How we wired the luge for TV
Lake Placid, NY -- "I don’t think that’s going to work Ken, the recorder is too big. I won’t be able to see the course and the weight is too heavy." I was crushed. Tony Benshoof, the most experienced and most medaled slider on the US Olympic Luge team, was my last hope. Already the public information officer for the Luge team and several other sliders that we spoke with said that attaching a camera to a luge sled was simply not going to work...
I am here in Lake Placid, New York along with Allen Schauffler to get up close and personal with Northwest athletes slated to compete in the Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy this coming February. I had pitched purchasing a high resolution helmet camera with an indestructible aluminum housing to our News Director Pat Costello, and I had pressure to deliver.
Today was the last day for practice on the luge run and the team was all business. Men's, women's and doubles competitors would be whittled down, and only the best would go on to this winter's World Cup competition in Europe. Clearly it was time to give up the fancy stuff. We shot the 2 hour practice, and got our interviews. As we were leaving, Christian Niccum - our men’s double luge athlete from Woodinville - came up and offered to try and help us with the helmet cam that afternoon. We met him back at the course, jimmy-rigged the camera and recorder onto the sled with gaffer tape, and captured some of the wildest POV (point-of-view) video you will ever see. Here are the pix (and we'll post the video as soon as K.J. and Allen return later this week.)
Christian Niccum, 27-year-old slider from Woodinville, member of the Olympic Luge team. He's on the left.
This is the Rube Goldberg assortment of cables, Sony mini DV recorder and hi-res lipstick camera that we want to attach to Christian’s sled.
Start with a liberal dose of Gaffer tape.
A few more wraps.
More tape and...
Voila! A handsome piece of work.
Now where to stick the camera?
Niccums ready, but will it hold together? The luge run is a violent controlled explosion of forces. He will experience up to 4 times the force of gravity in the turns. That 5-pound package could become a 20-pound missile.
A successful run. We check the video and Christian is ready for another run. This time the camera will be attached to his thigh to watch his head and body being slammed as he rockets down the icy channel.
Another good run and fantastic video. Now we are getting cocky. Christian will hold the lipstick camera in his hand and steer with his body and feet. A gentle push and he is on his way.
In all, we get four very good hi-res videos, and I'm sure we will be streaming soon here on KING5.com when we return to Seattle. And you can watch it on KING 5's pre-Olympic coverage in the coming weeks.