British Downhill Series 2016 – Si Paton Interview

With the new addition to the BDS  of Live Timing for practice and race runs available to everyone in attendance, we thought we’d catch up with Si Paton to find out more

This will be the first for a downhill race series in the world to offer live timing for not only the race but for also for all of practice. That means that every practice run you take on Saturday or Sunday morning will be recorded with the data available to the riders at the touch of a finger via their smart phones.

Additionally each rider once their category has finished racing will automatically have their seeding and race results text directly to their mobile phone.

The timing will be set up the same as for the UCi World Cup downhill races using the latest Active Pro Transponders with satellite & GPS synchronised timing to produce results down to 1/100 second. For added security a second backup system using Tag Heuer timing equipment will run in parallel.

The live results will be all be displayed on a big screen in the finish arena and on the BDS website where you can also leave comments or share direct on Facebook and Twitter.

With two satellite systems onsite to stream live the latest results and news from the events, means anyone in the world you can tune in to watch the rider’s live times for all of Saturdays practice, Sunday’s seeding runs and the final race run.

So that’s the new system in place for 2016. We caught up with BDS Event Director Si Paton to find out more

Photo by Nielsen Nash

This is a pretty bold move for the BDS and really is taking the series even further into the realms of being the one of, if not the best National Series in the World. What was it that got you to run with this set-up for next season?

First off we are looking to increase the quality of the riders attending and competing in the events with a higher entry criteria. This means we can work on existing tracks and inserting larger, more technical features, like we did at Rhyd-Y-Felin (Bala) this year.

It sounds like this level of tech being brought into the BDS is a pretty sizable investment for the series? Is this potentially going to increase competitor entry costs?

We currently average sixty key personal at each event so you can soon understand it is a sizeable event we are now putting together and numbers will only increase as will the price. Race costs are increasing to £95.00 per entry for the 2016 BDS. This is a sizeable increase due to several factors that include a reduction in funding and our aim to increase the experience of the events for all attendees

What are your expectations when we head to round 1 next year?

For the past five years I have been asking the timing companies if there is the option for live timing including practice runs. Today the technology is accurate, reliable, available and at a reasonable cost, even though that cost is considerably higher than the current set up we utilise. This new set up will be premiered at Ae Forest for round 1 and I believe will have a serious impact on the riders and the event. The positives will be that riders will start to complete full runs during practice, comparing split and full course times with their piers and competitors. This is a fantastic service and brings unprecedented value to the events. I have no doubt this will make everyone faster as a whole, further cementing the dominance the UK holds in downhill racing as riders will not want to be beaten, even during practice. Other benefits include increased exposure for the riders and their sponsors to everyone from team managers, spectators, sponsors and the arm chair fans sat at home. All of who can keep tabs on their favourite riders as they attack each BDS course during practice.

Do you anticipate any downsides or potential problems with the implementation of this sort of Live Timing stream?

There may well be some downsides, such as riders catching other riders on course during practice and wanting to pass, lets hope they shout ‘On the right’, meaning they are over taking on the right. Rather than screaming at the rider in front, ‘Strava Run’!!
The main issue will be 3G and 4G access for mobile devices for those track side. Many of our events are remote in location, in black holes of communication with the outside world so what is the point of all this data capture if it is not viewable? This is where we are currently working on what we believe to be the biggest advancement the sport could have. A Wi-Fi ‘Hotspot’ in the finish arena for all to use, that means everybody. Best of all, for free! Currently we have our own satellite system, this allows us to currently update social media and the websites around the World with breaking news, results, interviews and bike checks etc.. On average we currently update over a race weekend up to 100 news stories with global coverage that is gratefully received. What will be truly ground breaking is rather than everyone updating their social media on the evening when they are back in the real World of communications. They will be able to update social media when ever they are within close proximity of the finish arena. We estimate this will increase exposure of the events by a hundred fold if not more.

Beyond this do you think we could soon be seeing live video streaming of BDS rounds? It seems like the next natural progression.

Once all that is in place then what could possibly be next? Live feed would be next on the wish list. We have used the free app Periscope with great success, delivering over 120 live streams with 60k hearts/likes. Next steps would be to use a static camera fixed on the finish line capturing riders as they cross the line, with the audio picking up the live commentary. Agreed this would be very basic, though we could make the most of it presenting to the on-line audience at home. We would kindly ask that the race fans would need to understand that we do not have a budget of some £50-100k per round to stream a premium quality broadcast.

Photos By Sarah Barrett Photography