The America's Cup sailing race has more heritage than nearly any sporting event â€" in fact, its trophy is the oldest still used in international competition.
But the America's Cup hasn't exactly become a hit with the masses. Part of the reason: For those of us who don't go yacht racing on a regular basis, it's nearly impossible to tell what's going on when watching the competition on TV.
Or at least it used to be. America's Cup is now aiming to increase its mainstream appeal by partnering with a technology company called Sportvision. Sportvision makes high-tech data and augmented-reality products for a host of sports, but it's best known for that now-ubiquitous yellow stripe that marks the first-down line in football broadcasts.
For preliminary races leading up the final competition on San Francisco Bay in September, Sportvision's America's Cup broadcast enhancements have included virtual lines marking course routes and boundaries, graphics relaying key information on stats such as boat speed, and explainer illustrations on team strategies.
"The idea is taking the technology of the yellow first-down line, which is basically augmented reality, and applying improved versions of that to sailing to make the sport better and easier to understand for people at home," Sportvision CEO Hank Adams says.
Enhancements show up both on TV broadcasts as well as the America's Cup YouTube channel. Here's an example of the technology in action:
But making that magic appear on your screen doesn't happen easily. Sensors and cameras are attached to racing boats and buoys marking the course. A helicopter films the action from above, providing an overview to help map the course for your two-dimensional screen.
All those sensors and cameras communicate with one another to create the final product, which can leave some spectators in awe â€" or simply confused.
When Sportvision first tested its America's Cup broadcast technology out during a race in the U.K. back in 2010, digital lines projected behind boats on the screen tracked their traveled routes. Some fans complained the race was environmentally insensitive for releasing trails of polluting dye into the ocean.
"When people can't tell the technology from what's actually real, I guess that's how we know we've done a really good job," Adams says witch a chuckle.
But Adams also believes what Sportvision is doing goes much deeper than simply giving a sailing race wider appeal. Augmented reality and highly advanced data, he says, will soon become a standard part of the sports fan experience.
"To me, this is really about creating the next generation of sports information," He says. "It's going to be driven by technology and the data we can collect, enabling fans to engage with sports in different ways."
Image courtesy Sportvision
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