Race fans' view goes wireless

LOUDON, N.H. -- A nudge from Brian Vickers 's race car sent Joe Nemechek out of control and slamming rear-end-first into the wall at New Hampshire International Speedway.

For most of the 100,000 spectators, some seated nearly half a mile away, the wreck was little more than a cloud of smoke. But a few thousand lucky fans got a close-up view, no matter where they sat, courtesy of the nation's number-three cellular phone company.

Sprint Nextel Corp. teamed up with Montreal electronics firm Kangaroo Media to create FanView , a portable device that relies on next-generation cellular technology to provide live TV and audio coverage of every major NASCAR event.

Racing fans who rent the gadget for $50 to $70 can get close-up views of crucial race events anywhere on the track. They can punch up video from the on-board cameras of seven different race cars, listen in on radio chatter between each driver and his pit crew, or punch up a database of his biographical data and career stats.

``This gives us more views, more excitement, and more to see," said Audrey Reynolds, 38, of Raymond, N.H., a NASCAR buff who first tried FanView at the Aaron's 499 race in Talladega, Ala. ``I can hear all the announcers, I can hear all the drivers, I can see in the drivers' cars."

In effect, Sprint Nextel's FanView system turns Loudon and other NASCAR racetracks into giant wireless-data hot spots. But FanView has nothing to do with the popular WiFi wireless technology used in laptops. Instead, Sprint Nextel is using NASCAR to demonstrate the future of cellular communications.

``They want to test the opportunity for the next generation of products and services," said Berge Ayvazian, senior technology analyst with Boston's Yankee Group.

When Sprint and Nextel merged in 2005, the Sprint system allowed for advanced ``third-generation" data-networking features that deliver up to 700,000 data bits per second to a laptop computer or handheld device.

But even that isn't fast enough for advanced multimedia services like high-quality TV images. So Sprint Nextel plans to unveil ``fourth-generation" cell phone technology later this year that, like FanView, deliver s as much as 5 million bits per second -- faster than broadband Internet services in most homes. These ``4G" systems ``are new technologies that let you do bi directional high-speed data transactions," said Michael Buttrey, Sprint Nextel's director of product management.

Customers will have to buy new equipment to use the 4G network, which will use an entirely different radio frequency from those presently used by Sprint Nextel. Ayvazian said that the company is using FanView to provide consumers with a glimpse of what they can expect from their advanced wireless communicators. ``They can show people the future," he said -- a future in which people can get high-quality interactive entertainment anytime, anywhere, from a pocket-sized device.

NASCAR, with whom Nextel signed a 10-year sponsorship deal in 2004, was an ideal venue for a test. The FanView device is well suited to car racing, where much of the action happens too fast or too far away for the naked eye, and where many fans carry scanners to listen to in-car communications.

Besides, Kangaroo Media's chief executive, Marc Arseneau, is a former race-car driver. Kangaroo designed the FanView device, which was first offered at races on the Champ Car circuit in 2003. Each FanView has a moisture-resistant, reinforced design that seems able to handle a lot of abuse. ``You can kick it, you can spill beer on it, you can drop it," said Andy Bernstein , Kangaroo's vice president of US corporate development. ``It was made for the NASCAR environment." But Bernstein said FanView is also well suited to other sports. Spectators at a golf tournament could use it to see the action at every hole. Football fans could dial up instant replays, or get scores and highlights from other NFL or college game s .

NASCAR events typically attract more than 100,000 fans, but Sprint Nextel shows up with just 5,500 FanView sets.

``We've sold out multiple times," said Bernstein . ``There aren't that many products out there where you have people over your shoulder saying, `Hey, what is that?' " he said.

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.