‘As the lights turned to green at the start of the 1985 Dutch TT all viewers could see was a wet empty track through the beads of rain that raced across the windshield of Randy Mamola’s Rothmans Honda NSR500. providing viewers around the world with the first ever live footage from an onboard camera during a world championship race.’
1985 Dutch Bike GP – Courtesy of Duke Marketing
In the early nineteen-eighties, TV2 developed an on-board camera system small enough to provide live images from a jockey’s helmet. It was first used to provide viewers with a rider’s POV (point of view) of the famous Grand National course at Aintree. Subsequently, the system was installed just behind the windshield of Randy Mamola’s factory entered Honda NSR500 to provide viewers with a rider’s ‘point of view’ during the 1985 Dutch TT (a round of the FIM 500cc World Motorcycle Championship – now MotoGP).
Live images from Randy Mamola’s Honda were transmitted via a helicopter link to the OB truck providing the host broadcaster, and ultimately viewers, with breathtaking live POV coverage of the race. This was the first time an onboard cameras was used in a world championship motorsport event and the ensuing publicity attracted the attention of Bernie Ecclestone who invited TV2 to develop a miniature on-board camera that could be used for Formula One.
First used during the 1985 Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide, the on-board camera system put viewers in the driver’s seat of a F1 car for the first time – adding a new dimension to the live coverage of Formula One races.
Over the next three decades, TV2 has provided broadcasters around the world with specialised facilities for the live coverage of broadcast sports, including F1 and F2 powerboat racing; sailing (America’s Cup) and ocean racing; air racing; horse and camel racing; and of course motorsport.
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