LOUIS VUITTON 37TH AMERICA’S CUP AIMS FOR RECORD AUDIENCES

The Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup coverage is led by an in-house team and delivered by a new consortium of world-class broadcast production companies, some with a long history in sailing and some who are new to the sport.

Available on broadcast in over 200 territories complemented with global distribution on americascup.com, YouTube and Facebook, the America’s Cup intends to grow audiences by over 50% on top of the sailing viewership records established in Auckland 2021.  In addition, the official documentary of the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup is in production in Barcelona.

Notable production innovations include:

• Filming in UHD HDR HLG 2020 and surround sound audio – both firsts for the America’s Cup – to bring viewers as close to the action as possible
• Up to 12 cameras per yacht plus helicopters and chase boats, including a foiling hydrogen powered camera boat developed by Emirates Team New Zealand
• Optical tracking technology delivers precise boat and camera location information to power graphics systems, allowing viewers the best live insights into racing
• WindSight IQ™ is an innovative turnkey solution designed, built and operated through a partnership between America’s Cup Media and Capgemini, combining their expertise in technology, engineering, data and design. WindSight IQ™ will feed the America’s Cup Media broadcast systems with real-time wind field visuals and AR/VR designs so that, for the first time ever, Armchair Admirals at home will know more about the course conditions than the sailors on the yachts
• Combined with yacht simulators,WindSight IQ™ also allows the production team to predict the optimal route for the yachts and to analyse the tactics and strategy that the teams used
• Brand new regatta management system for teams, race officials and umpires including a fleet of electric autonomous race marks that can reposition themselves during a race
• The official documentary of the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup will premiere in 2025 and provide a unique insight into the lives of the competitors and their pursuit of the hardest trophy to win in world sport

“Innovation and technology are baked into the America’s Cup at every level, so whilst the race teams constantly strive for more speed, our search is for new ways to make the television coverage better than before and to break new ground in all aspects wherever possible,” said Grant Dalton, CEO of America’s Cup Event.

“We’ll debut new, innovative graphics techniques in Barcelona, produced in UHD and tell all the stories of the Cup, so, wherever you are in the world, find the largest, most convenient screen possible and you’ll be in for a visual treat,” adds Leon Sefton, Director of Production.

The key players in the production consortium are:

• Timeline Television – returning to the America’s Cup, Timeline is responsible for the 64 on-water camera systems and the radio mesh network that brings the signals back to shore
• Animation Research Ltd/Virtual Eye, a long-time partner of the America’s Cup having first worked on the 1992 edition in San Diego, is famous for visualising the racetrack and the boat’s positions on it. Virtual Eye takes the data from Bolt6 and Capgemini to enhance the live coverage with graphics that give viewers the best understanding of what is happening out on the water
• Grup Mediapro – new to the America’s Cup, Barcelona headquartered Mediapro leads the onshore facilitation of the host broadcast
• Capgemini – also new to the America’s Cup, Capgemini has developed WindSight IQ™, which uses Light Detection & Ranging (LiDAR) sensors to measure the wind in real-time and fuses multiple sensor streams using innovative algorithms to enable a wind field to be created over the entire racecourse. The wind field data is then used in the yacht simulator (‘Ghost Boat’) to provide predictions for expert insight and analysis, meaning that viewers will know more about the racing conditions than the sailors
• Riedel, continuing its role from its debut at the 36th America’s Cup in Auckland, provides the broadband audio systems that allow viewers to hear the action onboard the AC75s and AC40s, along with crew communication, on-shore intercom, and digital Tetra radio systems
• Amis Productions, in its sixth America’s Cup, provides the specialist filming from helicopters – supplied by Barcelona-based SkyTours – and chase boats, one of which foils and is powered by electricity
• Bolt6 – new to sailing, the Bolt6 optical tracking system calculates the position of race yachts and other assets to millimetre accuracy using only the TV video feeds, powering the precise alignment of video and AR graphics
• Eurovision Services provide international distribution to over 30 rights holders covering well over 200 broadcast territories as well as supplying the live streaming feeds for americascup.com, YouTube and Facebook
• LittleDot Studios provide the tools and platform to enable the content team at the America’s Cup to create the best possible experience online for viewers

“We are  fortunate to have such a vibrant and innovative production consortium, and I am really excited about what we have in store for viewers,” said Mark Sheffield, Director of Delivery.

The new Regatta Management System (RMS) has been developed by an in-house team over the last three years.  It includes a fleet of battery powered autonomous marks capable of over 8 knots that can reposition themselves in between or during races.  The RMS software system, also written in-house, is used to provide tactical information for teams prior to racing, all the tools for the Regatta Director to set courses and administer races, and all the data and analysis tools for the umpires, including sailing’s equivalent of VAR.

“RMS is an enormous project that we have been working around the clock on since the last America’s Cup and which will largely remain unseen, yet, such is the significance of the project, racing simply could not happen without it,” said Brent Russell, RMS Director.

The America’s Cup has partnered with over 30 rights holders making broadcast coverage available in over 200 territories.  These include:

• Spain – TVE, TV3 and Betevé
• New Zealand – Stuff and Warner Bros. Discovery
• USA and LATAM – ESPN.
• UK & Ireland – TNT Sports and discovery+ (Warner Bros. Discovery)
• Switzerland – SRG
• Italy – Mediaset and Sky Italia
• France and sub-Saharan Africa – Canal+
• Europe: EBU umbrella agreement for all markets including RTP, TVP, MTVA, PBS, ARD/ZDF, NOS, ORF & NRK and the Eurovision Sport platform, ServusTV, TV4, Eurosport (Warner Bros. Discovery, pan-European highlights)
• Elsewhere in the world: Fox Sports Australia, Supersport (South Africa & sub-Saharan Africa), MBC (MENA), CTV (Canada), Viacom18 (India), DAZN (Japan), ELTA (Taiwan), Charlton (Israel), Astro (Malaysia), SBS (Korea), Pasifika (Pacific Island territories), Red Bull TV (world-wide) and Sport24 (in-ship and inflight)
• News: Reuters, AFP, CNN, EBU News Exchange and SNTV

A full list of how to watch is here.

Global coverage – live, highlights, clips, news and features – will also be available online at americascup.com and via YouTube, Facebook and all good social networks.