For the tenth year, NBC Sports’ coverage of the Tour de France features SMT’s real-time broadcast graphics and production support to uncover the nuances of cycling’s most grueling race.
SMT’s on-screen graphics depict real-time speeds for both individual riders and the peloton for all 21 stages of the race. The graphics display the ever-changing road gradients and the speeds of cyclists as they battle it out during the highest race in Tour de France history, with five summit finishes, including three above 2,000 meters.
SMT’s time trial graphics include predicted finish times, the time each rider must finish to take the yellow jersey, and a comparison of two riders to determine who is fastest on specific sections of the course. SMT continues to provide its ISO Track System that allows viewers follow the cyclists with an on-screen pointer graphic that interfaces and displays names, rankings, headshots, real-time speeds, and gradients.
SMT’s live race crawl provides a wide range of information and statistics, including live data tracking and the position of the leaders, peloton, and other groups during each stage. Competitors’ bios and quotes also scroll across the ticker, as well as social media that is interfaced via SMT’s social media publisher. The crawl also showcases stage winners, the standings of top American cyclists and other notable riders, and jersey standings.
Other broadcast features from SMT include full-screen, data-rich graphics with race stage profiles showing the layout of the current stage and rider progression; lower-thirds with riders’ names, headshots, team logos and other race statistics; leaderboard graphics; a production telestrator; and onscreen clocks and time trial graphics.
NBC commentators utilize SMT prompters with a leaderboard display that features climb winners, sprint winners, and tracks riders for each group based on the stage profile.