Danica Fastest At Open Test. Online has a tough start.

Danica topped the speed chart today at the Homestead Open Test just edging out Ryan Briscoe. It was a busy few days to say the least.

First, the video streaming of the Unification conference. We had just two days to put it together and get it ready. Even though I have done live events hundreds of times, testing is still critical because of all the variables. Connectivity, video lines, audio, etc... makes things complicated so testing the day before is important.

We went with the laptop encoding solution instead of the rack mounted equipment. We needed to be portable because this was a last minute deal. The feed we picked up in Indy was coming in from Homestead Florida over satellite.

The only issue we had was the audio came in hot and I didn't have a mixer to adjust it. Everything else went off with no problem. I am more impressed with the ease of use of the laptop.

We had over 128,547 total minutes viewed and the average time spent watching was 31 minutes. This again shows people will spend time watching content they are interested in.

After the press conference we had to turn to the live timing and scoring application. This is where things went down hill quickly. We maxed out our application license within an hour. We did not anticipate that much traffic. We spent the night dusting off the old application and bringing it out. We were still able to get the new version tested with the help of users at TrackForum. At the end of the second day, we had most of the issues worked out.

The next test will come next Monday at Sebring. There won't be any video streaming but the live T&S application will be tested again. This time it will be the full blown race mode version.