Live webcasts allow international viewing

Webcasts set up at the Maadi Regatta mean the rowing is being beamed around the world.

Positive Pictures and N-Tech Technical Services are streaming videos of the rowing online, and will be doing so for the rest of the week.

Onsite technical producer Russell Baxter, from Positive Pictures, says that the webcast will possibly receive up to 20,000 viewers over the week.

“We’ll likely be getting between 17-20 thousand viewers internationally, 50 percent of which will be based in New Zealand,” said Mr Baxter.

“The purpose of the cast includes allowing spectators to see the start of the races, some of which take place two kilometres away, as well as producing a DVD of the rowing.

“We put a lot of effort into setting it up. We get a lot of emails from people, mostly parents saying things like ‘why did you not focus on my son in lane 15?’ and so on.”

National service delivery manager from N-tech, Chris Penman, says that viewing numbers for the webcasts will be especially high on Saturday.

“Viewers are climbing steadily, every day we get more numbers. It will probably peak on Saturday afternoon, during the finals, when everyone is off work and able to watch,” said Mr Penman.

“This is a new service on the market for sporting events that want their games and events broadcast online at an economic price for professional quality.”

“There will be a big screen going up tomorrow as well, for spectators who are at the event.”

The webcast can be seen here: http://new.livestream.com//i-filmsport