Inside SBI’s Key West Livestream: Yowaiski To Lead Three-Race Broadcast
Starting with tomorrow’s four races, veteran offshore competitor and sometime reporter Mike Yowaiski will head Super Boat International’s Livestream broadcast team from the organization’s Offshore World Championships in Key West, Fla. Yowaiski, who took over for longtime SBI broadcaster Stan Lane (Lane retired after the Mentor, Ohio, race) at the SBI National Championships in Clearwater, Fla., will be joined after the first race tomorrow by ESPN’s Tommy Sanders.
The Key West races will be Yowaiski’s second SBI broadcast venture.
New SBI Livestream lead broadcaster Yowaiski is expecting the Superboat-class action, which starts tot tomorrow, to be “amazing.” Photo courtesy/copyright Pete Boden/Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.
“I feel good—I think it’s going to be exciting,” said Yowaiski, who started broadcasting Offshore Powerboat Association in 2005. “The Superboat class is going to be amazing, and I hear the conditions might change for Sunday, just like they did last year.”
The schedule for SBI’s pay-per-view Livestream coverage of the competition on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday is as follows:
10 a.m.—Superboat Stock, Production 3 and Production 4 classes.
12:30 p.m.—Superboat Extreme and Superboat Vee classes.
1:30 p.m.—Superboat class.
2:30 p.m.—Superboat Unlimited class.
The Superboat and Superboat Unlimited-class fleets are expected to have as many as nine boats per race. SBI’s Livestream coverage of all races this week will include four camera angles from different positions on the racecourse, and may also feature aerial footage.
“A big part of our effort is make sure we have dedicated high-speed Internet access, which we secure in every city where we race,” said Rodrick Cox of The Cox Group, which handles the Livestream setup and broadcast for SBI. (Television production company JM Associates, which is handling the NBC Sports program on the Key West Worlds to be broadcast in early 2017, also will be involved.) “Our feed is sent out in three different sizes: HD 720 by 1280, a medium-res size for desktop computers and a low-res version for smart phones. Typically those quality formats are auto-selected by the device.
“More than likely for the second race on Friday, we’re going to have Reggie Fountain join Mike and Tommy in the broadcast,” he added. “We are going to do the best we can to provide an uninterrupted, high-quality Livestream broadcast.”
Editor’s Note: Mike Yowaiski is a frequent contributor to speedonthewater.com. He covered much of the 2016 Offshore Powerboat Association racing circuit, as well as providing a first-person account as a competitor during the 2015 SBI World Championships in Key West.
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