The idea came to us a little over a week before the 2008 Redlands Bicycle Classic that we might be have something to contribute to the yearly Redlands tradition; there did not seem to be any technology businesses among the sponsors.

So we got in touch with Dan Rendler, the chairman of the RBC committee, to see if there was any need for our services.  The night before Saturday's we met Dan was able to find a nice niche for us to fill, we would be setting-up a large display in the sponsorship lounge so people could watch the live Internet video feed from the San Bernardino Sun newspaper.  The seating area where the display was to be setup did not have a great view of the course, so this was provided a way for people to get another perspective on the race, and to hear and see the post-race interviews.

The next morning we were able to obtain a hard-line Internet feed connected to a Verizon FiOS fiber line, donated by My Room My Way (www.myroommyway.net); we then setup a 37in LCD display, a Mac Mini, and a Ruckus router and wireless access point.  We setup the Mac to display the  redlandsclassic.com web page (which had the streaming video from the Sun) using a full-screen Opera web browser.

However, the biggest benefit provided by our contribution was quite unexpected.  The Sun was using a Verizon wireless high-speed Internet card to upload their streaming video, often this is the only option available to get an Internet connection in the field, but the upload speeds are typically quite low (300 Kbps or less) making the streaming video choppy at best; upload speed is what affects the frames-per-second for video feeds.

Once we discovered what the Sun crew was doing we offered to connect their equipment to the private wireless network we setup so they could have a high-speed and reliable Internet connection for their video upload.  The video went from choppy to smooth just a few seconds after.

All of this was accomplished in less than twelve hours by Harry Slack and Mark Recek of The Clean PC.  Next year we hope to be able to provide wider Internet coverage with video feeds coming from many different areas of the race track, along with.