Last year’s Kentucky Derby was a race from the heavens — literally and figuratively — and NBC is prepared for a technological repeat.
Rich Strike struck social media gold for the network in 2022 when, as an 80-to-1 Friday entry, he stormed from 17th place to first in the final 100-plus yards. That last furlong was spectacular to see live, but it was even more riveting after NBC teamed with SportsMEDIA Technology (SMT) and a Winged Vision airplane to produce a high-angle replay for the ages.
It was a Cessna 206H piloted by Joel Martin that captured the overhead view of Rich Strike’s comeback from 2500 feet in the air. But SMT’s accompanying optical graphics, powered by man and machine, is what stole the show.
“I’m proud of it,” says Danny Baker, SMT’s coordinating producer for horse racing. “That race is probably, if not the most, one of the most viewed clips for NBC.”
NBC’s Kentucky Derby producer Lindsay Schanzer said this week she will “lean into” aerial coverage again for Saturday’s race at Louisville’s Churchill Downs. But someone will again have to make sense out of the views from above, and that is SMT’s specialty.
The company was originally known for the sensor-based yellow First and 10 line developed for pro and college football. To produce that, SMT maps out a virtual field over the actual field based off positional data. The yellow line is then illuminated by software and configured cameras — which somewhat mirrors what SMT did with its “pointers” in last year’s Kentucky Derby instant replay.
The challenge of last year’s frantic replay was to identify Rich Strike and show how he weaved through a figurative Red Sea to win the race. But tracking horses (or motocross or cyclists) is what SMT does for a living through a platform called ISO Track. According to Baker, SMT had software designated to “grab and hold onto the pixel” on the screen that Rich Strike was on. From there, Baker says an operator simply had to “place the actual pointer on that pixel to track the horse.”
That left one major question: In the mass of humanity (or horse-anity), which horse was Rich Strike?
Baker says SMT employs a broadcast engineer, Ryan Hetherington, whose job is to study every horse, memorize their silk colors and their jockey’s body type. It means that in an evolving technological world of AI and Chatbots, man still plays a crucial role.
“There’s still a human element,” Baker told SBJ. “It’s hours and hours of practice and training — these guys know who they’re looking for. They have to be incredibly calm, right? Because if you’re anxious, you can make the wrong click and pick the wrong horse. So that operator is incredibly well trained.”
All of that together led to last May’s instant replay that drew 36 million social media views in the first few days alone and 15 million views on Twitter alone since then. Which is why NBC is prepared to run it all back this year, and then some.
When the pointer is used in 2023, SMT’s accompanying graphics will not only include the horse’s name and silk design, but its odds to win the race — which is new this year. The company will also ingest all of the track data for NBC’s Derby graphics, such as minutes-to-post, pay-outs, split times, a track map and running order.
In addition, SMT will produce the sizeable board that Steve Kornacki uses on set to discuss betting lines, as well as the network’s myriad of telestrators. For the preliminary races, they will prepare L Bar graphics that will run on side of the screen as horses walk from pad to post, containing betting odds and other notes.
That conglomerate of technology is not lost on NBC producer Schanzer, whose Derby debut last year was heightened by the Rich Strike surprise. A year ago, she was able to utilize the Winged Vision-SMT replay just minutes after the race was over — a credit to all the companies involved — and it has her thinking ahead to the aerial coverage for this Saturday. NBC, for instance, has plans to deploy a drone to go with the Cessna.
“I think one of the things I’m thinking about going into this broadcast is spend a little bit more time up in the air on race replays as it is,” Schanzer said from Louisville. “It’s a different look. People aren’t used to it. It really shows the perspective of the field. And how moves are made, even if it’s not a move being made in between horses. The separation from a horse that wins by a lot.
“I’m hoping you can expect to see a bit more aerial coverage within this year show, and we do have the ISO Track system back in case we get another exciting weave like Rich Strike.”
Heaven forbid: a once-in-a-lifetime race happening twice.