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IRL: MCI Worlcom Indy 200 broadcast to feature virtual advertising

16 March 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

Indy Racing First Sanctioning Body To Use Virtual Ads For Season Telecasts

INDIANAPOLIS- The Indy Racing Northern Light Series will become the first major motorsports series to use virtual advertising as a key component of its season-long national television race broadcasts, starting with the MCI WorldCom Indy 200 on March 19 at Phoenix International Raceway.

In conjunction with Princeton Video Imaging, Inc., the Northern Light Series broadcast at 4 p.m. (EST) on ABC Sports will feature virtual advertisements that are inserted in the TV feed. The images will be "electronically painted" over the grandstands outside the 1-mile Phoenix ovals Turn 1, according to Sam McCleary, vice president of business development for PVI. "The way the technology works is you have a very rapid video processor that can insert electronic images into a live television broadcast," said McCleary. "Those images can be anything you can render on a computer. They can be a two-dimensional flat image that looks like a sign, or a three-dimensional image that looks like a live object, or they can be video."

The technology will be used at all of the seven remaining Northern Light Series broadcasts this year, including the 84th Indianapolis 500 on May 28. ABC Sports or the ESPN network will televise all races live nationally.

PVIs technology will make the Indianapolis 500s international broadcast feed more lucrative, McCleary said, because international advertisers will be able to place their own advertisements in the programming.

"We found Indy Racing officials are open to change, understood new technologies and how to apply new technologies," said McCleary. "The series isnt afraid of new technology, and that is what makes working with it so great for a company like ours."

In addition to its Indy Racing involvement, PVI produces virtual advertisements and imaging for Major League Baseballs San Diego Padres and Philadelphia Phillies, as well as ESPNs Sunday Night Baseball national broadcasts.

The company, based in Lawrenceville, N.J., also does imaging for the National Football Leagues international TV feeds and created the virtual first-down line that appeared on the CBS network games during the 1999-2000 NFL season.

"We take a great amount of pride in being at the forefront of technological applications that benefit our fans, sponsors and race teams," said Bob Reif, senior vice president of marketing and chief marketing officer for the Northern Light Series and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. "As the 2000 season progresses, we are confident that virtual advertising will prove to be a lucrative exposure tool for corporations that do business with the Indy Racing Northern Light Series."

In 1998, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was the first motorsports entity to use virtual advertising during ABCs broadcast of the NASCAR Winston Cup Series Brickyard 400 event. The logos of the events major corporate sponsors were emblazoned on the Speedways infield thanks to technology developed by PVI.

Text provided by IRL

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