The tech behind Felix Baumgartner’s stratospheric skydive

js2 13 years ago |

Non-swipe link: http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/137521-the-tech-behind-fe...

benologist 13 years ago |

I've been curious for a long time why Ziff Davis devotes so much attention to spamming HN. And then today it clicked after I saw this story at the top or /r/technology submitted a couple hours after it was popular on HN.

HN provides a vector for popular spam submissions here to be legitimately submitted on Reddit, without all the hassle of spam detection and moderators getting in the way.

protomyth 13 years ago |

This podcast has an interview that explains the camera tech used http://www.fxguide.com/therc/red_centre_073/

storborg 13 years ago |

Here's a video overview of the (highly specialized) skydiving rig used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SErtpdKLsM4#t=5m20s

freeslave 13 years ago |

i wonder what the final price tag on this was? has anyone seen a number put on it?

dkokelley 13 years ago | |

Whatever it is, I imagine it was well worth it for the primary sponsor, Red Bull. A lot of the tech was developed just for this jump, so it would be difficult to get a final price tag without including R&D costs (which are already tricky).

ashray 13 years ago | | |

Yup, definitely worth it! Imagine almost 5 million people essentially watching an almost 3 hour long (very interesting and groundbreaking!) Red Bull commercial around the world.

I think if we did the math at base advertising/marketing rates - this project would still work out quite cheap for that kind of exposure!

Daring indeed!

kgermino 13 years ago | | |

Well, looking at the math I see them getting about $6,615,000 worth of ad-time (not counting news or social media, just the video stream)

The math: 7.35 average daytime CPM[1] * 5 Million (5,000 thousand) viewers, watching for an average of 90 minutes (* 180 30-second spots) each.

That is: $7.35 * 5000 * 180 = $6,615,000

Of course if the news coverage mentioned "RED BULL SPONSORED DIVER..." then my number gets blown out of the water.

[1] http://infoacrs.com/a/tvads.html Daytime, spot TV, CPM average

mkuhn 13 years ago | |

I have seen the number of around $50 million mentioned. But am not sure where anymore.

Big expense but the exposure is estimated to be worth hundreds of millions if not billions.