12/2/2010
Hoisting sail for the Route du Rhum
On Sunday 31 October at 1:02pm, 87 boats (single and multi-hull) set sail from Saint Malo for Pointe à Pitre in Guadeloupe, 3542 miles from the French coast. The Route du Rhum is a major sporting challenge, and an equally major challenge for the technical teams of the AMP Visual TV group.
A wave of popular fervour blew through the port of Saint Malo on Sunday. Both on the docks and at sea, a massive crowd came to encourage the skippers of the Route du Rhum. This world-famous Trans-Atlantic crossing also mobilised a large television audience. France 3 broadcast the departure live. The RF van was on the front line, as Visual TV backed up France Télévision's facilities with its RF technology. 2 helicopters with Wescam spheres and 1 relay airplane were needed to cover the departure. 1 RF camera was also deployed for live interviews on the ferry used by France 3.
The originality of this event, in terms of communication techniques, is highlighted by a solution developed by Sodebo, Thomas Coville's Sponsor.
8 cameras installed on the trimaran are connected to a ground control unit which manages the switching, without requiring the skipper to intervene.
AMP Interactive, with its non-media control room located at La Plaine Saint Denis, is responsible for receiving and relaying these images to the different units set up by Sodebo (Web) and developed by their partner Open (I Phone, Android).
Thus, everyday at 4pm, Sodebo turns on the Maxi live on its website at http://www.sodebo-voile.com/accueil.html and on a dedicated application for Smartphones.
Finally, since the AMP Interactive node is connected to the Serte, these images are also broadcast by television stations that finally have a live, reliable and quality communication system for a yacht race.
As always, we wish Thomas and the others Godspeed !
More info and news on the Route du Rhum :
