Since the introduction of an innovative tail camera on Valentino Rossi's Honda back in 2003, Dorna Sports has made significant strides in developing custom OnBoard cameras to offer a unique view of MotoGP™ action.
Over the years, many refinements and innovations have been brought to the MotoGP™ OnBoard systems by Dorna Sports' own R&D team - not only following the evolution of broadcast standards - from 4:3 to 16:9 format, before tackling the HD revolution in recent years; also enhancing the whole OnBoard experience.
In 2016, various key innovations are brought together to provide never-before seen footage of MotoGP™ with the combination of the gyroscopic, 360 pan-motion and Dorna's auto-tracking solutions.
The new 360 Gyroscopic Camera is the result of constant improvements brought to the gyroscopic technology - allowing for a fixed line of horizon and which was debuted at the German GP back in 2010 - and the evolution of the 360 Camera; providing pan-motion but straying away from the previous sphere-shaped iterations from 2014 and 2015 to adopt a much more compact profile.
Offering stabilised 360º coverage of the action from the mounting point - the tail of the bike, the new camera comes with the system developed by the Dorna R&D Team that provides the ability to switch subjects and track a specific element, providing a unique flavour to battle sequences as the camera can seamlessly follow any other rider in the vicinity of a bike equipped with the 2016 360 Gyroscopic Cam.
With the introduction of this third generation of the 360 camera – first fitted on Valentino Rossi’s Yamaha YZR-M1 - the viewer gets to enjoy chase sequences in a much more dynamic way. As MotoGP™ footage gets even more innovative, viewers can expect to get an experience closer and closer to what the riders actually feel on a bike.