Features

Sailing: you need wind, and you need advertising!

Getting ready for the next Volvo Ocean Race, and generating the essential budget? It means publicity. And that means wireless.

We used to refer to public relations as "puff" pieces. They work! - but if you're half way around the planet in a solo boat, getting your puff pieces back to London and New York takes more than wind. It takes technology. Specifically, it takes Livewire Digital technology.

This is not a first date. Livewire Digital, provider of integrated data, voice and video broadcast services, has been appointed by the Volvo Ocean Race to provide the on board video and audio broadcast system for the world famous yacht race which sets sail on 11th October 2008 - and this will be the fourth race running that Livewire Digital will provide the on board media delivery infrastructure for the entire fleet of Volvo 70 class yachts.

It's a studio on a boat. It's a satellite link back to HQ, too; but it's the ability to shoot - and edit - video at sea that matters - without too much electrical power, too.

Andy Hindley, a former round-the-world yacht racer in his own right, is now race director of the Volvo Ocean Race. He seems to have had no hesitation in re-appointing Livewire. We have the pretty standard puff piece: "Surpassing the 1.8 billion viewers set by the last race will be a serious challenge," said Hindley's PR man on his behalf, "but we are determined to provide fans with the best view possible. Livewire Digital’s previous record with the Volvo Ocean Race is exemplary and I am sure they will again exceed all expectations."

Or, to put it another way, Volvo isn't in this for the sake of spending money - it wants TV coverage. Well - it worked last time, and they've improved it, so we're going with them again.

What they're going with is, specifically, Livewire Digital’s ‘Media Desk’ - an integrated video editing suite, which will be installed in all the competing yachts "to capture the excitement, danger and sheer adrenaline rush of the world’s premier yacht race."

The new system includes what the publicity guys call "a raft of innovations, including an H.264 AVC live video encoding for interaction with the teams and Inmarsat’s high speed maritime satellite services to provide high bandwidth media delivery." Perhaps "a raft" was not entirely the best way to describe part of a Volvo racing yacht... but that's PR folk for you.

The most surprising change isn't a technology innovation. It's described as an "exciting new feature" but actually, it's hard to avoid the impression that racing yachtsmen and women have dug their little heels in, and said: "We don't care how easy this revolutionary Livewire thing may be; we're here to sail a boat, not muck about with video editing."

The giveaway is the inclusion of a media specialist aboard every participating yacht, someone who can be left to get on with the business of the recording, editing and transmission of footage recorded on the many video cameras fitted to the yachts.

What we can't guess, is how that will fit into the team. Half way across the Southern Ocean, fretting about tiny icebergs or "growlers" and fighting gale force winds and truly huge waves, is demanding - physically, mentally - in a way that you really can't imagine if you haven't done it. Everybody has to pull their weight; everybody needs all the rest they can get. And then you have the video editor, the media specialist, saying: "I can't help get the wet sail down; I've got to keep my fingers warm and flexible for the editing!"

Hm. We'll see.

Tristan Wood, Managing Director of Livewire Digital, can claim "We know what a tough challenge all participants are facing," and he can also go on about "we know that Livewire Media Desks and on-board cameras are more than a match for the demanding race conditions!" - but you might suspect that it's not the media desk that will be put under the most strain.

More details: http://www.livewire.co.uk/mediadesk.pdf