ST. PAUL — A drone was used for the first time in the Red Bull Crashed Ice series to capture images for Red Bull TV’s live broadcast of ice cross downhill. Before it soared above the grounds of the Cathedral of St. Paul where the starting gates were located, there was the matter of the pre-flight checklist.
“They can’t operate below 20 degrees,” Sumesh Thakur, Red Bull Media House’s director of production operations and technology, said of the drone from Aerobo. “We’ve been watching the weather.”
The temperature ultimately cooperated on a Minnesota evening Saturday, and it was a good thing for viewers that it did. What a sight the drone along with 17-20 other cameras were able to capture as video played a crucial role in the success and storylines of a high-speed, crash-filled thriller of an event.
Canada’s Dean Moriarty won the men’s title by length of a skate in a photo finish. And earlier in a controversial semifinal race between two sets of brothers, there was plenty of drama that developed while judges were in the midst of reviewing video on an EVS replay machine that would lead to the controversial disqualification of Austria’s Luca Dallago.
Austria’s Marco Dallago was doing an interview for Red Bull TVs live stream when he stopped mid-sentence to skate over to defend Luca, who had been forcefully shoved to the ice by Canada’s Scott Croxall. Kyle Croxall promptly shoved Marco and dropped his gloves in case fisticuffs were needed. It had been a physical race that left one Croxall with his helmet-mounted GoPro flying off onto the track and the other with a bloodied finger, as both filed protests.
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GoPro, an event sponsor, had its cameras on the helmets of each of the final 16 men’s skaters. For live images for the Red Bull TV stream that was simulcast using Facebook Live, an 80-person operation had cameras along the course including one that could glide from above as it was suspended by a cable, handheld POV cameras, and even contact microphones along the boards of the walled track of ice.
Fans watching on three large screens positioned around the track along with those using smartphones, tablets, PCs and OTT devices to see the stream had every angle of the race covered.
The newest technology for the broadcast came via the drone from Aerobo, a company that specializes in live sports photography and cinematography. Aerobo had a four-person crew on site — the pilot, camera operator, spotter and support member — providing the content and making sure the drone flew above the cathedral rather than over the large crowd in attendance per FAA regulations.
The drone gave the Red Bull TV crew an aerial option for live footage of the races, and as Sumesh put it, the drone would have the best seat in the house.