Americas Cup have been held since 1851, and are considered by many as the very birth of organized boat racing. Since the competition nowadays is held on relatively compact courses, it is popular to watch it from spectator boats on water. Unfortunately, this has a tendency to make the race seem rather abstract, since it’s not always self-evident who is in the lead and in what stage the race is in.
In order to solve this problem, TPO built a wireless system for IP TV that was in use during the competition rounds in New York, Chicago, Gothenburg and Fukuoka. The system was constructed with a local TV transmitter which sent a signal to the spectator boats which in turn had been rigged with receiving antennas. The signal was then converted to video which could be displayed on screens on-board in order to optimize the spectating experience.
For us the challenge was partly on the logistical side of things since we had to anticipate what equipment that would be needed and make sure that it was sent to the different race venues. A project that in itself came with a fair share of paperwork and bureaucratic processes. Another challenge was to transmit over water, something that can be troublesome from a technical point of view. The spectator boats were also able to travel over a considerable area in a way that was hard to anticipate. TPO had two co-workers on site and on more in a remote location during the weeks of the competition.
