About Us
Speedbox.tv is an online video platform which aims to provide an alternative outlet for the many versions of motorsport that exist down under. We are a small but dedicated team with a vision of how things could be. We try to be as open and honest as we can be.
The people behind speedbox are:
Norton & Mary Isaac
Norton and Mary work in the television industry particularly in field production and camerawork. Norton handles the video content and manages the live productions, as well as managing the day to day business. Mary looks after the website, and is probably the person who will answer your email if you want to tell us something. She also handles general admin work and during the live streams is often on live help and the sound desk.
Ian Rawkins
Director of Telesport NZ ltd, a television sports production company, Ian has vast experience in motorsport, and makes the majority of the motorsport tv programming in New Zealand. Ian directs the live mixes and provides the Video on demand TV highlights packages.
Aaron Crabb
Director of Slipstream media, a live streaming company, Aaron looks after the technical internet aspects of live streaming, and is also sometimes on live help.
Team Speedbox
We use a number of freelance tv professionals during our live streams. The typical Speedbox operation has 9 people onsite. This will include a director, vision switcher, field producer, sound opperator, streaming technician, interviewer and camera operators. We often run on the back end of a TV budget meaning we are at the mercy of what the television production wants and needs. Increasingly we are on site without a TV budget funding us, meaning we can really concentrate on the internet production.
One of our main goals is to return funds to the sports that we are involved with. As Speedbox grows the many we can give back to the sports will increase and hopefully one day you will see a Speedbox team competing in each genre of motorsport.
History of Speedbox.tv
The speedbox.tv concept came about in 2007 while we were driving up the Hume Highway in Austraila on our way to film a jetsprint meeting. The drive was about five hours long and Norton Isaac and Ian Rawkins were sharing a bottle of Jack Daniels in the back seat. By the end of the bottle it was decided and Speedbox was born. We would hit the ground running and live stream the Cemetery Circuit street races, World 240 Superstocks, Jetsprints and Hydroplanes. We had worked with these sports for many yeas and with the ever growing popularity of internet video it just seemed like the way to go. After all if you're not first, you're last.
Upon returning to New Zealand we put our plans into action. We recruited Aaron Crabb who was at that time experimenting with live streaming at Western Springs Speedway. The speedbox Partnership was born. We built our first website, assembled our production equipment and secured our first live streams.
Year One
Our first event was the 2007 Cemetery Circuit. We threw everything at it. It was like baptism by fire. 7 cameras live on the streets of Wanganui. We did survive that one, although it was pretty rough. We learnt a lot of lessons that day about what not to do! After several jetsprint meetings, a couple of Hydroplane events and a very successful live stream out of Paradise valley raceway in Rotorua, the World 240 Superstocks, our season ended. It had been very hard on us and our website was lacking.
Year Two
With a new Website on line and lessons learned from year one, this year was going to be great. Our first live stream at Cemetery Circuit ended in disaster. This year the production was great but a satellite reception issue meant the live stream failed to go out at all. We received many very harsh emails. We refunded everyone and sent them all a DVD of the coverage free of charge, costly and time consuming not to mention heart breaking. Our second stream of the season the world 240's we struck a new issue, the satellite kit had a faultily part in it. We flew a replacement part in and got the live stream up and running about 40 minutes late. We decided to refund everyone in full. Many people didn't want their money back but we felt that it had to be done. It was on that day that our 100% money back guarantee became our policy.
This was also the first year we live streamed the Superstock Teams Champs. No satellite needed there as they are on the main internet trunk line and we can access the network with the dedicated bandwidth which we require. Qualifying went well, we had good numbers and people where happy. Finals night even more people subscribed and things were going great until the streaming technician turned white. The stream had gone down. I said to him 'whats wrong', he said 'we have no ping'. I thought to myself what the hell is ping? It turned out that a router in Wellington had failed and for 40 minutes we were off air. We used a back up system that we have for this issue but its pretty bad. Our viewers had had a few drinks at home by now and many were not shy about venting their frustrations. We do understand this, it just goes with the territory. I'd be gutted too. We got it back online and replayed the missed action. Some asked for a refund but most were just happy to get what they got. It was a pretty hard day for us.
We were plagued by issues for the whole year and were very worn down by the time the season finished. That was our lowest point and we very nearly pulled the pin as we were out of funds and out of energy. The one positive was we were starting to enjoy a strong base of people who really liked speedbox and the encouraging emails from those people gave us the strength to carry on.
Year Three
A few changes were made and things went a lot better for us. We focused on the events that had the most potential on our pay-to-view platform. Every event went out live but those of you who were tuned into the World 240's will remember we got let off the hook by the rain. At that event we decided to cut costs by using a cheaper option than the satellite to uplink the stream. It didn't work well at all, dropping out constantly. Lucky for us the racing was rained off and we booked the satellite for the following day. I remember seeing the promoter Sonja Hickey gutted because of the rain. For me it was a good thing. Strange how the world works.
With strong growth and a loyal customer base Speedbox was starting to show some real potential. The Superstock Teams Champs and the NZ Superstock Champs went great (except for a brief power cut at the NZ Superstocks). For the first time we really nailed the Cemetery Circuit.
Using our equipment and skills we were also contracted to live stream the ASP Women's World Surfing Championship round from Taranaki. A much needed cash boost.
Year Four
Well that's this season so you you will have to check back once its over for the low down on how it went. I can tell you we have a new Video platform and a new Website and for the first time ever a Stockcar event. The prices have gone up a little to cover costs and increase the return to the promoters because without them we wouldn't be able to do this. I would expect them to go up a little next year also as we look for the happy balance between keeping everyone happy and not going broke! So far this year our traffic is up, our sales are up and we are raring to go.