An award-winning North East production company has secured a $2.5m contract to cover more than 40 motor races.
XCel Broadcast, based in Middlesbrough, will produce live TV coverage of multiple high-profile motor races within four Asia supercar racing series over the next two years.
The contract means the company will be responsible for providing live coverage of the 2025 and 2026 GT World Challenge Asia, GT Cup, Japan Cup, and Intercontinental GT Challenge series.
An XCel TV camera at the Shanghai F1 circuit (Image: Supplied)
The first event takes place this weekend (Sunday March23) at the Shanghai F1 Grand Prix in China.
The Teesside company will supply all the necessary outside broadcast TV facilities, including cameras, control rooms, and satellite trucks.
They will also provide a full team of production staff to cover the races, including cameramen, producers, on-air talent, and engineers.
Control room at Sepang International Circuit (Image: Supplied)
The coverage will be aired in three languages: English, Japanese, and Mandarin Chinese.
XCel Broadcast's work will be based at iconic motor racing circuits such as Japan's Suzuka and Fuji F1 circuits, Sepang in Malaysia, and China's Shanghai F1 venue.
Dave Roberts, the company's managing director, said: "This is another huge coup for Teesside.
Sepang International Circuit (Image: Supplied)
"All four motor racing series are very high-profile events on the FIA motorsports calendar, and to think Teesside will be responsible for producing the live TV pictures from such iconic F1 circuits, watched by over a hundred million people around the world, is just amazing.
"As a region, we may be thousands of miles away from where the action is happening, but securing such an important contract like this just proves the superb talent we have on our patch.
"I hope other Teesside operations can look at this to see what is possible for us globally."
Managing director Dave Roberts (Image: Supplied)
XCel Broadcast will utilise a 50-strong team of technical and production staff for each race to broadcast all the action around the world.
This includes everything that will be seen and heard on TV and internet screens, from TV pictures to race commentary, graphics, and timing clock.
The company will also live stream all races globally to multiple digital platforms, including into China.
In 2020, XCel was awarded the Northern Powerhouse Most Entrepreneurial Exporter Award for its innovative live streaming solution into the media-restricted country.
Mike Scott, head of television for SRO Motorsports Group, who own the competition, said: "XCel has carried out a great job in recent years producing our motor racing series, so naturally we were delighted to be able to agree that they’ll continue the work across the next two years, across four of our race series.
"We are delighted to have them on board again."
Read more:
Producing live TV in Asia can present unique challenges, such as language barriers, local customs, and the weather.
Mr Roberts recalled: "Operating in Asia can be a real challenge.
"In 2015 in Malaysia, a camera just 20 metres from me was struck by lightning while we were on air.
"The lightning strike took out half of our track cameras, so we had to work through the storm just to get a few of them working again."
