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The helicopter team that films the Tour de France
- dmix 7y ago> Circling at 2,000 feet (600m), the relay helo takes camera feeds and sends them to a fixed-wing aircraft flying higher at 10,000 to 25,000 feet (3,000-7,600m), depending on weather. The airplane sends the combined feeds back down to two receive trucks located along the race course. This was the most interesting part. It makes sense you’d have to use a plane at such long distances as you need a perfect feed. I’m curious what other sports have a plane following them.
- vermontdevil 7y agoWorld Rally events?
- AareyBaba 7y agoLos Angeles car chases. They have automatic camera tracking and stabilization, estimated speeds and road maps super-imposed in the live feed while the pursuit is taking place. All this from a helicopter that circles above for several hours sometimes. They even have specialized live commentators like Stu Mundel and specific lingo: 't-boned', 'pit-maneuver', and my favorite 'suspect is traveling at a high rate of speed' eg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7K3dZmrcriU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7K3dZmrcriU
- toomanybeersies 7y agoThey mention early on in the video that the LAPD has a helicopter en route. It's pretty crazy that the media manages to respond to incidents faster than the emergency services. I'm not trying to cast aspersions on the LAPD, but rather I'm amazed at how well-resourced the entertainment industry (face it, this isn't news) is. Despite the fact that I find it disgusting that live-crime is an entertainment genre, I guess it's also sort of useful? Do police forces utilise news helicopters as part of their operations? Can the footage be used as evidence in court?
- AareyBaba 7y agoYes. They cooperate with the LA police dept in real time passing information to help them catch the suspects or warning them of dangerous situations. Amazingly, they have a code of conduct. If shots are fired they quickly zoom out so viewers don't get to see people getting shot. The crazy part is when viewers watching the TV coverage in their homes come out onto the streets to cheer the suspects driving through their neighborhood trying to get away from the cops. In a way, just like the Tour de France!
- dmix 7y agoIt’s funny because it’s almost always in LA. And they rarely get away but they still keep trying. Once there’s a helicopter it’s pretty much over.
- protomyth 7y agoI wonder what actual camera they are using. Cineflex has a variety of options.
- tomglynch 7y agoHave a read of this article also, it graphs the flight paths of these helicopters: https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/how-the-tour-de-france-goes-from-cycle-to-screen/ https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/how-the-tour-de-france-go...
- ape4 7y agoLooks like bicycle wheels
- mercules 7y agoDo they paint the helicopter differently for every Tour de france?
- gregmac 7y ago> Two AS355s serve as the video-copters, [...] An AS350 serves as a relay helicopter, equipped with VHF antennas that receive and transmit live feeds from the AS355s, as well as ground cameras on motorcycles. > Circling at 2,000 feet (600m), the relay helo takes camera feeds and sends them to a fixed-wing aircraft flying higher at 10,000 to 25,000 feet (3,000-7,600m), depending on weather. > The airplane sends the combined feeds back down to two receive trucks located along the race course. The trucks act like signal repeaters, the first sending video to a satellite that sends it back to the second truck further along the course, which finally forwards the signal to the town where the finish line is located. > With stages of varying terrain up to 140 miles (225km) long, this hop-skip method ensures the best video fidelity with the least time-lag. Knowing next to nothing about production video transmission, this seems overly complicated to me with several points of failure. I wonder how much of this article is editorialized and mixing up backup/redundant methods vs actual implementation? The part about relaying between trucks using satellites seems especially strange, if the goal is to reduce time lag. Why are trucks needed to relay a satellite signal at all? Why can't the video-copters send direct to the fixed wing aircraft, or to the satellites? Why can't the fixed wing aircraft be used as a single hop? If this is accurate, it makes me wonder how much of this setup is "we've been doing it this way for x years, and it works, so don't we mess with it" vs how it would be done with a modern, best-practices design. Anyone that's done this kind of work care to weigh in?
- squaresmile 7y agoAs an absolute amateur, the fixed wing aircraft/relay helo probably can't carry the equipment (big? satellite dish? that have to be aimed accurately?) to send it to the satellite. The relay helo probably can't have LOS with the first truck all the time so the fixed wing plane is used to relay to the truck. The producers, where the signal needs to go to, want to sit at the finish line because that's also where the ceremony is located. I think most of complications come from the varying terrains blocking the signal path to the producers at the finish line.
- runemadsen 7y agoAs much as I know about the Tour, the route is extremely challenging, not so much related to time-lag of the video, but to actually having a clear signal going through at all times. The production of this race is done by the most qualified outdoor video professionals in the world, it is highly scrutinized, and I doubt that this setup is a product of coincidence.
- fbelzile 7y agoProbably a naive question, but why don't they use multiple drones instead? Wouldn't that be much safer and cheaper?
- sidibe 7y agoIt's be great too if someday they could replace the motorcycles with drones.
- jon-wood 7y agoOne of the advantages of using motorcycles is that they can get shots from in amongst the bikes, at more or less the same level as the riders. Maybe using drones would work, but if I were riding a professional cycle race I'm not sure how happy I'd be about having drones buzzing around at head level.
- sorenjan 7y agoSome riders complain about the motorcycles, because other riders can draft behind them. http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/riders-cry-foul-at-tour-de-france-motorbikes-saying-alaphilippe-slipstreamed-into-yellow/ http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/riders-cry-foul-at-tour-de-f...
- mft_ 7y agoThere have been enough significant accidents caused by the motorbikes that reliable drones (flown appropriately) would probably be welcomed, after the usual uncertainty period.
- usrusr 7y ago"flown appropriately" would imply restricting the drones to the kind of shot that is already provided in generous quantity by helicopters. They'd want to keep the motos for the same reason they haven't gone helicopter-only. Also, the low hanging fruit would not be getting rid of the very few TV motos, it would be reducing the high number of mostly redundant photojournalism motos.
- 24gttghh 7y agoI was wondering how long the pilots train for and how much they practice the routes used for the course. >For six months, the pilots train for the routes, maneuvers, emergency procedures, and camera positioning required by the director for the most effective, picturesque coverage. Their filming missions are literally scripted to the minute by the TV director, leaving little room for improvised maneuvering. 6 months seems satisfactory!
- hanniabu 7y agoJust hearing this stuff, I would never imagine this production is profitable.
- privong 7y ago> Just hearing this stuff, I would never imagine this production is profitable. It sounds like NBC doesn't even make money off their re-broadcast of it: https://www.velonews.com/2019/07/from-the-mag/inside-nbcs-tour-de-france-television-broadcast_495538 https://www.velonews.com/2019/07/from-the-mag/inside-nbcs-to...
- stevenwoo 7y agoI've read the Tour de France generates roughly 90% of the advertising income for bicycling as a sport. Each city that hosts a stage start or finish pays for the privilege.
- DC-3 7y agoI would guess that the French government splashes some cash as part of their cultural budget too.
- Someone 7y agoNeed not be that expensive. Lots of the preparation and training can be done on the ground, even outside simulators. Let’s say 10 top pilots, each a year’s wages, additional costs for flying, etc. 10 to 20 million euro? The TdF doesn’t sell tickets, but the organizer makes a healthy profit (https://inrng.com/2017/11/amaury-sport-accounts-finances/ https://inrng.com/2017/11/amaury-sport-accounts-finances/, of which likely half or thereabouts from the Tour de France. (aside: ASO is a for-profit, and looks at the short term, to the detriment of the ever more popular women’s cycling. Earlier this year, they decided to move down two major women’s races (Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège) from the top flight level because they didn’t want to spend the money on broadcasting them that the international cycling union requires for top flight races (https://www.outsideonline.com/2397117/aso-bumps-marquee-womens-races-world-tour https://www.outsideonline.com/2397117/aso-bumps-marquee-wome...) )
- benj111 7y agoSaw the tour de France when it came to Yorkshire. Slightly weird at one point as I was looking down at a flying helicopter.
- FigBug 7y agoI had the same experience on Col du Tourmalet. I heard the helicopter but couldn't see it until I looked down.
- gregkerzhner 7y agoThe helicopter gets so close to the racers! Wouldn't the wind from the blades affect the riders?
- rocqua 7y agoThis has been a bit of a complaint by riders and commentators, though it is secondary to the effect of motorcycles filming riders by driving in front of them. The defense I've heard is that televising is essential to the business model of cycling. Hence, some effect should be accepted.
- usrusr 7y agoYou absolutely do want to read up about the time trial duel between Fignon and Moser in the 1984 Giro d'Italia. That story is very famous in cycling, so there is no way a team of experienced cycling pilots would not aware of that issue. The dramatic pictures in the article are certainly misleading, shot with a long tele from a clever angle. 500 feet lateral separation (to a mountain road I assume) is still crazy close by non-emergency aviation standards.
- rconti 7y agoThis is one of those expectedly fascinating reads. If you haven't, I recommend seeking out the opportunity to go for a helicopter ride or to try your hand at one. They're really interesting aircraft. One of the tidbits I got is that they're far safer in normal operation than the numbers suggest, because they're often flown into the most challenging rescue situations where nothing else will do. I remember watching the first US Grand Prix in Austin a few years back, and the commentators were specifically talking about how great the helicopter pilot was. I happened to be there for the race, but as it was my first F1 race, I didn't know if all the pilots got that low and aggressive, or if this was unique. Another tidbit that sadly sticks in my mind is hearing about ex-Vietnam pilots flying over New Zealand while sharpshooters culled (invasive, non-native) deer.
- dmix 7y agoIf you watch the Volkswagen IDR record breaking videos some of the helicopters have trouble keeping up with the unexpected speed of the car, particularly when there was tree coverage. People in the YouTube comments were complaining but it looked like a very difficult job.
- playworker 7y agoA good piece on F1 helicopter piloting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOpMPBxZYZc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOpMPBxZYZc
- orbital-decay 7y agoInteresting. The pilot makes some really close passes over the track, doesn't the downwash interfere with the cars' aerodynamics? F1 performance depends on it quite a lot, and the downwash from a heli can be really powerful.
- jdhawk 7y agoIf it made any difference whatsoever, the Drivers would complain and whine about it relentlessly - so no. They either plan it well, or the wash is negligible
- _pmf_ 7y agoI used to watch it for the landscape views, but I felt somewhat decadent doing so.
- Someone 7y ago”Their filming missions are literally scripted to the minute by the TV director, leaving little room for improvised maneuvering.” I find that “scripted to the minute” hard to believe. The “advertisement detours” (where a village pays them to fly around a castle, church, or mountain top) likely are scripted because they _have_ to be shown for the contracted number of seconds (and they will be shown, even if there’s a significant development in the race that the helicopters miss as a result), but it remains a race, where one cannot know beforehand how fast the riders will ride. ⇒ The route flown may be fairly rigid, but the timing can’t be.
- buro9 7y agoAgreed. With caveats :D They do know the expected expected min, max speeds of the riders, and the most likely time. I assume that when they file their flight authorisations long in advance that they are declaring the time slots that they will need over airspace, and probably do have scripts for those min/max rider speeds so that they know +/- some margin of error the earliest and latest the helicopters should be anywhere. Although I'm personally more interested in the plane circling above them for 4 hours :) It makes sense to have it, and has anyone a link to one of it's daily routes?
- DC-3 7y agoI think what it actually means is 'you will fly this route past this section of the parcours in this length of time' rather than 'at 3:20 you will be here'.
- etaty 7y agoSometimes these images have been filmed during spring.
- ucs 7y ago>>Sometimes these images have been filmed during spring. The helicopter shots are always live.¹ There is however some prerecorded drone footage, filmed earlier in the year, that gets shown alongside landmarks of particular interest. Whether or not you get to see this prerecorded footage depends on which feed your broadcaster is picking up. Domestic audiences watching on France Télévisions get to see all of it, but international broadcasters are given a feed with fewer prerecorded “heritage shots” (as well as a feed with no prerecorded material at all). ¹ The director can cheat once in a while, opting to time-shift a particularly beautiful landmark shot by a couple of minutes, but only if it would otherwise go unseen due to race action taking precedence.
- xpuente 7y agoI think WRC helicopter teams are way more impressive. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7h0OxsCCwA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7h0OxsCCwA
- dyyni 7y agoHere's another clip to illustrate the speed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_0RME99Iik https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_0RME99Iik
- bibinou 7y agoHere's a small video on the helicopters: https://youtu.be/2iiQiXsQDWU?t=14 https://youtu.be/2iiQiXsQDWU?t=14 (warning: LOUD) on the relay plane: https://youtu.be/6by7a6FPZ58?t=14 https://youtu.be/6by7a6FPZ58?t=14
- rsync 7y agoWhere can I see the video ? I am hoping for something like the MacOS screensavers that I can just leave running ...
- hollander 7y agoCheck Eurosport. It truely is beautiful what they show us.
- 762236 7y agoI know that the helicopters really help with funding the race, but no one wants to listen to them. It blew my mind to see Zwift bring helicopters into their biking simulator --- there are so many features that Zwift needs, and they added a distracting helicopter.
- ucs 7y agoFun fact: up until a couple of years ago, whenever you saw a helicopter shot on the Tour de France, a fake chopper noise soundtrack would play faintly in the background. The host broadcaster felt that it added to the ambiance, since the helicopters don’t carry microphones. Fortunately that practice has been nixed for good. Now the helicopter shots are only mixed with the (real) sounds captured by the motorcycles.
- rodolphoarruda 7y agoNow waiting for another article on the camera bikes that get the images from the road. Most of their riders are retired pro cyclists who had transitioned into motorbikes for broadcasting the races all over the pro season. Field experience is necessary to anticipate rider's moves on every possible corner or hill, avoiding crashes and still making the most exciting footage you can expect. Edited for grammar.
- tcmb 7y agoI was thinking the same, found this one: https://www.cyclist.co.uk/in-depth/391/riders-in-the-storm https://www.cyclist.co.uk/in-depth/391/riders-in-the-storm Not sure about the claim that the moto crews are former pros. This was stated a few days ago on /r/peloton, but in a kind of hand-wavy way. The guy featured in the article above does not seem to be an ex-pro, at least he has no profile on PCS. And there is this quote, although it refers to a photographer's rider: "With such potential for accidents, you might think that there would be a rigourous set of qualifications for motorcycle riders before they can share asphalt with the pros in the Tour. Not so, says Evans, who got his slot because his photographer ‘saw me riding through town traffic with a fairly exuberant riding style’."
- alex_young 7y agoI'm sure this is a hugely hard thing to pull off, but the photos provided are at least in a couple of cases quite misleading due to the perspective of the camera.
- 11235813213455 7y agoCan't they use a drone nowadays? cheaper, less polluting and can fly closer without disturbing riders That's what they use in sailing races
- Voloskaya 7y agoThe cameras are pretty huge, since you want both close ups but also very large field views, e.g. to show the peloton and landscape, so you need to be far away with a powerful zoom.