No place to hide on live TV

Kenny Read rubs his eyes as he climbs out of the dark depths of below deck.   

 Ken's interview appeared on the Livestream website
 Photo: Livestream



Media Crew Member Amory Ross passes him a set of headphones and a throat mic, as his eyes get used to the light.

It slowly dawns on Kenny that he is about to go on camera so he makes a half effort to ruffle his hair so as to be vaguely presentable.

Live means live
Volvo’s Rick Deppe reminds him that he is live and to wipe the food from his mouth.  In this case, live truly means live!

Yesterday, Rick Deppe did the rounds, calling all six boats for a live  video streaming web chat for all race fans to tune into.

This has been a new capability for this edition of the Volvo Ocean Race and has been a huge success.

Bringing race to life
The live streaming provided by Inmarsat’s connectivity using FleetBroadband 500 has brought the race to life.

The French team Groupama have a regular TV spot using the live stream and now have clocked up over 100 live interviews from the oceans. This has given the team unrivalled media coverage and brought them a huge fan base.

Volvo’s communications department and the teams are now thinking ahead to the next race and how the new faster data transfer speeds that Global Xpress will bring will impact on the race.

HD web cams
The world’s media is demanding fast connectivity to bring more live events to life. The Volvo Ocean Race will be no different. Live streaming HD web cams that viewers can operate at will is just one of the ideas being considered.

The other benefit of a live interview from the boats is that the skippers being interviewed have no time to think of the smart answer.

The result is a very straight and honest opinion. As much as Ken Read struggled to wake up and perform for the camera, he ended up admitting that they had not gybed quickly enough and missed a trick on Groupama who opened up a 70 nautical mile lead.

You can watch this interview at:

http://new.livestream.com/volvooceanrace/Leg7/videos/1178143

Mark Covell