Ericsson has enabled a seamless convergent multimedia solution, available for all viewers who want to follow the action either via their mobile phone, the web, or via IPTV in Ericsson’s customer pavilion at each port stop in the race.
The 2008-09 edition of the Volvo Ocean Race will feature the best multimedia coverage of any offshore sailing event to date. All boats are equipped with five fixed cameras and two radio microphones. This together with the most advanced multimedia solutions – combined with a dedicated media crew member on each of the eight boats equipped with two handheld cameras – will ensure that the onboard experience is closer to hand than ever before. With the help of Ericsson’s mobile technology, you need never leave the race. Photos, videos, podcasts, and feature stories are all as close as your mobile phone.
Knut Frostad, CEO of the Volvo Ocean Race and a former skipper in the competition, says: "Our audience demands content that is exciting, accessible and immediate. Our multimedia channels, including mobile, help us bring the story closer to the audience and maintain our strong tradition of leading at the forefront of communications technology.”
With the inclusion of a dedicated media person on every boat, audiences – wherever they are and with whatever screen they are watching – will have an open window into the remotest and most dangerous parts of the ocean. Without changing existing media operations, one editorial process feeds both existing and new channels. Each channel experience has been tailored to maximize its unique value to the production mix.
Andrew Ferguson, head of New Media and IT for the Volvo Ocean Race, says: “In this age of a crowded media landscape, it is critical for an event like ours to make our story easily accessible. Ericsson started by understanding our audience and our media operations and then integrated as seamlessly and effectively as possible the new multimedia channels that we wanted to promote. They’ve been extremely flexible in allowing us to evolve to accommodate new channel opportunities, like IPTV, into our planned operations so we can stay at the cutting edge of new media.”
Geoff Hollingworth, Director of Innovation at Ericsson, says the Volvo Ocean Race event is a living vision of the future: “Our goal is to keep the next generation multimedia evolution as simple as possible, to keep the focus where it really needs to be, on the audience and their experience. That is what we are doing with the Volvo Ocean Race.”
Notes to editors:
To never leave the race go to http://volvooceanrace.org or text ‘RACE’ to
+46 737 49 49 49
Ericsson to power IPTV and mobile channels for Volvo Ocean Race http://www.ericsson.com/ericsson/press/releases/20080617-1228794.shtml
Volvo Ocean Race mobile channel, http://m.volvooceanrace.org
Ericsson’s standard multimedia content is available at the broadcast room: www.ericsson.com/broadcast_room
