SailGP returns for a second season with the ultimate remote production' set up By Michael Burns
Monday, May 10, 2021 - 13:38
Print This Story
Data-driven, remotely produced, sustainably-minded and featuring fabulous locations and very fast boats, the second season of SailGP is underway and the broadcast production values are even higher
SailGP is back. The thrilling high-speed foiling catamaran race that takes place in spectacular locations around the world has returned following the postponement of the 2020 season, and the award-winning live broadcast coverage is even more innovative than before.
The Bermuda Sail Grand Prix presented by Hamilton Princess marked the opening event of the second season for the sport's pinnacle league and is the first of eight events that take place throughout 2021-2022 across three continents. Fans will be able to enjoy the action worldwide with broadcast coverage now reaching 175 territories.
From Bermuda, Warren Jones, chief technology officer for SailGP, gives SVG Europe the lowdown: For Season 2 we are bringing viewers closer to the action at each race. Key to this is how we communicate with the F50s [SailGP's supercharged foiling catamarans] via a direct connection to a remote Oracle data centre in London. This technology allows us to deliver real-time data to racing teams and fans alike, enabling spectators to gain a greater understanding of the sport and appreciation of the skill of the crews.
SailGP Season 2 features teams from Australia, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Japan, New Zealand, Spain and the US, including veteran sailors and Olympic athletes
Remote production
Jones acknowledges SailGP has been fortunate in that COVID-19 has not had too much of an impact on how the race is actually broadcast. SailGP deployed its first remote production in January 2019 in Sydney, continuing throughout Season 1, including San Francisco, New York City, Cowes and Marseille. This season, we built on the remote production ethos we developed in Season 1, bringing more services and software stack into the Oracle Cloud to enable a greater level of remote production.
The live coverage is once again being produced from a dedicated gallery at Timeline TV's Ealing broadcast centre by host broadcaster Whisper Films, but here too enhancements have been made, according to Daniel McDonnell, MD of Timeline Television.
This season, we built on the remote production ethos we developed in Season 1, bringing more services and software stack into the Oracle Cloud to enable a greater level of remote production
At the core, it's the same sort of concept as last season, a complete remote OB, says McDonnell. There are no production facilities on site, every single source comes back to our Ealing broadcast centre and that's where the director, the EVS operators and graphics [are based]. This year we took it even further. We brought the umpires back into Ealing, we brought all of the camera racking back and all the boats were controlled from within Ealing, so no operators were on site.
We have a high-speed, private fibre network provided by Tata from Ealing broadcast centre to the OB, he continues. So that gives us a huge opportunity to bring back all the feeds.
According to Jones, this takes the form of two redundant, dedicated, high-availability links installed for SailGP between each venue and the production based in London for every race. Each F50 has two on-board cameras that are operated in London alongside three camera boats, two ENG cameras and one helicopter camera, he says. We also manage SailGP digital output from London, including the SailGP app that has live data and video plus all social media output including YouTube and Facebook live streams. These feeds were streamed to London from 4,000 miles away in Bermuda and produced and distributed in near real time, which is an incredible feat of technology.
There's no internet involved, it travels two ways around the world to give us a full level of redundancy, says McDonnell. Once we've got all the feeds back into Ealing we can put them all in a MAM. We also had multiple OTT streams, so we had the ability for rights holding broadcasters to take their own onboard camera feeds if they wish to supplement the world feed. The opportunities are all very scalable. This is the ultimate way to do remote production, to get everything back.
The F50s have a crew of five: a helmsman, wing trimmer, flight controller and two grinders
Onboard setup
The boats have a crew of five - a helmsman, wing trimmer, flight controller and two grinders. The catamarans are state of the art in terms of sailing prowess, but they're not lacking in terms of comms and AV either. Each boat carries customised video cameras and microphones, and athletes are miked up, allowing producers to jump to individual crew members and cameras for detail-level shots or when an incident occurs.
Specialised onboard hardware, including GPS antennas and receivers, telemetry antennas and data radios, tracking equipment, inertial measurement units, wiring harnesses and batteries - most of which are fitted in the hulls of the F50 in protective Pelican cases - allow SailGP to achieve 2cm positional accuracy of each craft.
With the postponement of Season 2, we looked closely at improvements on the F50s, particularly with the ambient sound that these devices create, says Jones. For Season 2, in addition to the camera feeds, each F50 has two effects microphones installed within the platform and we have improved the athletes' communications between the team on the water and with SailGP departments. For the Bermuda SailGP race, for example, Iain Murray our race director was located in Sydney while still being able to communicate with each SailGP team. Craig Mitchell, SailGP chief umpire, was locate
North America Stories
19/05/2026
Cisco and the USGA have announced a multiyear extension of their partnership, which began in 2018. Cisco serves as the Official Technology Partner of the USGA, ...
19/05/2026
Urban Edge Network (UEN), a streaming platform for NAIA sports, has announced a partnership with Spiideo to provide streaming and production tools to UEN's ...
19/05/2026
Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) will provide live coverage of all 900 Roland-Garros matches across its platforms beginning with qualifiers on May 18. In Europe, 21...
19/05/2026
Tubi, Fox Corporation's free streaming service, has announced the launch of the FIFA World Cup 2026 FOX Hub, a dedicated destination for World Cup programmi...
19/05/2026
Telef nica, in collaboration with Sony, has conducted a 5G connectivity trial at the Movistar Arena in Spain using the 26 GHz millimetre wave (mmWave) band. The...
19/05/2026
Ross Production Services (RPS) has installed a Calrec Argo M console into its new Hypermax-1 remote production truck, replacing one of three Argo S consoles pre...
19/05/2026
Panasonic Projector and Display Corporation has announced the acquisition of 100% of the shares of UK-based media technology company Hive Media Control Ltd. (HI...
19/05/2026
Globecast has announced the completion of a nine-month renovation of its Singapore facility, converting it from a traditional linear broadcast operation into a ...
19/05/2026
Grass Valley has announced a three-year enterprise agreement with Phoenix Broadc...
19/05/2026
Bitmovin has announced that Watch Brasil, a streaming platform operating across Brazil and Europe since 2018, has replaced its legacy systems with Bitmovin'...
19/05/2026
Ateme has announced the migration of Dish Home Nepal's Nepal Premier League (NPL) streaming infrastructure to Ateme's TITAN Live solution deployed on Ak...
19/05/2026
CMSI provided workflow, media management, and HDR support for ESPN during coverage of the NCAA Gymnastics Semifinals and Championships. The company supported fi...
19/05/2026
In advance of this year's Sports Emmy Awards, SVG is taking a deep dive into the six production-technologies nominated for this year's George Wensel Tec...
19/05/2026
In advance of this year's Sports Emmy Awards, SVG is taking a deep dive into the six production-technologies nominated for this year's George Wensel Tec...
19/05/2026
Featuring a fully IP infrastructure, Supershooter 11 is intended for large-scale events. Enabling remote and distributed workflows, Supershooter 65 joins the RE...
19/05/2026
By Jessica Herndon
The line wrapped around the building outside Denver's La...
19/05/2026
When all companies in the market are allowed to compete under the same set of ru...
19/05/2026
Battle-proven technology withstands electronic warfare threats across air, maritime surface and subsea domains....
19/05/2026
WESCAM MX-Series EO/IR systems provide high-precision targeting across domains, including counter-UAS applications...
19/05/2026
Champaign, IL - March 16, 2026 Cobalt Digital, the leading designer and manufa...
19/05/2026
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. April 16, 2026 - Cobalt Digital today announced a partnership ...
19/05/2026
Las Vegas - April 18, 2026 Cobalt Digital, the leading designer and manufactur...
19/05/2026
LAS VEGAS April 18, 2026 - Advanced HDR by Technicolor and Cobalt Digital are ...
19/05/2026
LAS VEGAS - May 4, 2026 - Cobalt Digital, the leading designer and manufacturer of signal processing products, and a founding partner in the openGear initiativ...
19/05/2026
London - 11 May 2026 Cobalt Digital, the leading designer and manufacturer of award-winning signal processing products, and a founding partner in the openGear...
19/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/05/2026
Grass Valley has entered into a three-year enterprise agreement with Phoenix Broadcast Solutions as the Singapore-based company expands its live production oper...
19/05/2026
Clear-Com supported Musikal Perahu Kertas, a large-scale musical theater production in Indonesia adapted from the acclaimed novel by Dee Lestari, through the d...
19/05/2026
Actus Digital, a LiveU company, and a leading provider of intelligent media monitoring and broadcast compliance platforms, announced today that METEO CONSULT ha...
19/05/2026
Globecast, a leading provider of managed services for the broadcast and media industry, today announced the completion of a major renovation of its Singapore fa...
19/05/2026
Following a major upgrade to its Connecticut remote production centre with the installation of three 60-fader Argo S consoles in 2023, RPS has switched one of t...
19/05/2026
PlayBox Technology today announced the launch of Celebro Play, a browser-based media orchestration platform designed specifically for broadcast facilities and p...
19/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/05/2026
LYNX Technik, provider of modular signal processing solutions for broadcast, post, and professional AV will showcase its latest signal processing solutions at B...
19/05/2026
Media Links, a leading developer and manufacturer of IP media transport solutions, has announced the integration of its Xscend platform with Skyline Communicat...
19/05/2026
Collaboration expands regional partner ecosystem as Media Links showcases IP media transport solutions on stand 4M4-4 and alongside Clearcast Asia on stand
Me...
19/05/2026
Company Highlights Labor-Saving Control and Custom Branding Opportunities Designed to Increase Integrator Profitability
LynTec, a leading manufacturer of ele...
19/05/2026
Mago Studio Moves AI Video Beyond Prompts with New Production-Focused Tools
Brie Clayton May 18, 2026
0 Comments
New Capabilities Bring Controllable, ...
19/05/2026
It May be Time to Stop and Take an AI Breather
Brie Clayton May 19, 2026
0 Comments
If the rock you stay on starts to roll, jump clean. Or you'll...
19/05/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils the Trailer for RAFA, the Documentary Series A...
19/05/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Expands Consumer Products Footprint with Strategic Con...
19/05/2026
Matt Derella Expands Leadership Across LinkedIn Ads and Microsoft Advertising Published on May 19, 2026 Categories: Company News
LinkedIn Corporate Commun...
18/05/2026
Despite a bumpy start to the year, the provider of event-production support and ...
18/05/2026
Daktronics has partnered with the University of North Carolina to manufacture and install 11 LED displays totaling more than 10,000 square feet and more than 14...
18/05/2026
CBS LA has announced a multi-year partnership with the Los Angeles Rams, covering exclusive local broadcasts of Rams preseason games, weekly year-round programm...
SailGP returns for a second season with the ultimate remote production' set up By Michael Burns 
