Drone racing: Filming a new kind of sports story

In many ways drone racing is the perfect TV sport for the latter part of the 2010s. It combines a traditional sports format with the new tech glitz and innovation of eSports and does it all at a furious pace in a series of glamorous locations around Europe.

“It’s motor racing, but in three dimensions rather than on a two-dimensional track,” explains Executive Producer for Aurora Media Worldwide (AMW), David O’Carroll.

“All the components are there: the overtaking, the competitiveness, there’s a pitstop. But there is no set format, so what we were able to do was look at the format of the race and then figure out how that would work on the screen rather than apply standard motor racing logic to it: analyse it, deconstruct it, and then build it back up again.”

AMW has produced a 6x1 hour formatted series for Eurosport, Fox Sports Asia and beIN Sports which debuted on October 25th and will be shown in more than 100 countries around the world. And as the full, rather unwieldy name of the series, the DHL Champions Series fuelled by Mountain Dew, illustrates nicely it has serious sponsorship in place.

Coping with speed
Formats vary, but drone racing usually involves teams of drivers piloting specially developed racing quadcopters though control gates around a three dimensional course using FPV (First Person View) goggles.

The drones are fast too. The newest Pro Class drones that DR1 is debuting this season are over a metre in length, weigh five kilos, and can reach 100mph in a little under two-seconds. They’re not only smaller than F1 cars, they’re quicker too.

“The speed of the event surprised us and the organisers too,” says O’Carroll. “We turned up at…