America’s Cup head of television Stephen Nuttall has used an ISE Show Floor Stage Tech Talk to reveal some of the groundbreaking technology that will be on show at the forthcoming boat race, to be hosted by the City of Barcelona in October 2024.
“We intend for this to be the most-watched America’s Cup race ever,” said Nuttall, who plans to top the record-breaking 942 million global audience of the event when it took place in Auckland, New Zealand in 2021.
The 25m-long boats will race 100-150m offshore in Barcelona, reaching speeds of 100km per hour. Nuttall outlined a new centralised reconnaissance programme enabling all the teams to monitor their opposition. “All the monitoring software for the race is brand new,” he said, “as are a series of autonomous battery-powered marker boats which will be used to set the course.
“We have Capgemini as official data partners and an on-screen video graphics system to bring the data to life, with much of it generated by AI.”
Nuttall added that each boat will be equipped with 185kg of production technology allowing the event to run two 4K HDR video channels back from each yacht in real time.
There will be more than 12 cameras on each boat, controlled from the land, and enough mics to enable surround sound production so viewers can hear what the sailors say onboard. They will be connected to the production base over an RF network.
The race will also be followed by two helicopters with gyro-stabilised camera systems and drones. “The challenge is to find a drone that can fly long enough and fast enough and carry a big enough camera to do the job,” said Nuttall.
