On Monday, May 25, 2009, Memorial Day morning, Aerial Video Systems (AVS) continued their long-running tradition of providing the wireless camera feeds for KNBC4–LA’s live broadcast of the Los Angeles Marathon. For the production of the 24^th annual LA Marathon, AVS utilized the latest technology from Link Research and MRC. The Link HD/SD 1500 and MRC PTX-Pro microwave systems transmitted both video and audio signals from custom designed motorcycle sidecars to helicopter-based repeaters and back to a receive site in the Hollywood Hills, where it was returned via fiber to Mira Mobile’s M-6 53’ digital expando truck.

This year, race organizers changed the date from the usual Sunday morning in March to Memorial Day. Although a holiday, the local news operations were in full swing with their regularly scheduled Monday morning programming. This situation prevented the broadcasters from sharing their 2GHz frequencies with AVS and created a lack of frequency options in an already frequency-challenged market. Pulling from its inventory of Link and MRC microwave gear, AVS carefully selected strategic frequencies in the 1.4, 2.0, 2.5 and 7.0 GHz bands to deliver crystal clear images. “The RF coverage was outstanding,” stated Phil Olsman, Executive Producer of the L.A. Marathon for NBC.

This year marked the 6^th annual “LA Marathon Challenge”, which provides the elite women with an approximately 20 minute head start over the elite men. The time differential sets up a dramatic race to the finish between the male and female athletes with the winner picking up a bonus prize of $100,000.

To capture the progress and excitement of the challenge, AVS developed a GPS-driven marathon course map, plotting the exact locations of the lead female and male runners and their relative positions to one another. This allows the viewing audience to experience the drama of the challenge and the fight to the finish line. “This keeps the viewers involved throughout the three-hour broadcast,” said Herb Chapin the designer of the tracking program. This GPS tracking system is a proprietary technology of AVS and was developed specifically for the LA Marathon.

The 2009 L.A. Marathon was broadcast live on KNBC4-LA and streamed live on-line at nbcla.com. A tape delayed broadcast was carried on Universal Sports, which is available one cable for more than 45 million homes across the nation.