How the WRC captures its stunning visuals

The World Rally Championship has become synonymous with creating stunning images as the world’s best rally drivers tackle the toughest roads in extreme yet picturesque environments. And ardent WRC fans now have more access than ever before thanks to the 2018 introduction of the WRC All Live pay television service, which broadcasts live footage from every stage of a WRC event to ensure that nothing is missed.

To achieve this requires overcoming a sizeable logistical headache. Unlike circuit racing, where broadcast crews set up their cameras, outside broadcast trucks and editing suites around a permanent venue, a rally is constantly on the move. To add to the challenge, the stages are often hosted in the most extreme of climates and terrain.

We’ve all see the impressive shots of cars blasting through the wild expanses of the Kenyan Savannah or the snowy forests of Sweden, but how do those pictures get from the camera to the screen? It’s a complicated science that requires a crew of more than 80 people, plus a specially-equipped private aircraft, but one that has been honed to near perfection.

The aircraft is an integral element to the production. It is required to fly 8,000 metres above the stage to allow a receptor to receive the footage shot by ground camera crews, the helicopter camera and the onboard cameras from the WRC cars. The plane can also ingest team radio and digital information. All of this is beamed through a tracking antenna, fitted to the bottom of the light propeller aircraft, to the travelling outside broadcast compound located several kilometres away from the stages in the rally service park.

While circling the stage, the aircraft pilots are in constant communication with the WRC TV director, who can tell the pilot to move as and when required. The plane’s equipment is capable of beaming the ground and helicopter cameras, and up to three onboard cameras, which means it is required to be constantly on the move to deliver the best vision.

Once the footage is beamed back to the broadcast team on the ground at the service park, it is then up to the director, producer and sound crew to choose what is broadcast. The commentary team, located in a separate booth, talk over the vision that appears on the world feed to the fans.

All of this is carried out in small mini studio pods that are transported to every WRC round. One pod houses the servers while one is solely for mixing audio. The gallery pod hosts the director and producer, and it is here where they pore over the myriad of camera views being beamed back to the service park, deciding which goes to air and when, in a hive of activity and constant conversations between themselves and the commentators.

WRC All Live generates an enormous amount of footage that has to be directed tightly to present the best visuals to fans

Photo by: Tom Howard

“We work efficiently with our resources, we produce in three broadcast pods that can be flown to the events,” explains Florian Ruth, the WRC’s senior director of content. “Wherever we go in the world, we can pack them and put them in a plane. We can produce the same quality in Kenya as the quality we can in Portugal.

“One of the pods hosts all of our servers, then we have one audio pod. The audio is very important and we have lots of sources. For example, fans want to hear from the driver and the co-driver, the car sound and the interviews.

“In the gallery pod we mix the world feed. We get all the sources in from the onboard cameras the helicopter cameras and all of our ground cameras and then we add the commentary and graphics. What is mixed in here is what the fans see. The guys really need to concentrate to make the best programme.”

"Our crews are constantly moving in every type of weather condition. They have to de-rig, pack up and move to the next stage. The heroes are the people behind the scenes who are working from 4am to midnight and do it all over again" Becs Williams

The WRC’s lead commentator Becs Williams has been covering the WRC since Rally GB in 1999, beginning as a radio reporter, before witnessing the WRC broadcast transform into its All Live format from 2018.

“I was doing radio comms and compared to what I have now, being able to see everything on the stage, it is amazing,” Williams tells Autosport. “I had a tracking map and some split times and there was a lot of guesswork as we didn’t have stage end reporters initially.

“Trying to keep people up to date with minimum information coming in was quite a challenge. I think what we found in the radio days was there was a huge community spirit where people were happy for any information.”

However, times have indeed moved on. Williams now has access to countless camera views covering every moment of a rally. She is often flanked by regular co-commentators Julian Porter and Paul King as the trio split the 10 hour plus days of commentating between them, with the trio situated in a small commentary booth housed at the service park. It is here where they are tasked with talk over the vision that is carefully selected by the director, often located in the pod next door.

Small pods in the service park are where the TV commentary and video feed is produced

Photo by: Tom Howard

“There is a lot of information coming in and obviously we have our screens in front of us with all the timing,” Williams adds. “We have people watching tracking to let us know when people have stopped, but you have producer and director telling you things like what is coming up next, and if someone has stopped in a stage or which replay we are going to.

“You have to get used to people talking in your head - it is quite an art! I sounded drunk the first time I started doing it, because you are trying to listen and talk at the same time. But at the Safari Rally and in Sweden, with the aerial shots, you are just mesmerised in the images and I admit you do get lost in it.”

Williams, who also has a background in circuit racing, says the vast operation to bring a WRC event to the big screen should not be underestimated.

“It is vast, I’m not sure of the number of people involved but it is 80 plus,” she explains. “This is what people don’t see at home. On-site, we have producer, director, vision mixer, people are editing as we go. We have all the camera crews out on the stages and people rigging things for the camera crews. There are so many people involved to put on this production.

“It is not like we go to a race circuit and it is easy to set up and everyone is in one position. Rallying is constantly moving and our crews are constantly moving in every type of weather condition. They have to de-rig, pack up and move to the next stage. We [the commentators] might be a forefront of it, but the heroes are the people behind the scenes who are working from 4am to midnight and do it all over again.

“I’ve worked in circuit racing and in touring cars for many years. They all do an incredible job, but for us things change, like how for the drivers their terrain changes. For us, it is the same essentially as we never know what vision we are going to see. It is not like saying they are going into a certain corner at Brands Hatch. It is very different and we are talking for a lot longer - we broadcast for 10 hours a day.

“The logistics of it all are astounding. I think I'm amazed on every rally how they put it all together. Some people may not understand why we have to leave stages early, because the plane is moving and that holds our visual capability. As soon as the plane is out of range, we lose all our visuals and that plane has to move in circles above every single stage.

“We have been doing it since 2018 and I’m still amazed sometimes at what can be accomplished. There are technical issues sometimes, but for the most part it runs without fault.”

The next time you see a WRC car powering through some inhospitable terrain, spare a thought for the logistical challenges overcome to bring those stunning pictures to the television screens.

Producing the footage for WRC All Live can be unglamorous

Photo by: WRC.com