Already underway is the eighth Vendée Globe Race—a global and highly challenging sailing event—which started at Les Sables d’Olonne, France, and is the only non-stop solo race around the world without any assistance whatsoever.
Providing two-way, secured SATCOM and broadcast for 90 percent of the race's competitors is SpeedCast International Limited (ASX: SDA). This year’s event will see 29 skippers representing four continents and ten nations setting sail on IMOCA 60s in pursuit of beating François Gabart’s record time of 78 days, 2 hours and 16 minutes set in the 2012-13 race. SpeedCast’s media transmission solution and value added services have been installed on 27 out of 29 competing vessels and offers livestreaming capabilities, monitoring and connectivity.
SpeedCast’s Clipway will play a big role as the solution will allow the race headquarters, family members and the general audience to watch the race in real time. Clipway can store, forward and livestream broadcast quality video and can accept all broadcasting formats, including HD, SDI and GoPro, which differentiates it from competing technologies.
Bruno Gicquel, the MSS Maritime Director at SpeedCast, acknowledged that when the race first began 27 years ago, no one could have imagined a live broadcast from the ocean in such challenging conditions. Now, the advances in technology coupled with the unprecedented demand for high-quality, real-time media content have made this possible. Using SpeedCast's world class satellite communications solution, coupled with the SpeedCast Clipway technology that was developed by SpeedCast’s R&D team, an innovative offering has been created that can meet this unprecedented demand.