Making waves: Videe brings Barcolana regatta and eSailing Championships to global audiences
The Barcolana regatta, the biggest international sailing race, returned to Trieste in north-eastern Italy on 8 October. Some 1,773 participants took part to experience the thrill of heeling over as the sails fill and sea waves lap onto boats as the bora gusts.
The bora surprisingly dropped to only a few knots this time, but this unique race still offered plenty of excitement. Indeed, what makes Barcolana unique is the fact that among the participants are the biggest names in sailing and amateurs competing against their friends. Each harnessed the wind and the waves from the Miramare Castle to the Piazza Unità and tackled rounding the buoys, as light as flower petals.
Slow wind meant making the most of tactics and concentration, which resulted in even small sails classifying with high ranks.
Wendy Schmidt, who became the first woman to win the race in 2022, came back to Trieste to return the cup to Barcolana and to pass the baton to the 2023 winner – a 16 year-old helmswoman. Barcolana keeps making history in the sailing world.
As Schmidt said: “No event in the world has a community like this. It was the most exciting sail race in my life; there’s so much energy here in Trieste.”
The 55th edition of Barcolana once again proved to be a spectacular event for the competitors, the crowd onsite and the thousands of live viewers worldwide.
Barcolana is a fascinating and complex production, which requires a remarkable experience, very careful analysis of the environmental conditions and a high level of attention to each and every detail in order to guarantee a typical broadcast production in terms both of high quality and full reliability. The size of the course also posed significant challenges to filming the event. SVBG, the organising committee, Barcolana s.r.l. and Videe succeeded in overcoming these challenges thanks to a combination of teamwork and the provision of customised and creative solutions.
Since the early 2000s Videe has been providing host broadcasting services to Barcolana. The expertise of the company in the entertainment industry and its highly skilled team have been key in creating a TV programme able to captivate worldwide viewers, not limited to sailing lovers.
“Videe collaborated with an international editorial team, sailing stabilised camera specialists and a graphics design team, successfully bringing the live coverage to a worldwide audience both online and on linear television channels. Thanks to innovative technical solutions we were able to show both the competitive side of the event and the sailing enthusiasts, who are a large part of the fleet taking part in the race. The programme included multiple live interviews from on board sailboats, dramatic helicopter and chaseboat footage, and high-quality data-driven graphics which helped successfully tell the story of the event,” comments Federico Favretto, director & executive producer.
“Our team onsite was composed of 30 professionals in charge of the coverage of two Barcolana regatta live productions: the world feed and the RAI Sport unilateral. We managed aerial, terrestrial and nautical live broadcast, thus showing the audience the spectacular beauty of the course. We actually managed the signals coming from onboard the fleet, from the helicopter and from the cameras positioned at the Molo dei Bersaglieri and on the 330-metre-high Mount Grisa,” explains Nicola Degano, production manager, Videe.
“The main challenge we face in Barcolana is covering the uncommonly big and crowded race course (40sqm) and receiving all the AV signals without using a helicopter relay. To cope with the situation and to overcome a low line of sight, we relied on circular directional antennas and robust QPSK modulation, and engineered a TX/RX system where RF technology is combined with IP infrastructures,” comments Angelo Farina, chief engineer, Videe.
Videe was also in charge of the Italian TV channel RAI live studio at the Molo dei Bersaglieri, directed by Pierluigi Bonelli. For that, it provided AV broadcast equipment, lighting and a commentary position.
Limited space on the compound at the Molo dei Bersaglieri meant resources were condensed into one OB van. The key solution was Videe’s flagship 4K HDR OB truck, OBX, providing both the world feed for the live FB streaming and for RAI Italian. Its 77sqm interior space with two separate production areas proved perfect to host onboard both the English and Italian operative and creative crews.
“By combining high-quality IP infrastructure and robust RF equipment with a state-of-the-art OB truck, Videe provided the perfect solution for filming the event,” concludes Favretto.
Virtual regatta
Barcolana has always been a byword for innovation and entertainment. This year it joined World Sailing – the worldwide sailing federation – and welcomed to Trieste the world of esports.
On Friday 6 October the Trieste Convention Center hosted the final of the eSailing World Championship 2023. Videe was responsible for the live production and live streaming of the virtual regatta.
Eleven players from all over the world e-sailed 1,130 nautical miles from Genoa to Trieste and competed to be world e-champion.
“Our team engineered and set up a customised flypack unit to manage the AV shooting of the gamers, the distribution of the signals coming from the 11 workstations, the PGM feed to onsite LED walls, the live graphics featuring the scoreboards and the live streaming from 3pm to 6pm,” said Andrea De Bortoli, broadcast engineer and R&D manager, Videe.
“Ad hoc studies and figures show that the high quality of the national and international coverage of the event is an added value in terms of economic and promotional return both for Barcolana, the territory of Trieste and the whole region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. We’re happy to be part of this success and to contribute to it. To match sport and entertainment and to captivate audiences worldwide is our mission and motivation. Be it a real or a virtual live production, our team is proving to be always ahead of the broadcast market. May the wind always be at our back!” commented Paola Montanari, CEO, Videe.