Pulse helps Ultra Trail Cape Town bring a new perspective to racing.

UTCT 2022, the African continent’s biggest trail running event, took place over 25th - 27th November 2022. The race attracts 1800 runners across 60 nationalities, creating a diverse mix of athletes and followers. Across the 3 days of racing, five events took place: 100miler, 100km, 55km, 35km and 23km distances.

A full-featured broadcast studio complete with three person commentary team was set up to deliver a professionally produced livestream to YouTube.

Official camera feeds were mainly provided by runners on the course wearing 6kg backpacks containing Live U hardware.

The Challenge

With an event covering so much space, it is easy for viewers to be unsure as to what is going on. A challenge for events such as UTCT is providing context to the content being shown on screen. Where is this? How fast are they going? What is the elevation?

Additionally, with races spread over a large geography and over three days, there are typically multiple different stories unfolding concurrently. How might UTCT enable viewers to follow the story they’re interested in and to catch up on action that they missed?

UTCT partnered with Pulse to enhance their coverage of this globally recognised event.

Pulse provided additional camera-runners carrying just a GoPro and the Pulse app. Content captured by the runners was livestreamed from the GoPro to Pulse servers in the cloud.

Next, map, speed and elevation data was automatically overlayed and synchronised with the video feed to produce a contextually enhanced content experience.

Pulse content was used in two unique ways throughout the event:

1. In broadcast: we pushed our content into the primary broadcast to help contextualise the position and performance of the runners on the course

2. via Pulse Together: we aggregated the incoming feeds over the weekend into a central space utct.pulse.tv which enabled visitors to 1. interact with the map and videos, 2. go back in time to playback videos that they missed (or wanted to see from a different perspective), and 3. chat with the UTCT community

What is Pulse?

Pulse gives sports-focused content creators the tools to share their experiences by combining video and data into an interactive and immersive format. The data, which currently includes mapping, speed and elevation, is synchronised with the video to give the viewer a feeling for the real experience. A GoPro and the Pulse app is all you need.

With Pulse Together, multiple Pulse live streams are combined to create a multi-perspective event experience at a fraction of the cost and fuss.

Pulse Together features and benefits for event organisers

Pulse Together empowers event organisers and brands to reach and engage wider audiences, integrate sponsor messaging and extend the spirit of experience long after the last finisher has crossed the line.

• Multi-camera streaming setup in minutes. No need for expensive media or broadcast partners. Capture your event using GoPros and the streams feed directly into our pipeline.

• Enhance and synchronise -  Pulse Together allows all your camera POVs, event broadcast, and map stream to be in perfect sync with one another. Enriched with live location tracking, telemetry and additional metadata.

• Multiple camera perspectives and timeline. Viewers can take control of the viewing experience, and jump into any available stream at any time and go back in time with Timeline if they missed anything.

• Audience engagement. Live chat and fan commentary brings together an engaged online community with increased value for sponsors.

Results and outcomes

An indispensable tool for the broadcast team: Pulse visualisations via the broadcast tool formed a key part of the overall broadcast with the commentary team frequently referring to “Pulse’s amazing visuals” as a great tool to give you a more accurate feel for the athlete’s current situation and performance.

No gaps in the story: Don’t let areas with no mobile signal or load-shedding be the reason for gaps in the race narrative. After filming in an areas with limited signal, Pulse uploaded the recorded footage as soon as mobile reception became available enabling viewers on the Pulse platform as well the primary broadcast to see what happened.

Testimonials:

“This is so cool to see, because this is going to revolutionise the way that trail running is digested going forward.” Max Cluer - Olympic Sports Commentator

“So so sweet to see the Pulse Segment. I remember from being there myself, so it’s cool to allow the audience to get a glimpse of what the athletes are experiencing.” Dylan Bowman, Red Bull Athlete and Commentator

utct.pulse.tv stats:

• Visitors to utct.pulse.tv during race week and following 5 days*

  • Total: 3,773 users

  • Unique: 1,761

• Average session duration:

  • 12.22 minutes

* note for UTCT 22, utct.pulse.tv was a supporting destination, YouTube was the primary destination