Milliseconds matter

Diving below the surface of the incredible SailGP series reveals a quest for sporting brilliance and an innovative marvel enabled by T-Mobile For Business, the official technology partner. Their advanced 5G Advanced Network Solutions have revolutionised how data is collected and utilised in the series.

Each of the ten teams requires 30,000 data points collected across 125 sensors to maximise performance—every second, every catamaran. That's 48 billion data points per race day!

Welcome to my story of connecting wires, wireless with waves.

Welcome to Sail GP with 5G.

It's a sport that challenges the best sailors on the planet. Identical F50 boats are raced in some of the most breathtaking locations, pitting a six-person crew against speeds of 60mph in twelve unique locations, creating a thrilling spectacle.

What makes this special is that technology is mission-critical to the sport, the show, and the athlete experience. This fantastic use case shows the power of T-Mobile for Business's 5G hybrid network used onsite.

“We’re constantly pushing the boundaries of what 5G can do for consumers and businesses,” said Callie Field , president, T-Mobile Business Group. “Delivering fast and reliable analytics along with immersive viewing experiences in a tough offshore environment is a literal game changer.”

The technology is so essential to the race that it enables three distinct user groups, the leadership, the athletes, and the audience, to get value from the experiences on offer. Using my real-world B2B viewpoint, I will relate these to a practical use case ready for operations, fieldwork, and building more ingenious places.

The approvers

The 48 billion data points generated every race are essential to the leadership crew. They use the 5G private network installed onsite to connect critical systems and optimise real-time decisions. The core systems create an incredible asset bank for delivering IoT endpoints across each vessel to optimise real-time performance.

Milliseconds matter in such environments, which allows the coaches and shoreside teams to impact marginal gains while allowing network resources for other services.

The unique environment of Sail GP, which requires a unique way to connect beyond WiFi, CBRS or Ethernet, is a fascinating concept to explore when thinking about an operational process in your business today.

The choosers

Beyond the shore, real-time action requires both art and science. This blend of human endeavour and technology requires the athlete crew to be on their game. The core of this is access to the Oracle Cloud solution, which powers the crew's business intelligence. This tool governs the fees for telemetry, wind speed, and individual athlete performance connecting the ships to shore.

Having a device makes this work, but the network that underpins it makes it happen.

The speed of the action here is dramatic, but it relates to how field worker processes in your business can connect in and out of the HQ.

The users

Sharing the action in this environment is hard!

Imagine managing a sport where the playing field is constantly moving, the marker points are challenging to translate to an audience, and the spectators and fans will never be close to the vessel. T-Mobile For Business has successfully solved this mission, bringing the audience into the heart of the action.

A 5G Hybrid network enables more than 50 cameras to capture the action, overlay a mixed and augmented reality solution to the broadcast feed, and power innovations such as foil cams to bring new angles and experiences.

When you add that New York had a dedicated network for fans to use and follow the action on multiple screens connecting all the above, it brings alive what I meant at the top: being an innovation marvel!

From my B2B experience, you can see how this will inspire the development of smarter cities to connect people, places and things.

“SailGP and T-Mobile for Business are committed to pushing the boundaries on innovative ways to bring fans into the middle of the action through on-board, live camera views,” said Warren Jones SailGP’s chief technology officer. “Plus, our athletes can now access real-time data, which further accelerates the decision-making capabilities for our 10 national teams.

My hot take

The reason this matters to me comes together in the picture above.

In November 2015, I successfully passed my powerboat captain licence on the fantastic island of Mallorca. This course was a blend of theory and practicals, and, in my case, some near-misses that would have been expensive. Lessons are costly at sea!

My new-found sea worthiness gave me an appreciation for the levels of skill and speed offered in this series and the real-world reliance on next-generation technology in what was a seismic year for my career, my health, and my path to what is most important—just like the tech in this story.

The SailGP and T-Mobile For Business partnership connected the series and took me to a special time.

#SailGP #NewYorkSGP #TFBPartner #TFBxSailGP