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Video-Live-Streaming from the TGP

Video-Live-Streaming from the TGP

23. July 2011It all started in 2006. On the occasion of the Truck Grand Prix at the Ring we wanted to demonstrate – in the scope of a project carried out by the study course “Computer Science” at the Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg – how easy it is to broadcast live streaming of a huge event via internet with relatively little effort – provided that the right software and the corresponding hardware are applied. The ADAC Mittelrhein as organiser of the TGP was soon won over, and that was the first time the voices of the two commentators of the truck races at the TGP, Jörg Hennig and Hans-Joachim Ebertz, could be heard live via internet worldwide. Because of the very positive feedback this service was also provided in the following year, and there was always the idea looming in our minds that instead of an audio-live-streaming – meaning that the commentators could only be heard, with an additional live-timing where permanently the latest results were published – it should be possible to make a video-live-streaming available via the WorldWideWeb.
Of course, first of all the ADAC Mittelrhein as right holder of images and sound had to give their consent and had also to be prepared to provide the necessary infrastructure, i.e. a corresponding master signal and an internet connection that is fast enough for this purpose. The technical effort to convert the TV signal into an internet-video-live-streaming was already a bit bigger than for the audio signal, but the largest effort had to be made in regards to the servers.
Of course, the amount of data necessary to transmit images is many times larger than for the transmission of sound. In the case of audio-live-streaming one server was enough to enable several thousand users to listen to the TGP commentators simultaneously, but for the video-live-streaming a large number of servers were required.
Thanks to the digimago technology developed by bartscher.net – a technology highly suitable although it had been designed for quite different purposes – which enables load-balancers in a multiple redundant server cluster to make sure that there is always a well-balanced utilisation of the actual performance servers, and which – if it should be necessary – subtly reduces the transmitted amount of data per user, so that during peak times the number of users can be increased per server, it was possible to realise the video-live-streaming at relatively low cost. The ADAC Mittelrhein and bartscher.net shared the expenses.
The video-live-streaming was a hit and there was a tremendous feedback. However, both partners viewed the matter as an experiment just to demonstrate what the internet could accomplish. It was not intended to turn it into a permanent service. But within the truck racing community there was a keen demand for video-live-streaming from the TGP, so that particularly Lutz Bernau went out of his way to bring the necessary sponsors on board in order to protect the object financially.
And it was the same procedure in 2010 and 2011.

48,803 truck racing fans – and a great many of them were logged in no less than 24 hours at a stretch – will certainly be grateful to the organisers and sponsors listed below for having had the opportunity to watch video-live-streaming from the TGP in 2011, too.

ADAC-Mittelrhein – organiser
Lutz Bernau TruckSport – pilot: Uwe Nittel
Team Hahn Racing – pilot: Jochen Hahn
tankpool24Racing-MB-Motorsport – pilot: Steffi Halm
Renault Trucks – pilots: Markus Oestreich; Markus Bösiger; Adam Lacko
Cepsa – pilot: Antonio Albacete
Meritor – pilots: Markus Oestreich; Markus Bösiger; Adam Lacko
TRO-TruckRaceOrganisation
bartscher.net – technical realisation

But perhaps those fans will some day have the chance to appear in person at the spectacular event at the Ring, because even the most up-to-date live-streaming is far from the feeling you will experience while at the Truck Grand Prix – attending the event at the Nürburgring is really a must-do.

Impressions:

Video-Live-Streaming from the TGP
Video-Live-Streaming from the TGP