Watching a live sporting event in person is fantastic, the atmosphere, the sights and the sounds make for an experience that can't be matched by watching the event on TV.

However when watching a motorsport event, not having the timing information and the in-car TV cameras means you miss a lot of what is going on.

So when I went to the British Grand Prix at Silverstone last weekend I hired something called a Kangaroo TV, which is not something I'd seen before. By the way, we're not talking about the iPlayer-competitor Project Kangaroo.

The Kangaroo TV (named because you hang the unit around your neck in a pouch) is a handheld Linux based device that receives live TV pictures, in car cameras, timing data and audio commentary.

When you power the unit up the first thing you can do with it is to set your favourite driver. Once you have done this it will notify you of any events related to your driver so when Lewis Hamilton (I am a long time Mclaren fan) left the pits I was notified and I could choose to watch his in car camera at any time. Plus I was also notified when his position in the races changed or he set a new fastest lap .

One of the main features involves the camera options. You can pick the director's view which is the same as the picture you get when watching the F1 on TV, or any of 5 different in car cameras. So I could watch Hamilton's qualifying laps while the TV was showing one of the other drivers.

My favourite thing about the Kangaroo TV is the live timing data. OK you can call me a F1 geek but for me the times are vitally important to enjoying the race. For example, during the race Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen was closing down the lead to Lewis Hamilton and the timing data showed how quickly he was gaining and where on the lap he was doing it.

After the pit stops I could see that Hamilton was pulling away lap after lap (and driving with fantastic style). The neat thing about the timing data is that it can be overlaid over your selected camera so you get the TV pictures and the timing data without having to flick between them.

The unit also comes with headphones so you can listen to the race commentary. It has multiple audio feeds, you get the circuit commentary, BBC radio, Italian and German TV commentary. I did notice a slight delay between the audio and pictures coming from the Kangaroo TV and the audio coming over the tannoy system but once the cars are on track you cannot hear the tannoy anyway.

I was concerned about the battery life as I didn't want it to run out mid-race but the battery gave about 5 hours of continual use and it comes with an additional battery and charger anyway.

The cost for the weekend was £50 and well worth it.