 S&T knew that SportelMonaco 2004 was going to be an eventful market when we  nearly got arrested on our first evening in Monte Carlo this year. (We like to flag these things up as omens.) Apparently, it is not de rigeur to take photographs in a casino. Now, we can see that snapping cards at a black jack or poker table might not go down well with the punters or management, but we were merely taking a wee picturette of what was to become a major source of entertainment for S&T (and half the Sportel delegates) over the following week - namely, the Royal Ascot Sega Sun Casino horseracing game. With eight little plastic horses (go 'Rambling Roger' and 'Mike's A Dancer'!) cantering around an artificial track at often heady speed, against a backdrop of virtual reality close-ups provided on a large screen, S&T felt there was never a more beautiful synergy between technology and sport. Nor a better opportunity to fritter away a few Euros without having to count cards. Hence the urge to capture it on celluloid. (Plus being dared by a colleague to take the shot and then "leg it" of course). Anyway, after a brief tussle with a security guard the size of former NFL player 'The Refrigerator' (well, okay then, more like a small microwave oven), and an attempt to swallow our camera whole, S&T made our escape to the safer surrounds of The Grimaldi Forum for what has since been hailed as "the best Sportel in years". There was certainly a buzz about the place this year, and, compared with last year, that buzz seemed to be translating itself into hard cash at regular intervals. And not just over the road at the Sass Bar. "Everyone seemed up for a deal this year," confirmed one Sportel exhibitor (as he placed 2 Euros on 'Suzy Spitfire' at odds of 14-1 at the virtual Royal Ascot), "there was certainly plenty of business to be done. Has anyone got change for a 5 Euro note?" What's it all about?For those S&T readers unfamiliar with Sportel, the international television sports programme market - along with its sister-markets SportelAmerica and SportelDubai (and soon to be SportelAsia) - brings together a veritable feast of sports-related broadcasters, cable and satellite companies, acquisitions and distribution executives, producers, event organisers, sports federations, sponsors and advertisers, sports marketing agents, software and hardware, international sports press and new media companies for chinwagging and dealmaking. With 23% more exhibition stands, 20% more participants and 10% more countries represented than the 2003 market, the 2004 event was hailed a splendiferous success.
Of most interest to S&T (apart from (a) trying to find out which Sportel delegate fell off a table while dancing at the Sass Bar and emerged covered in blood - we assume his own, and (b) stalking our darts hero, 11 times World Champion, Phil 'The Power' Taylor at the Matchroom stand); was the Sportel Symposium presentation by Francis Tellier, chief executive of HBS, host broadcaster of the 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cups. When Tellier last spoke to S&T (in January), he explained why the 2006 World Cup in Germany would be broadcast in a completely high definition format. His presentation was therefore a good opportunity to find out how things are going. And the answer seems to be "very nicely, thank you", especially as HBS has just landed the host broadcast gig for the 2006 Asian Games in Doha as well in a JV with TWI. HDTV seems to be moving from famine to feast. As far as the 2006 World Cup is concerned, "all OB [outside broadcast] vans have been contracted by HBS already," says Tellier, and a partnership has been forged with telco T-Systems to provide the high capacity fully redundant contribution telecoms network between all event venues in Germany and the International Broadcast Centre (IBC) that HBS will run. "Without good telecoms, you can't have good broadcasting," said Tellier, succinctly. Although we wonder how many telcos in the audience would try and argue such a point the other way around? The Rally de France - Tour de Corse Next stop for S&T after Monte Carlo was the stunning island of Corsica, home, for a few days each year at least, of the World Rally Championship's (WRC's) Rally de France - Tour de Corse. We were kindly invited by the motorsport's global sponsor, Inmarsat, to witness at first hand how technology is at the heart and soul of the world's largest spectator sport. During the course of each rally season, teams compete in 16 events, each lasting three days. Each car covers in excess of 20,000 miles and is watched by around 12.8m on-course fans. (See also this month's Infostrada Sports' Databox for further Tour de Corse facts). Since 2002, Inmarsat has worked with the WRC to provide satellite-based communications to support race timings, data feeds to the teams and TV production crews, and the championship website.
Working closely with the technology arm of International Sportsworld Communicators (ISC) - which owns the commercial rights to the WRC - and the latter's partner, 3D animation specialist Virtual Spectator, Inmarsat has the responsibility of taking care of everything from timing technology through to driver safety. No mean feat.
And there's plenty of work for freight companies as well. ISC ships around eight tonnes of equipment to each rally with TV crews (that utilise the ISC-run IBC) bringing in around another 12 tonnes of gear. Teams have between 40 and 50 tonnes of kit each. Meanwhile the rally teams bring around 300 people to each event, the ISC and TV crews 150 folk, and the media and photographers add a further 60 personnel to the mix. It is literally a community that sweeps into a town on a Tuesday, is fully operational by the Thursday, and by Sunday night is packing up, ready to do it all again elsewhere. Phew.
From the moment S&T's extremely shaky overnight ferry from Nice docked at Ajaccio, birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte, we knew that Rally fever was in the air. This was thanks to the ferry conveniently docking next to the Service Park (in a compound that also housed Rally HQ and the IBC), right at the moment all the competing cars were being given their first once-over of the day before going out to race the day's first stage in more remote climes. Out at the stage S&T was taken out to the stage by a lovely chap (who we will call Eduardo in case we write anything that offends him) who has been working behind the scenes at the WRC with ISC for nearly two years, and has barely been home during that time. The fact that Eduardo wore wet underwear for 15 hours at the recent Wales Rally GB shows how much he is dedicated to his job! (Wet underwear being due to inclement weather of course; not incontinence. Our lawyers thought it would be good to point that out).
Rain was certainly the theme of the Rally de France the day S&T was in town. We knew this would happen purely because S&T's best friend Deirdre went to Corsica for her honeymoon and said the weather was "always divine". Hmm. But hey ho, at least a lack of flip flops (this time) and a sturdy umbrella meant that S&T was (after a fortifying hot chocolate) able to scramble up the side of a muddy mountain (okay steep hill), at the corner of a very exciting hairpin bend (chosen especially by Eduardo for potential "drama") in a village called Uicciani, along with hundreds of petrolheads (as those "in the know" call them). And there we stood as excitement mounted and the odd burr of a helicopter meant the cars were gearing up at the start line a whole 11 minutes away.
They say a week is a long time in politics. Well, 11 minutes is a long time when you are desperately trying not to skid down a hill into the paths of oncoming racing cars. S&T's toes went numb at one point, meaning sliding (and therefore death) was imminent and we wondered how the spectator next to us with a baby in her arms would augur if a single one of the throng behind us started slipping too. Spectator safety is a principle concern for the WRC, but of course it is impossible to protect everyone during an event that is spread out across 45km in some cases, often in very rugged terrain, and sometimes in the dark. But bearing in mind S&T can't leave the house without worrying whether the gas has been left on, we were bound to have a little panic about a "less than secure" environment. And the lady with the baby seemed jolly enough, as did l'enfant petite so c'est la vie and vive la Rally etc….(that's enough O'Level French for today; remarkable to think that S&T won the annual French prize at school in 1986. Heady days).
We tell you what though, once those cars started belting around the corner, with a few minutes or so in between, all thoughts of death evaporated in the face of pure driving mastery. We could have been holding a set of screaming triplets in our arms while being massaged on the shoulders by Phil 'The Power' Taylor and we wouldn't have noticed, darn it. How a single one of those drivers took that particular bend so seamlessly was beyond us, and we can now certainly see why WRC spectators are prepared to stand in all manner of extreme weather for over three hours to marvel at such a racing feast. And so to the technologyOur first encounter with technology at this particular rally was witnessing a cameraman from UK broadcaster ITV, haring down a hill (during a suitable gap between cars), tape in hand, racing to get his footage back to the IBC as quickly as possible through often challenging terrain. This is often done by motorbike - but sometimes helicopter - depending on the urgency of getting tape to screen. "It's all about timing," said the cameraman, setting the scene for the rest of S&T's day.
As well as getting tapes back to the production suites as quickly as possible, the drivers themselves were on a tight schedule to return their cars back to the Service Park for checks, repairs, refuelling and general ablutions. It was quite exciting driving back into Ajaccio and being overtaken every now and again by one of the racing cars that had finished the stage after we had left. As an aside, - in an 'it could only happen in the UK' moment - the Wales Rally GB recently achieved infamy due to an overzealous local police officer booking one of the drivers on his way back to the Service Park for speeding. No such nonsense in Corsica (that we noticed) as rally cars merrily zigzagged in and out of the regular traffic with the odd nod and wave from the local constabulary. But unfortunately, no matter of urging from S&T would entice Eduardo to try and keep up with them... It's all in the timing Back at the Service Park, timing was inherent once again, with the in-car GPS system that stores vital data for the OB and IBC units needing uploading and sometimes repairing. "Our biggest challenge is getting the data as fast as TV needs it from the actual cars," explained Chris Field, data manager for Kaboodle which facilitates the transfer of data from the cars to Virtual Spectator for the latter's 3D animation coverage of the WRC. "The car is only in the service area for 10 minutes and we have to respect the mechanics by not getting in their way."
The technology behind the WRC is provided through Inmarsat's Global Area Network (GAN) and broadband Regional BGAN networks in a number of critical areas. For the WRC, Inmarsat sets up a central hub to manage connections between the Rally HQ, the Service Park and the stages, with each location connecting to the hub using a secure virtual private network (VPN). The Rally HQ connects to the internet using pairs of either Inmarsat Regional BGAN or Inmarsat GAN terminals, which in turn link to both fixed and wireless networks across the HQ. The organisers also use the internet links provided to distribute rally results to the media and to the WRC website (www.wrc.com). A similar set up operates at the Service Park, with connections both to Rally HQ via the managed hub, and directly to the web.
Inmarsat's objective for its WRC sponsorship is simple, according to the company's sponsorship manager, Luisa d'Aprano. "We wanted to find a property where we could use the partnership to showcase our technology," she told S&T. "This sponsorship has given us the opportunity to implement solutions using satellite communications that benefit the rally. The elements that our technology have - being remote and mobile - are also attributes of the WRC."
As S&T boarded our bright yellow ferry for another tumultuous overnight crossing in cabins that quite frankly would have made the Monte Carlo police cells seem like Buckingham Palace, we certainly couldn't help thinking that the Inmarsat/WRC partnership is not only a marriage made in heaven, but that everyone involved in the WRC - from the staff through to the spectators - is slightly, yet deliciously, mad to undertake those sorts of hours in such a high-pressure/potentially dangerous environment. Just S&T's kind of people! Rachael Church - Editor Do you think WRC staff and fans love their sport too much? Or do you think they are just generally raving? If you have any comments or feedback on this article or any of the features in S&T, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please e-mail your comments to editor@sportandtechnology.com. Go on, you know you want to.
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