By Alex Waldrop, President and CEO of the NTRA
Sunday night, the NTRA hosted its
fifth NTRA Live! broadcast on NTRA.com. Thousands of people from around the
globe tuned in to watch Zenyatta extend her perfect record to 17-0.
Carrying the high weight of 129 lbs., Zenyatta gave everything she had to catch
a very game St Trinians just before the wire. It was a breathtaking
stretch run and finish. You can watch a recap of the race
on our Web site by NTRA clicking here. This clearly was a banner day for
Zenyatta and her connections - owners Jerry and Ann Moss, trainer John
Shirreffs, racing manager Dottie Ingordo-Shirreffs, and jockey Mike
Smith. It was also a good day for NTRA Live!
Joining us for the broadcast were
people from no fewer than 38 countries, including the United States. It
was especially amazing to see people from places like Uruguay and Vietnam
participating in the live chat accompanying the broadcast. Those of us who
participated in it were part of something truly special. This is
the kind of interactivity and accessibility our sport has needed for a long
time.
If international racing is the future
of our sport - and we at the NTRA think that it is - then NTRA Live! represents
a terrific way to digitally access that future. No matter where a
horseracing fan may be on the planet, if he or she has access to the Internet,
that fan can watch live Thoroughbred racing from the U.S. or anywhere else
around the world.
But this has not been easy, simple or
cheap. Since our initial NTRA Live! broadcast back in March, NTRA staff
members have been working overtime to get it right for you, the fans. You
see, Webcasting is more complicated than simply showing live streaming video
via the web. NTRA Live! is a cutting edge live Internet broadcast that
merges streaming live video with both in-studio and remote elements. Sunday
night, Randy was in the studio and Daily Racing Form national
correspondent Jay Privman joined by phone from California. A live chat was
hosted by Eric Wing from New York, and the Hollywood Park video signal was fed
through a site in Nevada.
As if all of
these moving parts weren't complicated enough, some of the most important
variables in bringing this product to you are your computer and its internet
connection speed. But we've tried to account for those factors as
well. Taken as a whole, this is not just a brand new approach to horse
racing Webcasting, but a sports presentation unlike almost anything on the
Internet today.
Behind the scenes, the lead up to last
Sunday's broadcast was especially nerve-wracking because we were
switching to a new content delivery network (CDN). The decision to switch
was driven by our desire to address the problem of "buffering" which has
nagged us from the start. Tim Turrell, our producer and one of the
tech wizards behind NTRA Live!, spent the past several months in search of a
solution to buffering. His search took him to the National Association of
Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas. There he found the highest quality
and most cutting edge technology in the web streaming/broadcast industry.
After interviewing five CDN companies,
he chose BitGravity because they are a "tier 1" CDN with global
capabilities and are amongst the leaders in HD web streaming. Their
biggest clients include Showtime Sports and CNBC.
They also streamed the Australian
Open. Their quality, combined with the price point, made them a solid
choice.
The rest is history. Our new
system seemed to perform flawlessly. The buffering was all but
non-existent on my computer, and the signal was clearer than ever. We
will continue to analyze every NTRA Live! broadcast for ways to improve
them.
The digital revolution is here,
folks. And Thoroughbred racing is at the forefront of the
technology. Perhaps we didn't fire the first shot but we are definitely
positioned to take full advantage of the worldwide changes that are
coming. Stay tuned to NTRA Live! for all the coverage we can get our
hands on.
And let us know about NTRA Live! Did
you have any trouble viewing the broadcast? Which races do you want
to see? Any guests you'd like to hear from? Give us your
feedback. Leave a comment below.
