Company aiming for take up from the likes of cycling, horse racing, surfing, and mass participation sports
SailGP is developing its in-house broadcast graphics package, LiveLineFX, for use in other sports.
It is currently produced remotely from SailGP’s broadcast studio in Ealing, London for SailGP’s broadcast partners in 212 international territories. One of it’s main uses is to project a 3d racing course on to the open ocean, which CTO Warren Jones told Broadcast Sport, “demystifies the sport, and ives people who don’t understand sailing a chance to, with it not being a stadium sport.” It also brings in branding opportunities for a sport that takes place in a large, mostly unchangeable, area.
As such, the company has named cycling, horse racing, surfing, and any mass participation sports, where it can be tricky for viewers to get the full picture and understanding of what is unfolding in front of them, as possible LiveLineFX users. LiveLineFX director Tom Peel explained, “You can’t brand the Tour de France very easily. We can do that without any footprint on the ground.” Speaking to Broadcast Sport, the SailGP team also mentioned the likes of skiing, running, and diving as other possible use cases.
For SailGP, LiveLineFX processes 1.15bn data requests per hour from each of the ten state-of-the-art F50 catamarans that take part in the competition - and which have 125 sensors each. These data points range from the speed and direction of the boats, weather conditions as well as the sea current, and are then presented as a graphical overlay on top of the racecourse for viewers at home.
Live race course video shot from a helicopter, high-accuracy GPS and the Oracle Cloud are used to do this, allowing the boats to be tracked within 2cm of accuracy and add features such as geo-positioned race markers, boundary lines as well as boat positions and relative performance statistics to the graphics overlay.
When another sport or rights holder takes on LiveLineFX, the SailGP Technologies team will help implement it at first, with two years a possible timescale, but is open to other teams taking over the day-to-day running eventually.
Jones said on the launch of the new product, Jones said: “From the outset, SailGP has prioritized patented, leading-edge immersive media technologies and LiveLineFX is an award-winning example of this. It is truly unique and hasn’t just been built for use by SailGP, it has been developed with other sports properties and broadcasters in mind where the viewing experience can be difficult due to the nature of the sport. We are now welcoming conversations with a range of potential partners and are excited to see how other sports can benefit from LiveLineFX.”
Chief content officer Melissa Lawton added: “We have seen huge audience growth thanks in large part to LiveLineFX and the understanding it brings to a very complex sport. Our success, and the fact that LiveLineFX is perfect for a variety of out-of-stadium sports, such as cycling, horse racing, surfing, and any mass participation sports, has led to active conversations with other sports properties about how they too can utilize the technology to grow their fan bases.
“The capabilities of LiveLineFX enable SailGP partners to generate significant value through branding placements around the course without the need for typical, physical commercial infrastructure. Where other sports rely on screens, temporary structures and mass on-site logistics, LiveLineFX can deliver impactful placements on the boundaries and at key areas on the course fully remote.”
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