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Canadian Oval / Road Racing => Canadian Tracks => Topic started by: ernie on June 27, 2010, 07:34:22 PM
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I was wondering why no tracks seem to have web cams installed? Is it a conscious decision not to? If so why? Is there no bandwidth where tracks are located?
The reason I was wondering is that it would seem to me to be an inexpensive marketing tool. We have used them on job sites for security and the picture is surprisingly good. Teams could take a look at the track to see if it is raining etc.
Just wondering and appreciate any responses.
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Several possible answers Ernie, though I can't speak for the race track owners...
Webcams have been around for years.Good idea but several issues.
Broadband DSL where race tracks are is expensive, often not available.
Broadband Wireless is expensive and you pay for bandwidth usage after 2 GB on most plans.
To top it all off, the ISP that hosts the website of the track would also charge bandwidth for hosting the video collection point (video streaming live is done through one of two methods, Unicast or Multicast - the former the most popular). Which means as everyone downloads the video, the ISP web host provider is gonna charge the race track for bandwidth consumed... it's big money.
In my opinion it's not worth doing unless it was sponsored - which could have some opportunities. NASCAR has been trying to make a profit on it for years and has a rough go of it. TNT with it's RaceBuddy product hasn't made a dime for NASCAR or TNT. The bandwidth costs outweigh the revenue stream opportunities - at least for now they do.