FanVision returns to F1 after five-year absence

2018 F1 season

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Formula One Management has announced the FanVision service which brings video coverage to spectators will be offered at F1 events for the first time since 2012.

FanVision was first used in motorsport at NASCAR races in 2006 and was later introduced to F1. It will be branded as F1 Vision for its return.

The service will allow fans at the tracks to view live video coverage of the race, access live timing and team radio broadcasts and watch highlights. It runs using FanVision’s dedicated transmitters, meaning Wi-Fi coverage is not needed.

“FanVision’s return to Formula 1 will absolutely enhance the at-event engagement level for fans of our sport,” said F1’s digital new business manager Albert Goma.

“Through the partnership with FanVision, Formula 1 fans will experience real-time technologies like in-car cameras and unrestricted team communications from their Grand Prix vantage points.”

FanVision units are rented by over 100,000 NASCAR fans each year. The service became available at NHRA (drag racing) events for the first time in 2017.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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24 comments on “FanVision returns to F1 after five-year absence”

  1. Why didnt it stick in f1 in the first place?

    1. Bernie’s greed. He didn’t like sharing revenue with Fan Vision so he killed it.

  2. I have to admit that this increases the chances that I make it back out to my home race this year. It’s a game changer to be able to enjoy the atmosphere on track and also be able to closely follow the individual battles on track, was really disappointed when it was dropped after 2012.

  3. In this day and age, why not just put some wifi and broadcast it to people’s phones?

    1. Because too simple and obvious. And people could record on their smartphones. And post on the interwebs and that would be terrible for business. Ask Bernie.

      1. Matteo (@m-bagattini)
        10th May 2018, 8:29

        @jimmi-cynic slightly related: I once recorded like 5 seconds from live TV and posted to YouTube: its filters detected it as copyright infringement in the blink of an eye and rejected the submission.

        1. @m-bagattini: Ouch! Meanwhile YouTube’s crack AI-bots have a “penchant for recommending videos filled with blood, suicide and cannibalism to children”.

    2. There’s a big delay between RL and a stream on internet, 30 seconds at least

    3. @eljueta because a dedicated local transmission is far more reliable and you can charge for it, simple.

      Fans who don’t want to pay can easily use their data to stream coverage via official or unofficial channels or follow radio commentary. Offering this doesn’t change that.

      If you mean providing blanket wifi across a the circuit at a stable speed than that is far easier said that done, even in 2018!

    4. Not everybody has a smart phone.

    5. Have you been at a race in a packed grandstand and tried to tweet out a picture of the cars on the warm-up lap recently? If yes, just think about the trouble you had getting it to upload when everyone is doing the same. Believe me, the signal is already quite stretched.
      WiFi is far from reliable around grandstands anyway since the concrete and steel structures hurt the signal.

      And off course with WiFi, one might try to hack into the device

  4. Vettel fan 17 (@)
    9th May 2018, 20:35

    Very good idea. The one problem about going to races live is not being able to see all the action around the track (unless it is Sochi), bar the large screen.

    1. @vettelfan17 Not even in Sochi. The only way to see an entire circuit at once without having to rely on a giant trackside TV screen for seeing all the action that happens on the rest of the track would be to fly above it, LOL. You can only ever see so much of a circuit by your own eyes from a grandstand.

      1. @vettelfan17 @jerejj maybe at the top of the tower at COTA?

        1. @spoutnik I doubt that to some extent at least based on the images taken from the top of it that I’ve seen. From those images it doesn’t look like every single corner/part of the circuit would be viewable from there.

    2. At which race can you see the biggest percentage of the track?

  5. Mick Nicholson
    9th May 2018, 21:55

    Will a fanvisiondevice bought in the year before f1 canned the service still be compatible ?

    1. I assume you rent those boxes.

  6. I hired one of these at the 2011 Australian Grand Prix. At the time it was really great and well worth the money.

    Hopefully with advances in technology their units in 2018 are much more compact, or they have some sort of app that means you can stream it to your device

    1. Me too except 2007ish I didn’t realise they weren’t still available. I think I spent the whole time watching kubicas onboard and live timings. And then all the subsequent years wondering why this wasn’t available as a digital TV offering.

  7. Seems fairly superfluous once (read: ‘if’) the streaming service is available in the country where the race is being held

  8. Hope they have improved reception. We hired one in Monaco, along with quite a lot of others on our Grandstand, and nearly all of us couldn’t get a signal for the majority of the weekend. They gave us a refund but we had such high hopes and were so disappointed.

  9. This company continues to get shot in the foot by F1.
    By the time this gets back up and popular, F1 will launch their ‘live product’ and we’ll be able to watch what we want on phones. And Fanvision will get shot again…

  10. I bought a fanvision unit thinking I could use it for a few seasons and Bernie pulled the plug, leaving me with a useless piece of 300 dollar crap.
    I wonder if the new systems will still work after 5 years ….maybe not.

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