Extreme Sailing Series Act 5 to be broadcast live from Cowes

by Extreme Sailing Series on 5 Aug 2011

Aberdeen Asset Management training before Cowes Week, for Act 5 of the 2011 Extreme Sailing Series Lloyd Images http://lloydimagesgallery.photoshelter.com/

Extreme Sailing Series Act 5 is being held during Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week from Saturday 6 August.

Complementing its global TV six-part series and programming platform, and the live TV coverage at each of the four previous worldwide Acts, the Extreme Sailing Series™ Act 5 from Cowes will also be broadcast live. Three days of enhanced ‘LiveTV’ coverage (7-9 August), will be complemented by four further days of a more basic ‘Webcam’ product, allowing all seven days of racing to be watched from around the world. With strong winds forecast in this notoriously challenging venue, some of the best sailors in the world from 15 different nations will battle it out for Act 5 honours in front of a worldwide audience.

As an event that must deliver to the team and event sponsors on a purely commercial basis, the continual development of the media platform has always been a priority for the Organisers. In its fifth year, the Extreme Sailing Series TV series is already broadcast on some of the world’s top channels including CNBC, Eurosport, Channel 4 (terrestrial UK), Bloomberg, TRT, Starhub (Asia) and Sport+ (France). TV news coverage, the YouTube channel and full live TV broadcast has further extended the reach of the circuit this year, engaging millions of fans across many languages and cultures, from CCTV in China to TRT in Turkey and the Balkans where the series coverage lined up as a support act to the F1 Grand Prix coverage.

The two live products in place for Act 5, Webcam and LiveTV, are part of a continuous development strategy by the Organisers to discover the most cost-effective way to bring the action to the competing teams’ worldwide fanbase.
Lou Newlands, Media & Communications Director, commented: 'We will have two versions of live online coverage during Act 5 – Webcam and LiveTV – our event is a purely commercially funded one, so we have to choose carefully how to use our constrained budgets and have decided for this Act to take this two-level approach.

'In essence, where we have live TV broadcast in place in territory, we take their feed and broadcast it live over the internet, with multiple cameras, graphics, video inserts and a full commentary team. In territories where we don’t have a broadcast partner or the rights aren’t available, we’ll revert to the simpler form of live video streaming (‘Webcam’) which is a single camera production, tracking the racing, combined with our onsite expert commentary team,' Newlands explained.

The production team from the Extreme Sailing Series Host Broadcaster, Sunset&Vine|APP will be based in a ‘working studio’ in the VIP marquee at Egypt Point. An opportunity for the guests to see ‘behind the scenes’ of a live TV production. The commentary team of Seb Destremeau, Andy Green and Hannah White will keep the viewers engaged with the action from on-shore and on-board the Extreme 40s.

In Cowes, from Sunday to Tuesday (7, 8 and 9 August), a multi-camera LiveTV production will be in place, with this coverage streaming live on the official website and other web portals and made available to TV broadcasters. In co-operation with Sail TV, the live output will also broadcast on their website and 140 sailing websites that carry the Sail TV player. In addition via the Sail TV set top box the coverage can be seen on TV screens in many establishments throughout Cowes as well as bars and yacht clubs throughout the world.

The Extreme Webcam will run on the Saturday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (6, 10, 11, 12 August) with live pictures and an audio feed taken directly from the race village commentary.

Live Online Schedule:
LiveTV: Sunday to Tuesday (7, 8, 9 August)
Programme starts at 1415 British Summer Time (BST, 1 hour ahead of GMT) with 49er and windsurfing action ahead of the Extreme 40 racing starting at 1500 BST

Webcam: Saturday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (6, 10, 11 and 12 August)
Webcam starts at 1415 BST on Saturday with Extreme 40 racing from 1500.
*Webcam starts from 1500 BST, with Extreme 40 racing coming back in to the ‘Stadium’ once Cowes Week racing has cleared the area, and not before 1500 BST at the earliest.