Millions of viewers will get access to non-stop international dog racing thanks to a Sussex company.
East Grinstead-based KeyMS has established the technology behind GoBarkingMad, a service broadcasting races from 65 greyhound tracks on the web and a Sky satellite television channel.
KeyMS has devised a system to co-ordinate all incoming data from around the world and manage the 24-hour broadcast streams.
KeyMS chief executive Andrew Chalmers said: "This is the first time a project of this ambitious scale has been achieved. "A new race is shown every eight minutes and we aim to reduce this to every five minutes."
GoBarkingMad approached companies such as IBM and Cisco about setting up the technology to support their idea and were told it was not possible.
So KeyMS developed the core applications and designed the software which runs the whole system. It intends to add extra functions as the service grows.
The racing images are sent by satellite to a television studio in London's West End. International time differences provide a natural progression of tracks, following racing hours around the globe.
Mr Chalmers said: "The challenge has been to integrate a range of technologies, including e-commerce capability for online betting, languages, schedules and locations through one central point of administration.
"The satellite feeds are put into our system along with information on form and post-race confirmation of results.
"The production team edits the visuals and sporting commentators add their voiceover at this stage. Then it is packaged ready for streaming out to the audience using our multi-platform delivery technology."
Vinnie Jones has been signed up as the front man for the service which has been undergoing live trials this month, ready to launch later in the summer.
Mr Chalmers said: "Vinnie is a greyhound fan. He has dogs of his own, which have run at Hove, and is keen about the GoBarkingMad concept.
"He will be promoting the service and featuring in broadcasts from time to time. His presence is bound to attract more attention to the sport which already has a huge following."
The company is setting up the infrastructure to show the service on interactive TV within two months and deliver information to wireless appliances by Christmas.
The mobile phone WAP service is being designed to allow users to listen to commentary through their handsets and receive text updates or alerts.
The KeyMS system holds all the GoBarkingMad data on a powerful server, supported by mirror and back-up facilities.
The web site's online betting system can handle 72,000 bets every five minutes.
A recent report by Merill Lynch estimated the online greyhound market could be worth £3.3 billion by 2005.
Internet technology clients of KeyMS include Hewlett Packard, Hitachi Consumer Electronics and Sun Microsystems.
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