The SIS LIVE team is working hard to build upon their achievements as they prepare for the next America’s Cup event to be held at Plymouth, UK from the 10th to the 18th of September.
SIS LIVE continues its work delivering High Definition (HD) agile cameras and digital RF microwave links for the 34th America’s Cup with the team currently on location in Plymouth, UK. They are preparing to broadcast the next America’s Cup event which can be viewed live at the SIS LIVE stand at IBC on September 10th and 11th.
The opening race of the regatta series began on August 6th in the port city of Cascais, Portugal, a location world-renowned for its magnificent sailing conditions. By the end of the week-long competition, which featured the AC45 wing-sailed catamaran in it’s first-ever competition, the Emirates Team from New Zealand were ahead, having completed the course in an impressive 37m41secs. In taxing conditions, SIS LIVE delivered a resoundingly successful service, utilizing 36 newly developed, agile robotic cameras and 7 control units across the 7 live and 3 backup yachts.
Sixteen dedicated engineers multiplexed two vision circuits from each yacht, plus one from each of the three helicopters, one from each of the two TV catamarans, one from the Mark boat and one from the Committee boat to provide 21 simultaneous HD RF links in all. All vision circuits had full camera data control systems which were developed in-house to aid with the capture of images from water and airborne sources. Combined with two radio cameras on the shore SIS LIVE were able to produce exciting coverage of the event and intimate footage of the crews in action.
David Meynell, managing director, SIS LIVE, says: “After months of planning, design and product development, it is exciting to see our cutting edge technology in action. The SIS LIVE team has shown great creativity and invention and delivered a faultless service to the America’s Cup Event Authority, with whom we are looking forward to a long and rewarding relationship.”
As well as providing the cameras, SIS LIVE handled receive signals from the helicopters and chase boats and, for the first time ever, connected the cameras by the use of IP with great success. By rigging the ariel and power amp at the top of the mast on each boat SIS LIVE were able to employ a land based diversity receive system. This method provided a faultless system with no break-up of pictures whatsoever in the 10 days of the regatta. This technique will be applied for the rest of the tournament.
Paul McNeil, head of the onsite special cameras team says:”It was a tremendous undertaking to develop and deliver these market-leading systems and solutions for such a prestigious event. We were proud of the results and amazing feedback from the customer and general public.”
The multi-million pound contract sees SIS LIVE supply the on-board camera systems over a three-year period to the America’s Cup Event Authority (ACEA), covering two America’s Cup World Series, and including 16 regattas around the globe; the Louis Vuitton Cup, the America’s Cup Challengers Series held July 13 – September 1, 2013 in San Francisco; and the America’s Cup Match to be held September 7 – 22, 2013 in San Francisco.
Some of the equipment designed specifically for the America’s Cup will be exhibited at the IBC 2011 conference in Amsterdam, including the aft post of an AC45 which will feature a yacht camera and bespoke designed 5.1 surround sound microphone.
