2023 Review

Quick Overview

Season Highlights

Other Highlights

The fleet of four BMW CE04s have served us faithfully during 2023, from slow race walks and marathons, to white knuckle high speed triathlons on twisty demanding circuits.

Increasingly, television production is demanding the use of electric camera motos due to their silent operation and as an additional means of meeting their Albert Sustainable Certification for carbon neutrality.

Most events have required between one and four CE04s although, some new contracts out of Europe and the UK have led to more than one concurrent shoot on the same day. As a result, we added a fifth CE04 to our fleet that we purchased in July from Vertu in Rotherham. The sixth electric is our own C-Evolution, purchased from Motorrad in 2018. Interestingly, this is still the preferred moto for single moto events that involve high speed tracking. Its superior range to the CE04 is one factor but also the suspension is more compliant under load, resulting in less "bottoming out" over speed bumps at high speed. With the CE04, even though the preload is set to maximum, the suspension still hits the stops - not helped by the added weight of the camera operator, camera and camera platform. It isn't a major issue, but we have considered updating the rear suspension set-up to prevent this.

Petrol-wise, we still have the R1200GS that we purchased from Motorrad in 2016. We have also just de-fleeted our F850GS. Next year, with increasing work on cycling events looking possible in the UK and Ireland (where the range of the electrics is not sufficient), we need to look at perhaps two new current model petrol BMWs, ideally R1300GS models.

Without doubt the highlight of the season was the World Athletics Championships in Budapest during August. Here's what the host broadcaster, ITN Sport Productions had to say:

"The WCH marked Hungary’s largest-ever sporting event and biggest single-venue event on the planet in 2023. Over nine days, 2,000 athletes from 200 countries captured the hearts of one billion viewers across 200 territories. Viewing figures are expected to break all previous records. The approach to our coverage has resonated strongly with audiences around the world, with rights-holding broadcasters reporting huge viewing figures, and impressive peak numbers in key markets such as Germany, UK, France and Finland. TBS in Japan reported a peak audience of 28 million people during the opening weekend."

Over the nine day period, Motocam supplied five CE04s for five outside races including men's and women's marathons and race walking ( a Japanese national sport). The photo above was taken from the live broadcast feed. As can be seen, the BMW logos are clearly in view. This was almost constant. Rarely was there a broadcast shot either from another moto or from a plethora of fixed, jib or wire cams where there wasn't a BMW logo in shot. In some instances all five BMW logos could be seen in the same shot.

Other highlights included Sir Mo Farah's last ever run on the Great North Run in September. Motocam took Sir Mo all the way to the finish and the CE04 was clearly visible in the helicopter shot used by all national and international news broadcasters to tell the story of his career.

Meanwhile, Superleague triathlon continues to gain considerable traction. This was broadcast in the UK on the BBC and around the world. On YouTube alone, the events attract around 100,000 followers. Motocam is responsible for providing all moto cameras for all events around the world including London, Toulouse, Neom and Malibu. Again, as there are so many fixed cameras that also pick up the camera moto, the BMW moto and logo is always prominent on broadcast feeds in every event.

Crowds too also figure highly in terms of BMW exposure. Most of the events below, attract considerable crowds. In fact, in some of the Superleague events and during the 10,00o spectator Night of the 10K, the moto often gets as much attention and applause as the athletes themselves.

2023 Events

Event

Abu Dhabi World Triathlon, Yas Marina F1 Circuit

UK leg of Red Bull Wings For Life, Battersea

Leeds Marathon, tracking Rob Burrow

Great Manchester Run

Night of the 10K

Sunderland World Triathlon

Budapest World Athletics Championships

London Superleague Triathlon

Toulouse Superleague Triathlon

Vitality Big Half Marathon, London

Great North Run and Newcastle City Games

London Westminster Mile, The Mall

Palace to Palace Cycle Race, London

York Marathon

Dublin Half Marathon

Dublin Marathon

Coverage

World live feed broadcast live to over 50 countries

YouTube & social media live coverage worldwide

Footage showing BMW used in national news feed

Live on BBC1

World live feed broadcast live to over 50 countries

See above

Live on BBC red button plus world feed and YouTube

Live on BBC1

Live on BBC1 plus news feed for Sir Mo's last run

Social media content

Live on national TV in Southern Ireland

2024

2024 looks set to be another successful year. Already, we have been contracted to carry out all triathlon events for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris over 11 days.

Superleague continues to grow with more events planned for next year. Aurora the production company has already asked for members of the Motocam team to acquire iVisas for more work in the USA on these events next year.

Elsewhere, the large UK running events including the Great North Run and the Great Manchester Run are already on the calendar. Ireland is developing with the Dublin Marathon and Half Marathon. These are new events for Motocam and as a result we are already talking to the Irish production company about cycle races in Ireland including a national tour.

We have also adopted LiveU cellular bonded broadcast transmitters to our equipment. This allows us to provide full services from motos and cameras to the transmission equipment itself. This creates some interesting possibilities for smaller events and those that have previously disappeared due to budget restrictions.

camera tracking motorcycles