Yacht Video System for the Whitbread Round the World Race

The Whitbread Round the World Race is an international yachting event held every four years. The race attracts major sponsors who demand media coverage throughout its duration. When the yachts are in the vicinity of the shore, conventional techniques can be used to obtain up-to-date broadcast video and audio material. This paper describes the Yacht Video System (YVS), developed to enable the yachts to relay near-live material from mid-ocean at a quality acceptable for broadcasting. The system uses video compression, satellite communications and data `store-and-forward´ techniques with a bespoke error correction protocol