TRC returns this winter with the traditional races you love, in with some new, and retiring involvement with others.

-- Newport Beach, Calif., October 21, 2021 --

Mornings in Newport Beach. Photo courtesy of UC Irvine

Greetings Friends of TRC,

It has been a very long time since we have addressed our friends of the consortium at-large. This is usually the time of year where we kick-off the new season in Boston. At the time of publishing this to all of our friends, it has been exactly 600 days since we were last involved at Marina Park or with any major regatta. We owe all of you some updates. Over those last 600 days, there's no doubt we've felt a little out-of-the-game since the majority of our races in the west and our partnering venues were either cancelled due to local health concerns or the races were not economical to run. I appreciate the 1-to-1 communication many of you had with us over this time, even if it was just to check-in. The consortium's producers, talent, and venue partners, met twice via Skype in these last 600 days. In short, we're still here! We are just waiting to get things going again. We can't wait to get back into action.

Continuing from when the producers last met in mid-April, we have some news to share with all of you.

Head of the Charles Regatta parts ways with TRC
- 10/19: https://www.row2k.com/HOCR/features/2021/3543/Head-of-the-Charles-Will-Be-Live-on-YouTube/
- 6/14: https://www.row2k.com/hocr/features/2021/3531/Head-Of-The-Charles-2021-is-On---New-for-2021--Three-Day-Regatta--New-Alumni-Fours-Event--Increased-Video-Coverage--More/

You may have seen some articles posted earlier this week on Row2k (above) mentioning some pretty ambitious things going on in Boston. Yes, it is true, TRC and the HOCR have parted ways. We've known this since March 2021. While there were initially reasons around substantial loss of sponsorship, the news above seems a little more than just taking their media efforts in-house, involving 100 people, 9 locations, and going all remote. HOCR hired a new media director in 2020, whom TRC never worked with before. As people come and go into these regatta organizations, sometimes things change, and there's not much we can do to stay involved. From what we can understand, the format of their broadcast is drastically changing to something that hasn't been, nor is traditionally, seen with other head races. To pull that off you need something really unique to show off. A head race is only so exciting to watch. You either watch one competitor or you watch one location. The HOCR was unique because of hot spots like Weld Boathouse and Elliot Street Bridge. Not many head races can claim such things like this.

The HOCR was pleased with TRC's last production, but there are new people in charge of these decisions now. It's unanimous, we want the HOCR to succeed. We will watch and find out how well things execute this weekend as they catch the competitors down the river. The HOCR executive management wishes to maintain contact with the consortium. We appreciate the four years we had together. It was the result of being in the right place at the right time when we were approached at the 2016 ACRA Championships that kicked off the effort. It's an experience for the books nonetheless. On to other things.

Partnership with Drone Studios, California
We are on the brink of establishing involvement with Drone Studios, California, which has operations from San Diego to the San Francisco Bay Area. Aerial footage has increased across many sports in recent years. While we have establishments with several schools on this, we need something more long-term. The team at Drone Studios is eager to get involved with us, so look forward to that.

Check them out: https://dronestudios.io

Venue Developments Since Fall 2019

Pete Archer Boathouse, Long Beach

We like to see the Long Beach Marine Stadium as our home course, but for the longest time, we've never been able to run any kind of real broadcast here without some impractical, uneconomical, workarounds due to the city park infrastructure the boathouse and marina surrounds. Several of us took advantage of the downtime since March 2020 to crawl into the dirty attics, climb poles, work through government red-tape, and utility complications, to make broadcasts at the Pete Archer Boathouse a reality. We're kicking this effort off in December. Look forward to that.

Webcams on the pole: https://www.longbeachrowing.org/webcam-3/

Orange Coast College Waterfront Campus, Newport Beach

To our neighboring harbor to the south, Orange Coast College completed an extensive expansion of what is now called the Waterfront Campus, which includes the David A. Grant Boathouse. This will greatly enhance our function when racing returns to Newport this spring.

Check it out: https://waterfront.orangecoastcollege.edu

Equipment Refresh Investment
Since we've had a lot of time off, we have not been doing nothing. We've worked on a lot of our custom-made equipment, as well as replaced several things from tripods, encoders, screens, cameras, risers, etc… some that have been in use since "Season 0" (2014?). It's time to let go of those. I'm not going to say the dollar amount, but it will be worth the change this spring.

New Venues
Spring 2022 will see TRC heading to Oak Ridge, TN, for the first time as the ACRA Championships move from Lake Lanier to Melton Hill Lake.

There are a number of races announced on YouTube: https://rowingchannel.com/watch

Stick around, we'll be back before you know it.
We've missed you.
Welcome to Season 8.

Thank you for being a friend.

Brandin Grams
Principal Engineer, Netrendity Networks