The National Hot Rod Association come to Multicast seeking a solution that would allow them to stream the audio feed from races each weekend to a private webpage for the drivers, their teams and their families. Seemed the NHRA had been streaming through a Yahoo service, though people were finding the audio stream and posting it on social media. The results were a huge expense to the company for the bandwidth being used (back before bandwidth was cheap :-). They were looking for a way to lock down the live audio feed so that only their drivers, teams and families could have access.
Using our platform, we were able to lock the stream down to a certain webpage. If anyone tried accessing the stream directly, it would show them a “You are not Authorized” message. The NHRA was thrilled. We began discussing other opportunities to leverage our platform for other uses, including publishing race clips each week for their fans. Working with their sponsor, Full Throttle (Coke brand), we started working on a plan for the upcoming season.
Full Throttle invested in a high-tech trailer that was wrapped in their brand, filled with video editing suites, high-end video cameras and related equipment. They hired three full time production staff, including one who came from HBO. The idea was to produce high end, high quality video at each competition location, which moved from city to city each week. I had the opportunity to work closely with the Full Throttle team, and with the brand manager from Coke, to quickly turn around and post videos to the NHRA website. The viewership spiked, and Full Throttle was thrilled as was the NHRA.
While the music in this video is terrible (Multicast hired a video firm to produce this video), it does tell some of the story. It was shot in Pomona, California at their National Championships. You’ll see my smiling face in a few shots.