Remote production: this is how complex the live TV broadcast of Formula E is

The TV production of a Formula E race for the globally provided "world signal" is much more complicated than you might think. Almost 100 cameras directly at the track and ten additional cameras on each car communicate permanently with the production studio in London. Today, Formula E can compete with motorsport giants such as MotoGP or Formula 1.

In the early years in particular, the transmission of the electric racing series was a source of suffering for fans and organisers. Important key situations were often not broadcast, either live or in a replay. The reason lay in the infrastructure. Unlike Formula 1, the temporary street circuits lacked the necessary technical foundation. In 2023, Formula E managed to rectify this weakness after major investments.

Breakthrough with ex-F1 production manager

Broadcasting Director Tim Glass and Technical Director Eric Ernst are the main people responsible for production. Glass previously managed the broadcast of Formula 1 on Sky. He was hired by Formula E for season 9. With him came "more cameras and more of everything to improve the coverage", Glass told broadcastnow.

Ernst also praises the upheaval in the Gen3 era: "This year (2023) was a huge step, because we rebuilt the entire TV production from the ground up. This is probably the largest and most modern remote production of a sports series of this size." In addition to the people responsible at the track, remote production also includes a studio where the footage is used to create the broadcast.

For Formula E, this job is carried out by the London-based company Gravity Media. Every image must therefore be transmitted to the British capital. There, a director edits hundreds of individual live shots and sends them back to the track. Despite this effort, there is a delay of less than two seconds between the racing action and the transmission. This is only possible thanks to the Internet performance of 2 Gbit/s.

10 cameras for each driver

In order to capture the racing action for spectators in the best possible way, perspectives directly from the car are very effective. Fans can now enjoy ten camera angles of each car. Whether driver, mirrors or even suspension - nothing goes unobserved in the modern Gen3 era. The most eye-catching shot is probably the "Driver's Eye", which captures the driver's gaze and has already found imitators in other racing series such as Formula 1.

The production team from London can communicate with each car at any time. Ernst describes the process as follows: "Everything is recorded in the car. So if the car has an accident, we can communicate with the car and tell it to send back the last 30 seconds of footage. With the old system, we just missed it if the car wasn't live but on another frequency."

Recordings are used for controversial scenes & social media

After each race, the footage from all 22 cars and the track cameras is uploaded to a Formula E cloud. On the one hand, the moving images are used by the FIA to evaluate offences even after a race. On the other hand, the various social media channels of the racing series use the recordings for their content.

For the upcoming Formula E season 11, there will also be continuous improvements to the broadcast quality. We will find out what has changed on 7 December 2024 at the latest, when Formula E returns to the starting grid in Brazil.