Thrane & Thrane Renew Volvo Ocean Race Sponsorship Deal.
Much of the success of the Volvo Ocean Race is due to the way in which it delivers media content. Placing locked-off cameras on the top of hills and pointing them at a match racing course is one thing, but getting HD video off a Volvo 70 doing 30 kts in the middle of nowhere is another challenge altogether. The technology that has delivered the content for the last two editions of the Volvo Ocean Race will play a large part again with Thrane & Thrane announcing that it will play a vital role in delivering the close-up, onboard action.
The Copenhagen based company has signed up to become Official Sponsor of Satellite and Radio Communications Equipment for the third consecutive race. The agreement means that Thrane & Thrane’s latest generations of SAILOR® FleetBroadband and VHF equipment will be onboard every cutting-edge Volvo Open 70 as they line up in Alicante for the start of the race in October 2011.
Knut Frostad, Volvo Ocean Race CEO said:
“We have once again selected Thrane & Thrane to provide a comprehensive communications package for the teams, based on the support and faultless performance of the SAILOR equipment in the previous two races. We need the latest and best technology to ensure our vision and commitment of bringing the extreme offshore racing to a global TV and web audience. In this context we’re delighted to have Thrane & Thrane back onboard, and we’re confident that their latest FleetBroadband and VHF solutions will facilitate unmatched broadband and safety communication to the racing crews.”
The scope of supply for the 2011-2012 race includes new generation products. With the World’s first 2nd generation FleetBroadband antenna, the in-house developed SAILOR 500 FleetBroadband will be the central communication hub for each race team. From upload of race footage, reports and interviews for television and web, to download of weather data vital for competitive navigation performance, all of the teams will benefit from true broadband communication along the entire course around the globe.
The teams will also benefit from the compact SAILOR 150 FleetBroadband for crew voice calling and IP data whilst two SAILOR mini-C systems will be onboard for constant positioning data and global safety communication.
Walther Thygesen, CEO, Thrane & Thrane said:
“The Volvo Ocean Race really is about Life at the Extreme so we relish the challenge of putting our equipment through its paces once again. It is the ultimate test platform and we receive invaluable and immediate feedback from the crews, which has made Volvo Ocean Race an integral part of our product development process. Our products have performed consistently successful during the two previous races and if the SAILOR products can withstand such an ultimate test, then their credentials as the toughest most reliable communications equipment for all maritime applications are well deserved.”
Sailing in High Definition. A Sport made for TV
January 14, 2009 by admin
Filed under Marketing Technology, Volvo 70
Knut Frostad, CEO of the Volvo Ocean Race gave an inspiring presentation to the World Yacht Racing Forum in Monaco in December. Part of the wow factor of his speech was the footage, in particular the high definition sequences of spray coming over the bow of the boat with every single drop captured in crystal detail.
The full Volvo Ocean Race experience is being delivered by some ground-breaking endeavours by the boffins at Inmarsat, the global satellite communications company and a key partner of the race. This article comes from the Volvo Ocean Race Site.
Until the 1980s when satellite equipment was first hoisted into the stratosphere, the polling of race boats was a haphazard affair and navigators spent weeks or months submerged under piles of paper charts and pilotage books, making the odd ship to shore call over VHF if in range.
Messages to supporters and loved ones were handed over mid ocean to passing cargo ships until the development of radiotelephone and radiotelegraphy services via maritime radio station Portishead Radio opened up new opportunities.
Almost overnight, these created an audience for the early yacht races which, courtesy of some remarkable technological wizardry over the past three decades, has been expanded, educated and kept thoroughly entertained.
Boats are now polled every 15 minutes which has led to a similar tenfold increase in safety levels and navigators can download massive 8mb weather files in the blink of an eye, all of which allows race watchers the opportunity to stay in touch with the fleet and its movements round the clock.
The media crew between them will send back 90gb of footage during this race, using custom built high definition cameras. They can do live interviews, send as many images, podcasts, emails and blogs as they like all using the powerful Inmarsat systems with material used across the world, on television and radio stations, in newspapers and magazines and on websites.
Crews can call home for updates on their football teams – not that they do – and skippers can get their shore managers out of bed at all times of day and night for consultations over equipment failures or to organise stopover repair programmes.
The quick and easy exchange of images has also improved medical support since pictures of wounds or breakages can be wired back to doctors for diagnosis and treatment. In leg one from Alicante to Cape Town for instance, Tony Mutter was lifted off Ericsson 4 after doctors became concerned by the pictures of his infected knee. It could easily be a life-saver.
All these communications are sent via Thrane & Thrane satellite antenna to Inmarsat’s network of 10 satellites in geostationary orbit 35,786km above the Earth, all of them controlled from company HQ in London via ground stations located around the globe. The third link in the chain is Stratos, which provides the mobile satellite services via FleetBroadband, Fleet 33 and Inmarsat-C for video, audio, and text-based reports.
As to what comes next is anyone’s guess but as we have seen in this race, such sophisticated technology lends itself to a wide variety of projects including some vital environmental research which in 2008-09 is being conducted on behalf of Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics into the transport of micro organisms from one ocean to another.
In February, Inmarsat will be moving some of their satellites around to enhance their global network coverage is 100 per cent.
These activities will impact on users of broadband and satellite phone users in a narrow geographical band in Asia Pacific, including the Volvo Ocean Race fleet who will be given back up options for connectivity for a ten day period while the Inmarsat 4 satellite is repositioned. But that’s a story for another day.
