Convo: Neil Goldberg (cont'd)

Q: In the simplest way, what are you trying to do with technology?

Goldberg: What we try to do is create images that can better explain to people what they're seeing on the screen. And we'll continue to get better at the explanations -- because it is complicated stuff -- and we need to kind of unwind if from being complicated in our explanation. And I thought we took a very good step in that direction, for example, at Pocono.

Q: It sounds like imagination is your only limit, so what's the next bell or whistle or technological marvel on the horizon for you and the gang at ESPN that you'd like to present to the viewers?

Goldberg: I think I said this the other day, that we're constantly thinking of the next thing, but right now, with things like draft track and another graphic that we debuted in Daytona that we've now refined, which is a pointer graphic that shows cars running in a tight or a loose condition, as well.

That's a graphic that will literally meter what type of condition the car is running in. So we're really trying to combine all those technologies to support what we're doing, with the tech center and the touch screens for the internal parts of the engine, I think, right now is growing those technologies.

Right now we have a touch-screen engine where we can go in and show what happens when there's an engine failure, which we could never physically show people before -- we could only talk about it. I want to get into the car chassis and transmissions, and start to build those images into our touch screen animations and really grow our tools so we can really explain these things to the viewers.

There are a lot of things I have on my slate, as far as where I want to go with the GPS data and some of the information that we gather through our SportVision group, whether it be how the lines on the track change during a long run, for different cars -- and how some get better and some get worse -- and being able to track that and make better predictions during the race of what we're going to see 30 laps from now.

So that's the direction I think we're focusing on now, and not really what's the next technology tool. Our technology tools kind of fill a need -- like, Jamie and I are on a four-hour drive up to The Glen, and we talk about things we do during a telecast.

And out of conversations like that, comes, 'How do we better explain that?' That's usually when we turn to technology and say, 'How can we graphically show this?' Or, 'How can we do this as a feature?'

In the end game, we want to be able to do it with our live, real-time pictures because the less we can step away from the race to explain these things and the more we can do them real-time, that's where the answer is to us.

Q: People have complained about switching the shot after the checkered flag to a standard celebration shot on pit road versus watching 'their favorite driver' cross the finish line, or missing a great race for position that was covered right up until the end of the race. What are you doing, there?

Goldberg: We did just that at Pocono. We held our Turn 1 camera on the start/finish line as the cars finished and we had our drop-down [finishing order] in place. We made a quick adjustment to address that and that's something we've always done.

In fact, that drop-down graphic we use as the cars finish is something I actually came up with years ago -- in the early days with ESPN -- and we want to continue to do that.

At The Brickyard we knew when Tony [Stewart] crossed the finish line the stands and the crew was going to go nuts. It's a fine line sometimes about capturing that moment of victory, because there's one winner and 42 losers.

And I think we kind of got caught up in that at Indianapolis. In hindsight, we always examine what we did and we react and make changes where we feel it's appropriate. And in this case it's certainly appropriate that we make changes and come up with ways to do both.

We have them and we're developing other ways to be more creative in how we can cover the finish and the victory and the celebration at the same time, and we'll continue to do so. Each situation is going to be different and how we cover the finish to show them all coming across the line will be different.

Sometimes you'll see the winner cross the line, with all the cars to follow and the drop-down with the finishing order. Other times we'll have the drop-down, but we'll cut back to one of our other cameras, maybe coming off Turn 4 to the battle for seventh and eighth that's been raging for the last three laps, to carry them to the line.

And then, there will be other times when we'll have a multi-box on the screen where you'll see the winner and the celebration, and then all the other cars crossing the finish line. So depending on the situation that's happening on the track and the nature of the race, we will do that and we'll do it in several different ways.

Q: What's your biggest challenge in a broadcast day -- do you come prepared for anything and expecting the worst, do you have a script -- or how does that work?

Goldberg: We've got a huge team and we've got unbelievable resources, whether it be feature material or sound bites. Through the course of a weekend, I think the biggest challenge is the long days. The race is the easy part.

Going from a practice to a qualifying to another practice to a Busch race -- there are times when we're on the air from 11 o'clock in the morning to 6:30 in the evening without a break.

And for a production person that's a long day -- but if you think about cameramen that are spinning cameras around or running around with cameras on their shoulders, or the pit reporters that are going back and forth between the garages and from a Cup practice to a Busch practice or a qualifying show -- and having to have all these notes prepared -- it's a huge challenge.

We have material that can really support that, and the greater the event we're prepared to leave the material on the table [unused], because if the race doesn't need the support of that kind of material, all the better.

As far as being scripted, we have very well thought-out plans of the things and topics we want to discuss and all the different things we want to attack during the weekend, whether it's a practice show, qualifying or the race.

We're scripted going in, we have a hit list and the way we want to come on the air and the way we want to set it up -- and then we have a toolbox of stories and things we can use that we're going to follow that will impact the weekend or the season.

We have this toolbox, and if the script goes out the window, now we react to the changing conditions and stories as they develop and we try to support them through pictures, elements we pre-produce and the live action on the track and in the garage area.