texas.
Highly directional Audio-Technica BP28L shotgun microphones sync up the shifting timbres of zooming riders with the long zoom of the cameras. Gary Dixon
The partnership between Dorna, the Spain-based commercial-rights holder of MotoGP since 1991, and Audio-Technica, the Tokyo-headquartered microphone services solution provider for the 21 Grands Prix held yearly, is a potent collaboration. “We say it is a love story,” says Sergi Sendra i Vives, Dorna’s head of global technology, praising the meticulous nature of Audio-Technica’s Japanese engineers, who started R&D in 2018 to provide Dorna with components that can withstand the rigors of premier motorsports.
Feeding international distributors from a new location every few weeks, the host-broadcast team can adjust to any venue and every hush or rush—from the telemetry crosstalk of the pit to the rapid pitch shifts of 220 mph straightaways to the ramping giggles of a tech journalist who normally would only push his Honda CR-V 10 miles over the limit if he’s feeling reckless. It takes over 200 microphones, more than 160 cameras, tens of tons of mobile command center, nearly 300 people, and several imported espresso machines to communicate a cohesive narrative (Dorna being European means an on-demand Café Solo or Cortado is crucial). And the result—thanks to tightly coordinated efforts and a newly developed eight-element mic—brings viewers worldwide into an experience that includes hundreds of thousands of cheering fans and 20 laps of high-performance, high-SPL prototype bikes.
Defining a sport’s spirit