[LM24 Race] Lack of Nighttime Broadcasting

[Chiana]

Now, this might be a bit of a random question, but whatever.

Why on earth do they switch of the TV cameras from the Mulsanne, lead up to Indianapolis/Arnage and Porsche curves when it starts to gets dark?

The majority of the night is then "wasted" on pit lane and other well-lid places near the start-finish straight, ending at Tetre Rouge. We do get the occassional 15-second glimpse of Mulsanne every now and then, through random CCTV cameras (I don't count the onboards), but that's hardly satisfying enough.

I can sort of see the reason on wednesday/thursday qualifying sessions when they have to make the roads public soon again, but the race?? And don't can't say that the reason is the lack of lighting because that's not an excuse on modern day world and camera equipment... there are many other circuits with far less light posts than LM. Plus in the past when the race actually was not covered as well by TV as now, they used to have far more night time shots from the other side of the track.

Is it just that they wanna give cameramen some rest? Well boohoo, take more shifts then. Flag marshals and others stay...

[The Badger]

They dont have cameras for Wednesday , they usually set them up on Wednesday .

[Chiana]

Originally Posted by The Badger

They dont have cameras for Wednesday , they usually set them up on Wednesday .

O.K but the day in question here is really the Saturday (night).

[Ultimo]

I really like seeing the cars in darkness; it's always magic. I'd like to see more coverage like Chiana. More camerapeople shifts sounds good to me; and I always like seeing the on boards as well in pitch black.

[GT6]

arnarge at night is a magic place and would prefer less flood lights so that the glow of the brake disc's show up one of the great sights of Le Mans

[johngee]

Maybe I'm missing the point of this but surely the darkness is what make Le Mans so magical and almost unique. If we like 'floodlit' racing, we can always watch the Singapore Grand Prix. I personally think that the lighting has removed much of the magic of Tetre Rouge.

[Chiana]

Originally Posted by johngee

Maybe I'm missing the point of this but surely the darkness is what make Le Mans so magical and almost unique. If we like 'floodlit' racing, we can always watch the Singapore Grand Prix. I personally think that the lighting has removed much of the magic of Tetre Rouge.

Perhaps my opening post was poorly written or something but the intention of this thread was not to discuss what we think of the darkness itself (which by the way I think is not what it used to be at Le Mans, ie too many floodlights around the circuit) but the TV production. No cameras at mostly non-lit areas like Mulsanne/indianapolis/Arnage/Curves during the night = Why??!!

[johngee]

I'm sorry that I obviously had misunderstood the direction of your original post and I apologise.

[Chiana]

No reason to be sorry, I guess the thread title is a bit misleading

[The Badger]

Originally Posted by johngee

Maybe I'm missing the point of this but surely the darkness is what make Le Mans so magical and almost unique. If we like 'floodlit' racing, we can always watch the Singapore Grand Prix. I personally think that the lighting has removed much of the magic of Tetre Rouge.

Spot on comment

[Simmi]

Completely agree that they should have camera men on at all times. Just rotate them. It's only the biggest race of the year for the ACO. Maybe the thinking is to make it much easier for the editors in the night who, to be honest, won't have much idea what they are looking at.

It would eliminate a lot of the mysterious incidents that we always get during the night.

[racerkeke]

Two things:
1. In 2004, my first Le Mans, I remember the camera at poste 60bis (driver's left at the second chicane) working during my midnight to 3 am shift at 61. I haven't seen it the last two years.

2. I have noticed a trend toward decreasing the lights in the turns. In 2004 my night shift was closer to a suntan session, while in 2011 only the turn-in and exit were lit. Aside from the fact that the turn-in lights are aimed so 61's lead station is blinded (which is okay, since we started wearing sunglasses for the P1 LEDs anyway) I like it better with much of the chicane in at least half-dark. Like GT6 said, the glowing brake discs are lovely.

I think we should get Rooftop Ray to come over from the US -- he did great night camera work at the Daytona 24.

keke

[deggis]

In a way or another it probably comes to money... camera men won't work for free.

In old race reviews you can definitelly see that there are more cameras during the night. Take a look at some random 98-99 race video from Youtube.

Another thing is that obviously the only thing you can see in the really dark sections are the giant lights of the cars, but it's still better than pitlane-esses-pitlane-esses-pitlane...

[Chiana]

Indeed if for example you take a look at Speedvision's '99 broadcast, the night coverage from Mulsanne etc is just fantastic!

In any case it's hardly the darkest circuit on Earth anymore, even outside the 'main' floodlight areas. So that's no excuse. Portimao 2009/2010 and Hungaroring 2010 LMS races, now those were properly dark! And well shot

[Simmi]

Originally Posted by deggis

In a way or another it probably comes to money... camera men won't work for free.

They could stick me on the Mulsanne for a few hours in the night for free!