UPDATE 02.19.08: My annual review of TOC coverage... Since a bumpy start in 2006 the AEG guys have really improved the live coverage over the internet. I'm watching non-stop. Great job guys. Here's the link for this years live feed:
http://www.amgentourofcalifornia.com/docroot/tourtracker2008/AdobeTourTracker.html
UPDATE: 02.21.07 Today's ATOC coverage is excellent. Everything on the feed is working! Here's the link:
Tour of California "live" feed: http://www.amgentourofcalifornia.com/docroot/tourtracker2/index.html
UPDATE: 02.20.07 - Amgen's Tour of California coverage continues to be terrible. I would of thought they learned from last year's debacle. I have yet to be able to get everything to work together (audio, video, GPS). I'm on a Mac PowerBook G4, with 2 gigs of RAM and a cable connection. I've tried Explorer, Safari and Firefox. Most of the time the screen is blank except for the Google map, a few photos, and commentary that is very slow to update. Also, I assume AEG is packaging the VERSUS coverage each night. It's terrible! Come on guys, you can do a whole lot better than this! (Both Cylcing News and VeloNews are doing a much better job with much less ambitious technology.)
Many of you are coming here from Google searches so here are the links to the live feeds:
Tour of California "live" feed: http://www.amgentourofcalifornia.com/docroot/tourtracker2/index.html
Cycling News: http://live.cyclingnews.com/?id=latest
VeloNews: http://www.velonews.com/tick/html/stage123.html
TeamCS: http://twoscenarios.typepad.com/cycling_systems_masters_r/tour_of_california/index.html
I think VeloNews is doing the best job. If the links above don't work then back off the URL to the root and follow the links to the live coverage.
2:15pm - 02.20.07: Ok, all the parts and pieces of the ATOC site are finally working! Looks great! Now stabilize it and make it reliable!
2:20pm - 02.20.07: Well it was nice while it lasted. Back to intermittent coverage.
BELOW IS WHAT I WROTE LAST YEAR -
We're in the middle of a massive update to the Armory and have been quiet on the blog for the past couple of weeks. But I have to break radio silence to bitch about the coverage of Amgen's Tour of California. Don't get me wrong, in the scheme of things this is nothing. But if you'll indulge me here a little, there's more than a few lessons for marketers struggling with the trade-off between technology razzle dazzle and just getting the job done in a workmanlike manner.
As an avid cyclist and budding racer, I was looking forward to watching the Tour of California this morning. There are several excellent vantage points near my house along Coast Highway and I woke up this morning with my day planned as to the routes I would take to watch the race including the finish in Santa Rosa. However, family events and business obligations conspired to keep me in the office, so as the time for the race start drew near, I went to www.amgentourofcalifornia.com to "watch" the race "live" over the internet.
What transpired next can be summed up in one word - frustration. First issue was simple site navigation. The user interface is difficult to use and includes cryptic instructions and non-existent links. But more importantly most of the site features didn't work on either my Mac or PC! Which was interesting because Google and Adobe supposedly helped with the technology.
Second issue was the start. The race was set to go off at 11:00am. The play-by-play never even announced the race start. Instead about 15 minutes in you find out the peloton is approaching the first climb (kind of like starting coverage of a baseball game two outs into the first inning). Thereafter the play-by-play was sporadic at best and downright lame with it's commentary.
Third issue was the lack of real time photos or video. Outside of one shot taken on course there was no visual reporting of the race. This is just baffling. Whats up with the tour organizers? What happened to the live feed? This is arguably the most beautiful stage and you can't capture real or even near time images?
Fourth and last issue was coverage of the finish. There was no coverage. About two laps to go all updating stopped and the server shut down!!!!!! At the bottom of the web site are listed two firms that supposedly collaborated on the development of the site. One of which is Stamen Design. Who as it turns out seems to be the web guru for folks at MoveOn.org, Cindy Sheehan, Pro-Choice America and Fahrenheit 9/11. Go figure.
I have a suggestion for the tour organizers. Next time forget about all the fancy web shit. Put Bob Roll in a helicopter with a couple of cell phones and back up batteries. Have him call the race in and stream it over the net. It would be a lot cheaper, damn near foolproof, and fans of the race will get to hear what they came for. Or better yet tap into citizen media tools like cell phone cameras, blogs, and flickr, and let the fans do their own real time reporting.
OK. I'm done. I feel better. Back to work.
UPDATE: Here is one site offering citizen media input.
UPDATE 2: Now here is a site demonstrating the power of citizen media for an event like the tour. Hosted by steephill.tv they had up 134 videos and photos by 11:00pm last night! From their web site:
This is a collaborative effort allowing individuals to contribute photos, video and audio referred to as "clips" to the timeline of a geographically dispersed event, with the Tour of California being the first application. Register with the system so that you can upload and edit your clips. You can also tag any photo or clip as a favorite just like Flickr. The best part of the system is the Event Storyboard Filter which allows you to select and sort content in useful ways so you can easily wade through a large collection of photos and videos. You don't need to register if you only want to view the clips. The best contributions will be used in a video recap at the end of the event.
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