Bill

Yes well that outfit that ran the studio in parnell called nz live was sold to broadcasting conglomerate NEP and judging by an article on stuff recently sky are going to hock their broadcast fleet off to them as well. Sky brought the fleet from the bloke who started nz live. He was just there to make a quick buck and the nzrb at the time, Bayliss/Broomhall took it hook line and sinker. Useless pricks. no definitely not one single bit of fibre, but that’s how it is described as a “circuit” - at the end if the day, it is obviously cheaper to do that rather than booking satellite spots for tracks that have regular meetings. If you think Addington holds sometimes three meetings a week between harness & dishlickers, satellite would be an expensive way of transmission

It got nothing to do with the amount of employees eden park or te rapa might have. because they are not allowed to use that. the fibre circuit is for broadcast video and audio only. Next time you are on track, ask one of the trackside guys like I have. It is a dedicated broadcast circuit for rita/tab to send their feed to the studio from the broadcast truck via the vendors network. And it is available for their use 24/7. All the greyhound venues have it too so i am told. Google sdi fibre broadcast transmission as for those pictures, yes i have one of those in my house that my router is connected too.

You can look in the window in the building at te rapa racecourse where the trackside broadcast truck parks on a raceday and see the frame of equipment there, that is the fibre optic unit that the pictures go into. Yes the truck moves around, but there is always a piece of equipment that says there, that belongs to the telcos that they plug the signal into. I have a cousin who works in this field for sky tv and he has informed me that it would stay there, just like they have for some of the big stadiums here eg eden park, waikato stadium which have full time dedicated circuits

Transmitting HD broadcast quality pictures is totally different to what happens in your home with your own wifi router. It doesn’t just go into a router, it is specific kit that does this and converts it into a paticular signal. A quick google search will tell you that. i understand it goes into the spark/kordia network. My point is, it all isn’t cheap.

My understanding is that only main venues have fibre, like Ellerslie, Te Rapa, Riccarton etc...the ones that are listed in the first month. The venues that have the most meetings have fibre. Why would you have a fibre link say at Waverley, for the few meetings they have a year, paying for it 24/7. Would not make sense. Fibre connects straight from the track to the studio, either by Spark and/or Kordia. Also less delay on the fibre than the satellite. But anyhow, it’s easier to use that and cheaper. I presume RITA own or rent the fibre lines and they can probably use it 24 hours 7 days a week if need be. It’s not like connecting your wifi router to your fibre at home, more complex than that. Satellite however, there’s a lot mote costs involved. The link has to be paid for, by the hour I am guessing for however long the link is up and being used for. That wouldn’t be cheap I am picking. And if you have seen those big satellite trailers RITA own and operate, they need towing to each venue that requires a satellite and need to be set up by an engineer, have seen them do it at Taupo before.

It might be tough for us here in NZ to weather the storm but not sure you can comparisons with HK, not even in the same league. They will be fine, if you look they are still producing turnovers of over HK$1.2b (NZ$250million) per meeting according to articles online. Incredible really, yes it’s down but remarkable when you think nobody is oncourse, all betting outlets are closed on racedays and most other days.

Google search will tell you he started in NZ before going to HKJC so I’d suggest he knows what he is doing https://www.scmp.com/sport/racing/article/1987722/away-and-racing-gates-crash-back-starter-tony-mcgoverns-retirement

Yes, Mark Mac & Tom Wood are the A team over there now...NZ’s loss is HK’s gain

Going around for his third run, this time at Happy Valley tomorrow night 2:45am in the Class 1 1200m

The place is abhorrent...the Avondale committee are just so small minded and petty that they cannot see the bigger picture for the industry. People like Jan Skinner and co

Least they can still race. See in an article turnover down over 400million for the meeting they had at the weekend. Thats like 80mil kiwi. Staggering money

Lines up for his second start in Honkers today R10, 9:40pm NZT. Local market has him at 22-1

According to Twitter he’s the new caller to join Tom Wood in Hong Kong...great combo

They only like the airy-fairy stuff tank, you should know that. Nobody has any balls in this politically correct age we live in to tackle the big issues.

found this after a quick Google search http://www.harnesslink.com/News/Longtime-race-caller-hangs-up-his-binoculars-77446 http://www.harnesslink.com/News/New-Zealand-caller-set-for-a-bright-future-82681 first called Boxing Day 2009....come along way in 10 years or so. 18 or 19 years of age when he started, so only natural he would be better. Learned from mistakes and developed so much so that he’s developed into a class called.

Bet there hasn’t been too many callers call their first meeting at Reefton to go and call in Hong Kong. Wasn’t he mentored by Reon Murtha? Another Reefton connection

Please can we ditch the name “Champagne Turf” its cringeworthy, should have been ditched in the 90s

I have been listening to Honkers today as well...flying isn’t he! Yet wasn’t rated by the clowns at Trackside and is now calling on one of the biggest stages...go figure. McDonald well respected but IMO should just stick to the ben-hur’s.

And given zero chance by the local presenters https://racing.hkjc.com/racing/english/showcase/showcase.asp

Opened at over 50-1 in the HK market...sums up it’s chances I feel.

You clearly don’t know HK Racing well...that is a decent class 2 field there with a few derby hopes in it. New imports to HK do not win in class 2 first up often...I’d be watching the HK preview show later when it’s online to see what they think of him and his trials. Rating of 88 first up will be tough to win off...and all his form on heavy/slow/yielding tracks, wont get many of those up there.