

The tech behind Felix Baumgartner’s stratospheric skydive - mrsebastian
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/137521-the-tech-behind-felix-baumgartners-stratospheric-skydive

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js2
Non-swipe link: [http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/137521-the-tech-behind-
fe...](http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/137521-the-tech-behind-felix-
baumgartners-stratospheric-skydive?onswipe_redirect=never)

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benologist
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.

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

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

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

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dkokelley
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).

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ashray
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!

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kgermino
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

