Necessity is the Momma of Innovation

What do you do when you've finally fixed issues with modems, cable-patching, networking, and software for the last hundred hours, only to find out your firewire port has been bent and you're supposed to be live streaming video for at least 3 more days? Well Veronica and I put our heads together this morning and after deciding that our intial setup wasn't going to cut it anymore, we started to scheme a completely MacGyvered Plan B as you can see from the picture above. We initially came up with using a webcam that I had brought along "just in case we needed it", but it had no iris or neutral density filter for the daylight hours, pretty much rendering it useless. If only we had a ND filter of some sort... something see-through with an amber tint... wait, sunglasses! Luckily we not only had sunglasses, but the other Veronica had a pair of black bar glasses from Stupidiotic that we planned on using for "anonymous interviews". A few boxes to prop the camera setup on and half a roll of electrical tape to mount it securely to the dashboard and we were back in business!

Not I don't know about you guys, but I haven't worked with too many media people who can trouble shoot instantaneously on the go in a moving vehicle with extremely limited supplies on about 4 hours of sleep and produce a live video feed with pretty much rubber bands and a paper clip. This isn't the first time the Veronica's have pulled this off... but it probably is the most innovative setup we've developed yet! We think Richard Dean Anderson would be all kinds of proud if he knew about this (and hopefully not be too upset that we've decided to dub ourselves MacGyver 2.0.) The first time was an in-vehicle "tripod" in 2006 for the camera when we hit some rain, where we basically used duct tape, a bungee cord, and several laptop bag straps (as well as the bag itself) to secure our little Sony safely inside and still shoot, and it worked brilliantly!

But enough talking about how awesome we feel right now since the video feed is working again! Really this is about you guys at home finally being able to see and hear everything that is going on throughout our journey as we Race Across America, and now hopefully you will be able to join us in the front passenger's seat for the rest of the ride. So log in, grab your Funions, and buckle up- we still have 6 states to go!

Keep on trucking,

-V
www.viasat.com/raam

The Race Has Begun!

We're rocking and rolling on down the road now, but since we can't officially follow the riders until 8pm PST (when we'll more than likely start the show), for now we're gonna give you the play-by-play from the last 24 hours in pictures.
Yesterday afternoon we all met up for our annual super duper fun and exciting pre-race information session. Following that spectacular hour, the Veronicas hoofed it over to DQ for ice cream and corn dogs, then spent the rest of the evening uploading as many videos as we could until we completely passed out... and then started again this morning until we finished. Whew.
After nabbing a few hours of sleep in the wee hours of the morning and some caffinated brown water from Starbizzles, we all headed down to the pier in Oceanside for some pre-race rock and roll (and to finally get this show on the road already!!!) Rider Andrew Danly OWNED his version of the National Anthem, then traded his guitar for a bike and headed out with the rest of the riders (videos to come soon- our little upload feed can only handle so much!!!)

Here's our crew chief John going over a few last minute rule reminders with some of the drivers before the race gets completely underway.



And finally, a view of the race just a few minutes until all hands are on deck and racing into the middle of nowhere as fast as they can. Why? Just because... Oh yeah, and because they can. (Videos of Andrew's National Anthem and the 2009 RAAM Start will hopefully be up soon...)

Until then, here's a peek at our super ferocious and seriously lucky ViaSat Mascot, courtesy of Pav. Thanks Pav!

Once again, we're hoping to be live broadcasting at 8pm PST- until then, keep an eye on our Twitter feed- we're @ teamviasat. Over and out!

-V

And a Moment with the Crew

Despite the huge amount of media coverage the Race Across America and its riders get, for some reason their crews don't always get much love. Well, we're planning on changing that this year by finally giving them a voice. This could get interesting...


Watch RAAM Crew Stories in Travel & Culture  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

(Most proper apologies to Barrie Adsett, who's name we couldn't find correct spelling for at the creation time of this video's lower thirds.)

Pre-race Videos

Veronica here. So we tried to get these posted up last night to no avail on YouTube, but due to file extension differences and all sorts of other technical mumbo jumbo it just wasn't gonna happen. (Dear YouTube- get with the program, Quicktime supports .mov files, why don't you?) Anyway, the race may have started, but until we're able to follow them at 20mph for the entire world to see, here are a few of the rider's thoughts from last weekend to entertain you as promised:


Watch Preparing for the Race in Travel & Culture  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

I'm going to post these in a few separate posts, just FYI. We'll also let you know when we're about to be up and running via Twitter later this afternoon @teamviasat, and of course, you'll know if you have our LIVE FEED PAGE open because you'll hear us loud and clear. Stay tuned!