Australians love the Melbourne Cup, and this year’s event looks to be even bigger than last year.
It’s amazing to consider that in 2012, over 95.7 per cent of all metropolitan in-home televisions switched on at 3pm (Australian EST) to tune into the race, capturing the attention of nearly five million people (4.85 million).
On Twitter, last year’s Cup saw tweets per minute dropping to around 500 during the race, and then skyrocketing up to 900 tweets per minute moments afterwards.
On the fashion front, it’s pretty obvious that we Aussies like to look our best at the races, with more than 65,000 hats and fascinators purchased last year, plus 54,000 pairs new of shoes, 53,000 dresses, 26,000 handbags, 23,000 items of jewellery, 29,000 ties, 14,000 pairs of sunglasses and 17,000 suits.
On the technology side of things, if you’re lucky enough to be at Flemington, you’ll certainly notice a few of the 400-plus TCL Smart 3D and LED TVs installed to broadcast the ponies, races, form guides and commentary.
Supplied by TCL for the last 9 consecutive years, the TCL TVs have grown from 32 and 40 sizes to high-definition 55 and 65-inch models. It took TCL 3 days to unpack, install and tune its 400 screens for this year’s event, and 12 installation experts have been laying the cables to connect the TVs for the last two months.
Harry Wu, TCL’s Electronics Australia General Manager says “We have shown over many years now that we are a reliable partner that delivers both the latest technology and good looking product that is in line with the prestige image that is important to create around the track.”
TCL also has naming rights to naming rights to a Crown Oaks Day race (the TCL 4K UHD Smart TV Subzero Challenge), so hopefully next year TCL will deck out the event in 4K TVs so we’ll be able to follow the fanfare, the fashion and the fun of the races in ultra-high definition.
