In-car live stream with data overlay?

I'm trying to put together a fun off-season project. Next year I'd love to be able to live stream races from in car, add a data overlay and possibly even use two cameras for a rear-view picture-in-picture. 

Here's an example of ideally what I'm going for. These guys live stream all their AER races to FB with multiple camera views and data overlays. 

I wanted to try and base it off of a Raspberry Pi I have sitting around, but all the OBS applications I can find for rpi seem to be pretty basic. 

I also have an old Macbook Pro with an SSD I could utilize if I need more muscle.

Connectivity would be from a mobile hotspot.

My big question is what hardware and app combinations are out there that can overlay data, GPS and timing and then output something you could conceivably send into an OBS for streaming? 

I looked into RaceCapture, RaceRender, Race-Keeper (wow expensive!), a variety of mobile apps and don't feel much closer than when I started.

Trying to keep this as a budget project. Anybody done something like this? Got any cool ideas?

I may be a bit out of date with the options on the market but I think the only things that could do it live would be either a camera with in-video datalogging and video output (or perhaps theoretically a phone app on a very powerful phone?), or connecting a camera and datalogger to a powerful PC which will combine the video feed with the data overlay and stream it out via OBS. RaceCapture's devices work well as standalone dataloggers and are a very flexible option for that part.

Everyone I know uses AutosportsLabs RaceCapture

https://www.autosportlabs.com/product/racecapture-track-mk3-predictive-lap-timer-data-logger-and-telemetry-system/

Okay that's great feedback. I had read through their documentation to see if it was possible to do a real-time data overlay on video and didn't see any guidance. Is this possible with more electrical engineering ability than I currently have? If so I'd love to stumble through it. I did see a lot of chatter about the podium live telemetry features so that's cool.

I think if went the AutosportsLabs route I'd have to get the RaceCapture Pro since I don't have an OBD-II port. https://www.autosportlabs.com/product/racecapturepro-mk3/

RaceCapture doesn't natively do what you're wanting (and if there's a way of making it work, I'm not aware of it). I know many of the higher budget teams are using this system: https://candelaria-racing.com/products/sentinel-streaming-system

In reply to ross2004 :

That's one snazzy system right there. An you're right, that's basically the end result I'm going for. In fact, I am pretty sure that's what the team uses that I'd linked to in the first post. Some of the overlay styles look very similar. 

But in the spirit of duct taping and zip-tying a system together, here's the closest I've gotten in my own mind.

RaceRender has a free version and can recognize data from various existing data logging systems (even including some smartphone apps), and can overlay it onto video: https://racerender.com/RR3/docs/Dataloggers-Simple.html#Data

However, from their documentation this seems like something you process after the fact once you have your video file and data files gathered from a data logger. I could be wrong, which might make this more of an option.

I still think there must be some way to do this with an obs solution. Could go totally redneck and just direct a camera directly at teh gauges. 

Here's an idea for a workaround: Use Streamlabs OBS on the macbook.

• Find a way to input camera feed. Gotta be possible, right?
  • Webcam is easy. Not sure about something like a gopro.
  • Honestly I haven't looked into this much since I've spent my effort trying to find a way to overlay live data.
• For data, use a data logger with live telemetry available via cloud. i.e. RacePak Vantage or AutosportsLabs Podium.
  • window share the live view on the side of the streaming window. 
• For second camera, repeat step 1.

There would almost definitely be some lag time between the live video and the data presented. And that's probably a heck of a lot of uploading and downloading for one hotspot.

You can probably find a way to get the data directly from a RaceCapture-series device into the MacBook without going through the Podium web service, may require custom Lua code to be added to the data logger. I know that older GoPros at least, and some GoPro knockoffs, do have video outputs.

Just stumbled across this bad boy. John Freund is a UTCC veteran and it looks like he has already invented this wheel: https://www.jfracing.net/p/jfr-dashboard?selectedVariantId=607f46341d30ce6d4797e548 

It all runs off a raspberry pi, which I already have, and the autosportslabs racecapture, which I don't. That's pretty darned cool. I'm going to have to look into this more.

GameboyRMH said:

You can probably find a way to get the data directly from a RaceCapture-series device into the MacBook without going through the Podium web service, may require custom Lua code to be added to the data logger. I know that older GoPros at least, and some GoPro knockoffs, do have video outputs.

I like the sound of all of this.

Ed Higginbotham said:

Just stumbled across this bad boy. John Freund is a UTCC veteran and it looks like he has already invented this wheel: https://www.jfracing.net/p/jfr-dashboard?selectedVariantId=607f46341d30ce6d4797e548 

That's pretty darned cool. I'm going to have to look into this more.

That doesn't look like it automatically puts data on the video stream though, does it? Live streaming video is easy, live streaming data/telemetry is easy....it's putting the two together that's tough. 

Hm good point. I got excited when I saw all the components together in one place. Maybe there's a way... Must dig more.

How much Data  does it take per minute ?

And will you have the Hotspot in your car or in the Pits ?

I would like to set one up for my buddy , but he normally does Track Days at Laguna Seca and I doubt the cell service is great around the whole track !

Interesting.  I'm posting to follow this thread.

It seems to me that whatever you do is going to require some horsepower (not a pi) to compress/stream the video.

I think that the new system from Race Keeper will do what you want.  It's not cheap though. Or, at least not my definition of cheap.

We stream at 480p, the lower resolution really helps with stream stability. With video and telemetry it's just under a gig per hour. 

In reply to APEowner :

Yeah I did see that, gasped, fainted, woke up and moved on. It would definitely get the job done. I want to finagle a much cheaper solution though.

ross2004 said:

We stream at 480p, the lower resolution really helps with stream stability. With video and telemetry it's just under a gig per hour. 

Got a link to one of these streams? I'd love to see it and know what you're using.

californiamilleghia said:

How much Data  does it take per minute ?

And will you have the Hotspot in your car or in the Pits ?

I would like to set one up for my buddy , but he normally does Track Days at Laguna Seca and I doubt the cell service is great around the whole track !

1. No idea. i haven't tried anything yet. But it looks like Ross knows the answer to this for his application.
2. Hot spot would be in the car.
3. I've thought about that too. Race tracks are often located in less populated areas that don't always have good cell service. I guess it's worth looking into coverage maps for different networks focusing on the tracks we race at most.

Here's my last track day (unedited, so lots of sitting in the paddock between sessions): https://youtu.be/_BZ5mY2MDAg

I use a Yi 4k camera and hotspot. 

Very cool. I had that Yi 4k cam come up in a few searches. Seems like a pretty great deal.

So I'd think that if you can get the video and data together on the device in the car, it would then be a matter of collecting and sending that data via cellular modem using either a streaming solution or a database backup utility (as the file you'll be accessing would be "live" and can't be locked for editing).

The trick is having enough bandwidth and signal to transfer that much data.

I get the feeling that TV coverage puts the info together in the car and transmits that via UHF and just display/record the show.

Bookmarking thread for later perusal.

i bought the VIRB with this sort of in mind (not interested in livestreaming, just point-and-grunt telemetry overlay) but it won't interface with my car's computer in any way I can reasonably do.  Goal is to not have to manually overlay and sync data.

Watching and learning. 

We run telemetry back to the pits over LoRa radio.
No video but we have a copy of the dashboard in the the pits plus a live overlay on the track of where the car is.