The competition has paired with Acronis to deliver the project
SailGP and cyber protection company Acronis have announced a voice recognition project that hopes to let viewers listen to onboard conversations.
The project will track every conversation on the national teams’ F50 catamarans, and then transcribe and translate them in real-time. The resulting content will be made available to viewers through various mediums and in languages including Japanese, French, Spanish, and Mandarin.
Not only will the data be a new insight for supporters, the information will also be available to team data analysts. With all teams using boats with the same design and technology, it will be another way that teams can try to gain an advantage over their competitors.
The three-year deal not only emcompasses the voice recognition plan, but also makes Acronis the competition’s cyber protection supplier. In addition, it becomes cyber protection supplier to specifically the France SailGP team, and will feature advertising prominently on its boat. In recent years, the company has also worked with other sports bodies, such as the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, NFL, MLB, and Formula One.
Russell Coutts, CEO of SailGP, said of the news: “Being able to listen to all of the onboard communications in the different team languages will truly bring another dimension to our broadcast offer and we are really excited to work with Acronis to add this to our broadcast platform when the league restarts in San Francisco in April 2021.”
Acronis’ founder and executive officer Serguei Beloussov added “This is an exciting project to work on together with SailGP, and we are looking forward to seeing it well-received by fans once the league restarts next year. We are also thankful for the opportunity to work with SailGP to help them get #CyberFit by developing innovative AI/ML voice recognition technology to enable fans to have an insight into what happens on the race boats.”
SailGP will restart in April 2021, after being forced to reschedule four races and declare the results from one as null and void due to the coronavirus crisis. The season will also be expanded to seven races from five when it restarts, with the campaign coming to an end in early 2022.