The Volvo Ocean Race mobile portal is the “shopfront” for mobile content, applications and services relating to the global sailing event. It is the only location where mobile internet users will be able to access information and multimedia content about the race as a whole. For the race organizers, the mobile portal complements their TV and web channels by providing race content to an additional segment: mobile phone users. The content will include news updates and alerts, boat positions, commentary from the crews, graphics and video clips. “It’s all about the adventure – the human challenge of taking part in an extreme environment,” says Eric Frisk, at Ericsson Mobility World. “We want to capture this challenge to enrich the end-user experience.” The portal is integrated, hosted and managed by Ericsson; allowing an operator or a media company to launch new services
fast, easily and cost-efficiently.

The goal of the mobile portal is to broaden the audience for the eight-month long ocean race. Ericsson is the exclusive mobile partner for the Volvo Ocean Race and is tasked with bringing the race to the pocket of mobile phone users. “Covering this event is a unique opportunity for Ericsson to prove that we can deliver a complete set of services to mobile consumers globally over an eight-month period,” Frisk says.

Besides implementing the technical solution, Ericsson will also be responsible for editing and content management of the site. The company will implement and manage two mobile portals during the event – a portal for the Ericsson Racing Team and the official Volvo Ocean Race mobile site.

The Volvo Ocean Race mobile portal is built on Ericsson SDP Media, which is a sub-set of Ericsson’s Service Delivery Platform. Ericsson SDP Media is tailored to provide personalization & recommendation capabilities, downloading & streaming over mobile and broadband networks, and digital rights management and content management.

The mobile portal is targeted for operators and media companies alike as a means to promote their brands and reach new customers. Events such as the Volvo Ocean Race are excellent opportunities for operators to market themselves and complement their data services with multimedia offerings delivered through a mobile portal. “Operators can utilize a wide range of services such as alerts, short video sequences, mobile TV, live MoBlogging, and competitions to attract subscribers,” Frisk says.

The mobile portal solution will be released globally at the end of October and you can expect to see more events like the Volvo Ocean Race available on your mobile handset.