SMT Captures TCS New York City Marathon With Broadcast Graphics, Live Streaming

SMT provided broadcast and onsite solutions for the TCS New York City Marathon, held Sunday, Nov. 4. This is the fifth year SMT has partnered with the New York Road Runners to provide video display productions and clock-and score interfacing and the 10th year SMT has delivered its enhanced graphics and broadcast technology for IMG, producers of the TCS New York City Marathon broadcast for the past 25 years.

SMT’s solutions spanned New York City’s five boroughs, from the Welcome Center at the Marathon Pavilion in Central Park to the Marathon Expo at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and points along the 26.2-mile race route.

This year, SMT’s Video Production Team produced exciting live streams capturing all the buzz from the runup to the marathon. On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights of race week, fans tuned in to see the action from the Marathon Pavilion live streamed on the New York Road Runners Facebook page.

And on race day, SMT produced a live stream for NYCM’s Final Finisher Celebration, capturing all the excitement as the marathon’s last finishers made their way to the finish line alongside two 80-foot wide LED track boards displaying SMT produced race content. A 25-foot ribbon board suspended from the photo bridge greeted runners as they approached the finish line, informing them of the times for each of the waves.

In addition, video displays stationed at the start and finish lines and along the 26.2-mile course kept over 52,000 runners continuously updated with race-related and entertainment content including:

• TCS Runfographics, a series of informative illustrations containing factoids, insights, and historical race data
• Live leaderboards
• Broadcast and social media feeds
• Sponsor messages and NYRR public service messages

With SMT’s Journey to the Marathon platform, fans followed select runners’ inspirational stories told through lower-third and full-screen graphics and video.

SMT broadcast elements included:

• ISO Track, an on-screen pointer graphic that identified and tracked featured athletes
• Race Crawls for the domestic, international and ESPN broadcasts, featuring lower-screen tickers that displayed the current place of elite men and women, wheelchair athletes and every participant’s name as they crossed the finish line
• Talent prompters that delivered historical and relevant data to ESPN’s commentators

On Sunday, Nov. 4, the marathon aired nationally on ESPN2, ESPN.com, and via the ESPN app; locally on WABC-TV in New York; and live streamed at WatchABC or ESPN3.