FEATURE
Something for everyone
Part consumer, part trade,
part shopping, part live show –
Autosport International covers
all the bases for car enthusiasts
E
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very exhibition has some form of
build-up and breakdown, but how
many can say they have a breakdown
and build-up mid-show?
Motorsport Network’s Autosport
International, for one, as event director Kate
Woodley explains: “On the trade days –
Thursday and Friday – we have Autosport
Engineering,” she tells EN. “Those exhibitors
only want to meet with suppliers and buyers,
and we have around 30,000 visitors on those
days. On the Friday evening we break down
the Engineering Hall, exit those exhibitors,
and bring in a weekend area which is much
more public facing.”
Autosport took place in January 2019
at the NEC and has taken place annually
at the venue since 1991. Catering for the
consumer audience as well as trade, the show
features a Live Action Arena in Hall 5 of
the NEC, a ‘petrolhead heaven’ that seats
up to 5,000 and comprises 12 hour-long live
performances throughout the show, largely at
the weekend.
“People want to see as much racing and
stunts as possible,” comments Woodley.
“We had the likes of Billy Monger [who lost
both legs in a racing accident] appearing
in his Formula 3 car, an all-female drifting
stunt team and David Croft from Sky Sports
presenting.”
The show welcomes the great and the good
of the motorsports world, with the World
Rally Championships launching its new
season at the event, complete with drivers
and co-drivers, and the McLaren team in
attendance.
With so much content happening on the
show floor, Autosport International gathers
a global audience eager to interact with the
event and get involved, even if they can’t
attend in person. EN caught up with Simon
Walton, creative director at video production
company Silverstream TV, to learn about the
company’s presence at show, new for 2019.
A global audience
“We had our outside broadcast truck on
the Autosport show floor as the production
February 2019 | exhibitionnews.co.uk
base,” Walton explains. “Two presenters
reported live from around the five halls using
our radio-linked cameras. This included a
behind the scenes glimpse of the stunt drivers
in the Live Action Arena. The output was
broadcast live to three giant screens around
the venue. We streamed live on Autosport
International’s homepage and a number of
its sister brand websites. Key moments were
also streamed live on Facebook Live. One
of these was the launch of the World Rally
Championships which reached over 120,000
viewers.”
As 2019 was the first collaboration
between Silverstream and Autosport
International, EN asks what made the
organiser take the leap into pushing video at
the show.
“Autosport were keen to add buzz on the
show floor and give exposure to their key
brands and exhibitors,” says Walton. “There
was concern that live streaming might
deter visitors, so we made sure the coverage
was a tantalising glimpse of the show that
encouraged visitors.
“We’ve had some terrific results with
Facebook Live with other clients, so we
recommended having Facebook Live blast at
key moments. This was very successful, with
hundreds of thousands of viewers engaging
with the show on Facebook.
“Live streaming out of venues like the
NEC is now routine for us. The venues
have good connectivity and their IT guys
understand what we need. Bandwidth in
venues is expensive, so we use it sparingly.
When a brand like Autosport want to stream
to multiple platforms at once we know we
can’t send out individual streams to each one,
as it will multiply the cost to the organisers.
We now stream once out and split the feed at
our server to the different platforms.
“Another challenge is the sheer size of
Autosport International – covering five halls
of the NEC – so our radio-linked cameras
were pushed to the limit.”
While many organisers are making
inroads into live streaming and producing
vast amounts of video content at their event,
Autosport’s impressive and varied output is
still ahead of the curve.
“We’re always looking at ways of updating
the event,” concludes Woodley, “We’re not
standing still.” EN