The 2013 America’s Cup concluded this week, and SIS LIVE supplied the special cameras, audio and RF systems that allowed for coverage of one of the most competitions in the history of the event.
SIS LIVE had been involved with the broadcast of the competition since 2010, using new technology to bring viewers in close contact with the action. Throughout the competition, the SIS LIVE special cameras team had been working closely with the yacht designers and racing teams to ensure that the onboard broadcast technology was as lightweight as possible and unobtrusively rigged to prevent any disruption to the onboard activities. This year’s America’s Cup featured a new class of yacht created specifically for the race, the AC72.
Onboard coverage from each AC72 came from six agile and one fixed camera system controlled by two operators. Four live feeds were available to the director at any one time with switching used to select the four active sources. The director also had the option of seeing two quad split screens on his production stack.
16 channels of sound were captured from each yacht, including from SIS LIVE’s in-house designed 5.0 surround sound microphone, deck FX mics, radio mics on each of the crew members and 2 hull mics rigged inside the hull to capture the creaks and groans of the boats. SIS LIVE also handled the transmission and reception of all remote camera sources using its RF over IP system and spectrum management experience.
David Meynell, managing director, SIS LIVE, commented “I count myself as one of those who has been completely converted to live sailing, as I have been hooked over the last few days by the incredible excitement of the America’s Cup. The ingenuity of the SIS LIVE team has enabled some of the most daring and innovative coverage ever broadcast and contributed to one of the greatest sporting spectacles and comebacks in history. What is clear to me and, I believe, the entire global audience, is that this significant surge in interest has been driven by the accessibility and unbelievable quality of the coverage provided by SIS LIVE, which I am immensely proud of.”
Denis Harvey, Production Executive, ACEA said, “Three years ago we set out to revolutionise the TV coverage of the America’s Cup and, in doing so, introduce it to a new world of fans. Sailing is not only a challenging discipline, but also a challenging sport to broadcast as it takes place on a moving playing field, is in a harsh marine environment and all the camera and audio sources have to be delivered via RF. Over the last three years the SIS LIVE special cameras and RF teams have pioneered and evolved technologies and techniques used to create and deliver on-board coverage which draws the viewer into the heart of the action. Their imagination and technical ingenuity have helped us realize our ambitions and have set the benchmark for on-board coverage of future sailing events.”
