Spiritland Productions delivers audio for Red Bull’s Max vs 100

Spiritland Productions has revealed its work on Red Bull’s Max vs 100 go-kart race, which took part at Silverstone on 16 September.

The event saw Max Verstappen take on 100 amateur go-kart drivers, including content creators, Red Bull athletes, and fans.

Verstappen started at the back and had 30 laps to make it to the front. He manged to get to the front is half that time - taking the lead in just 14 laps. He managed to overtake an impressive 63 drivers by the end of the first lap.

All participants had the chance to use one ‘short lap’ when needed, and by the time there were just a few karts left on the track, the race director gave all competitors but Max an extra ‘short lap’ because Max was doing so well. 

Spiritland Productions took charge of the audio side of the production, which was broadcast on Disney+ and the ESPN app globally, and on ESPN in the US.

The company was contracted to deliver this work by host broadcaster Whisper.

Spiritland Productions mic’ed up all 101 drivers and implemented the communications technology that made it possible for Verstappen to communicate with all the other go-kart drivers as they were racing.

This audio could be heard by the audience watching at home.

To make this happen, the Spiritland team created a custom audio switching system complete with graphics integration. The team also sourced 101 Sennheiser Spectera wireless beltpacks and multiple base stations.

With this kit, Spiritland produced a system capable of routing drivers to multiple on-air conversations with Verstappen and fellow competitors.

Spiritland also provided wifi coverage for the site and ran key production communications via 100 Riedel Bolero intercom beltpacks and 200 Motorola radios. These were integrated to the drivers’ audio systems which meant Verstappen could have a pre-race chat with his engineer Richard Cooke and enabled the race director to connect to all 101 drivers, and made it possible for the commentators to pick individual karts to chat with.

Additionally, Spiritland helped eight of the competitors to run their own livestreams across YouTube, Twitch and Kick.

The team provided a custom iPad switching platform, so each streamer’s producer could vision mix their stream, whether they were at Silverstone or working remotely.

Spiritland also gave each streamer an on-board camera, an iPhone with a feed of the pit and paddock, leaderboard graphics, picture-in-picture, and the ability to view the front-facing cameras of the other seven streaming karts.