[PSUBS-MAILIST] America's Cup (was Ambient vs. 1 ATM: the historical perspective)

[SJSVOB@aol.com]

<< Do any of you guys follow the America's Cup sailing that is being sailed a
 few miles away from me at present ? It looks like we will keep it :-) Your
 can watch the 3rd race live on the internet but it would be very late at
 night for you I guess. >>

My sister and I grew up racing and cruising sailboats on Lake Michigan.  My 
sister is a reporter and due to her sailing experience her newspaper flew her 
to New Zealand to cover the America's Cup race.  Here is an article she wrote 
which some of you may find interesting:

By Sandra Svoboda
Block News Alliance
AUCKLAND, New Zealand - With all the money and sophistication involved in
the America's Cup yacht races, it's not surprising that they also feature
some of the most advanced Internet websites in sports today.
The website that is having the most impact on fans this year is called
Virtual Spectator (www.virtualspectator.com cq) This site allows armchair
sailors throughout the world to follow the America's Cup races in real time,
not only by reading up-to-the-second reports on the matches, but also by
viewing computer graphics that show exactly where the boats are on the
course.
Virtual Spectator is so accurate that even the race judges who are on boats
in the middle of the course have been calling back to the website's
headquarters during the last two weeks' semifinals, to find out which boat
is actually in the lead, because it's sometimes difficult to tell from the
water.
The site, developed by four New Zealanders, also provides real-time weather
data, information about the boats' speed, their distance apart, their
distance to the racecourse markers, and commentary about the crews' actions,
skippers' decisions, and the rules. 
"You are the virtual spectator, and you are in the virtual stadium," said
Marcus Hutchinson, website editor for Louis Vuitton, the French fashion
company that was an early investor in Virtual Spectator and is the sponsor
of the challenger races that will determine who will face Team New Zealand
in the America's Cup finals starting Feb. 19. 
During race six of the Louis Vuitton finals Wednesday, Hutchinson
demonstrated how important the website is for the judges themselves.
As he paced in the Virtual Spectator headquarters, his cellular telephone
rang frequently. He'd answer, and then give the name of the boat that was
just a few yards in the lead. 
"The man in here keeps phoning me," he said, pointing on a TV monitor to the
race judges' power boat motoring up the course just a few yards from the
hulls of the dueling yachts. "He asks me which boat is ahead." 
Virtual Spectator is a big advance in computer technology from the last
America's Cup races, held in San Diego in 1995. That year, some real-time
text appeared on a website for the last race series, which was won by the
New Zealanders. 
"That was really the first time the Internet became a main provider of news
and information" for America's Cup racing, said Jane Eagleson, spokeswoman
for the company. "They just really took it a full step further here." 
The various computer programmers for the America's Cup websites are on the
second-floor of the media center here, where hundreds of international
journalists also are based. Quokka Sports, the website provider for the
America's Cup finals (www.americascup2000.org) cq, sits in its own room.
Louis Vuitton, which also has a polished website (www.louisvuittoncup.com
cq), occupies other space. And Virtual Spectator, with its rules specialist,
language translators, transcriptionists, and graphics and animation
technicians, takes up a whole wall. 
 The staff members are nestled among banks of computer monitors, keyboards,
servers, and television screens that display information sent from
microchips on the boats, from the weather buoys along the course and from
the cameras filming the race. Each boat has four on-board cameras, and two
small power boats and a helicopter also send images of the racing. 
In some ways, Virtual Spectator provides its viewers with more information
than spectators on boats along the course are getting, although it can't yet
provide the actual wind and water in their faces, or the thrill of watching
the 80-foot boats maneuver just a few yards away. 
Virtual Spectator originally was developed to provide reporters with another
tool to follow the races, Hutchinson said. But it's available for purchase
through the Louis Vuitton website, so now, about 55,000 subscribers have
bought some version of the program for their own use. (Different versions
are available with different levels of complexity). Yesterday, the Virtual
Spectator website was offering its downloadable software for the America's
Cup finals for just $9.99. 
In Auckland, many of the spectator boats for the media, team supporters, and
race sponsors have loaded Virtual Spectator onto onboard computers. 
That's true of Mary Kohler and her husband Terry, of Sheboygan, Wis., who
take guests and television crews out to watch the races from their 75-foot
power boat, the North Star. In the yacht's main cabin, one video screen
displays Virtual Spectator, while guests also watch the racing from the
boat's deck or through the windows. 
Mrs. Kohler likes the technology, but believes it has its limits. "You can
get an idea how the race is doing, but you don't get the excitement," she
said. 
Virtual Spectator will improve for the America's Cup finals. Programmers
will add information about protest flags and judge's decisions in real time.

That will be the work of rules expert Luis Saenz, a veteran racer of the
Spanish professional yachting circuit, who will act as the rules expert and
interpret the skippers' protests and judges' decisions for the site's
instant commentary. 
"You are going to see each boat's protest and the action by the umpire," he
said. "The world is going to have the umpire calls in real time. This is a
first." 
Saenz made his comments while standing inside the media center, in a room
with no windows. He is more than enthusiastic about the new technology. 
"I love being on the water. I love sailing. But this is the best way of
seeing the race," he said.