Airlie Beach Race Week and Telstra Country Wide Communications Support

by Airlie Beach Race Week on 4 Aug 2010 Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week - With big fleets racing up to three courses scattered around Pioneer Bay and the surrounding Whitsunday race course delivering rapid results for the sailors at Race Week is a challenge.

Telstra Country Wide North Queensland is providing the Media Centre Communications facilities for the 2010 Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week (MMABRW), the largest sporting event on the Airlie Beach calendar, enabling journalists from Australia and overseas to provide updates to sailing enthusiasts from around the world.

Telstra has become a big supporter of Australian sailing, providing innovative telecommunication solutions to many international events sailed in Australia, including the World Etchells Championships, the A Cat World Championships and the F18 World Championships. Telstra also supports Skandia Geelong Week, now Audi Victoria Week, the largest keelboat regatta in Australia.

More than 20 Australian journalists and race officials will be using the Telstra Country Wide provided facilities at the Meridien Marinas Abel Point Marina in Airlie Beach, including photographers, radio station reporters and television crews.

MMABRW Media Director, Rob Kothe commented ' Big events like Race Week need a good communications partner and we certainly have one. Telstra Country Wide has become a big supporter of Australian sailing, providing innovative telecommunication solutions to many international events sailed in Australia.

'Telstra Country Wide, with the strong support of Mackay based district Manager Kerry Hines has been quietly assisting Race Week every year since 2007.

'Now we have much higher speeds, with 7.2meg Next G wireless broad band systems. We will have Wireless and Ethernet systems running in both the Media Centre and in the Race Office as well as on the 7.2meg Next G data transmission of results from the water. '

Telstra Country Wide North Queensland Area General Manager, David Llewellyn said, 'Telstra’s Next G service is the perfect partner for major outdoor events.

Telstra Next G network is over twice as large as any other 3G network in Australia and covers 99% of the population. The service provide officials, competitors and media with immediate, up-to-date race data and results. Importantly, the coverage area of the Next G network can typically extend 20 to 70 km out to sea from mobile base stations located near the coast.

'As Kerry outlines, we are happy to support the Airlie Beach and Hamilton Island Race Weeks again this year by providing the network ie Wireless broad ban system, SIMS, antenna's etc.

Telstra Country Wide North Queensland, District Manager Kerry Hine said he was Telstra Countrywide is supporting the 2010 Airlie Beach Race Week.

'Using Telstra’s World class Next G Network, my team has provided the equipment and expertise to allow race results to be uploaded in real time from race officials who are still on the water ' Kerry Hine said.

'This Centre has really capitalised on the latest technology enabling photographers to dispatch images to publications instantly and other media to file stories in almost real time under tight deadlines, with rapid results coming straight from the water.'

As the yachts finish out in Pioneer Bay, the information is recorded by the event’s results scorer Alex St John and the race officials. The information is collated and, with the help of a Telstra Next G USB mobile card, sent instantaneously to the official website.

Scorer Alex St John said 'Using the next G network we are able get results to the world faster than in previous years. Being able to do results on the water means results are correct and are distributed quickly.'

The consensus amongst the crews is that the speed in which the results have been delivered in recent years and that family and friends on land often know where the yacht has placed well before the skipper.

'What does this mean to the event? Well often the results are online before the sailors are ashore, with family and friends ringing the boats to give them the glad or sad news. All part of delivering a great regatta.