SailGP and Ericsson: Private 5G, IoT, and Cloud Power High-Speed Racing
SailGP and Ericsson: Private 5G, IoT, and Cloud Power High-Speed Racing
SailGP’s F50 catamarans are often described as the world’s largest IoT devices. Each boat streams live video and telemetry through Ericsson’s portable private 5G system at race stops across the globe, with data routed to Oracle’s London cloud hub. There, it is processed and returned in real time to race crews, operations teams, broadcasters, and fans.
Key highlights:
- Advanced sailing tech – F50 catamarans generate 360,000 data points per second.
- Cloud and 5G backbone – Oracle handles processing in London; Ericsson delivers boat-to-shore communications.
- Sustainable broadcasting – Remote production reduces travel, staff, and costs, setting new standards in live sports.
At Portsmouth dockyard, seafaring technology across centuries was on display. From the design flaws of the Tudor carrack Mary Rose, to the firepower of HMS Victory, to the iron-cladding of HMS Warrior, history stood alongside SailGP’s cutting-edge F50s. Even a modern naval destroyer could be seen in the distance. During the UK leg, media joined a SailGP tour as a dozen F50 catamarans were assembled and hoisted into the Solent. “These must be the biggest and most expensive IoT devices in the world,” someone remarked.\
When asked about the comment, SailGP CTO Warren Jones laughed: “That was someone else. But they are IoT devices; they send 53 billion data requests each race day. We manage video, telemetry, and voice, and get all that information to shore so it can go everywhere it is needed.” For RCR Wireless, this was “the best press tour we’ve been on in a while.”
The SailGP championship—also known as the Rolex SailGP Championship—features a dozen international teams racing F50s at up to 100 km/h. Unlike the America’s Cup, all teams use identical “one-design” boats and share race data, preventing hidden “arms races.” Jones’ remit is to ensure fairness, transparency, and performance through data.
The F50 platform is fully sensored. “We can tell how many times the crew pressed a button, how far they turned the wheel, the wing camber, rudder differentials, and the forces on the foils. It all goes to our system, then back to shore and into Oracle’s London cloud,” Jones explained. Each race generates 360,000 data points per second, processed through Microsoft Azure Stream Analytics.
Race stops during that season included Sassnitz, Germany (August 16–17) and St Tropez, France (September 12–13). The modular boats are disassembled and shipped between events.
SailGP employs 53 cameras: five per boat, plus helicopter, chase boat, and harbour views. These feed SailGP Productions in Ealing, west London, where video is directed, produced, and distributed to 158 broadcasters worldwide.
For southern hemisphere races like Sydney, Auckland, or Perth, Oracle uses local edge data centres to reduce latency. Even with London as the central hub, the team achieves round-trip latencies of 300 milliseconds, but targets under 100 ms by processing some data locally before forwarding.
Ericsson, SailGP’s global technology supplier, joined in season four and now supports every event with a portable private 5G network. Jones called it both a “revelation” and a “major milestone.” Previously, SailGP relied on 3 GHz microwave systems used for wireless camera feeds in football stadiums. 5G, he argued, is simpler, faster, and more scalable.
During the European leg of Season 5, Ericsson engineers tested deployment speed and equipment handling, refining processes for back-to-back events. Jones said season six will push 5G even harder.
BT and T-Mobile have also provided public 5G slices at events where private 5G coverage was limited. In Portsmouth, BT sliced its southern Nokia-built 5G network across 12 towers to cover the 40-minute transit from Southampton to Portsmouth. In New York, T-Mobile did the same between New Jersey’s pit row and the Brooklyn race box.
Jones noted the logistical and environmental benefits: “Ericsson with 5G and Oracle with cloud have transformed us. We don’t have servers on site. Our production is remote from London, saving 240 flights per event with 120 staff in the studio. It also ensures consistency, with the same people on the same systems every time.”
By combining Oracle’s cloud and Ericsson’s private 5G, SailGP has reshaped live sports broadcasting. What began in 2019 as a disruptive remote-production experiment is now industry standard. “When we started, experts said it couldn’t work,” Jones said. “Now it’s how everyone does it. We were ahead of the game, and we’ve changed the industry.”
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About Ericsson
Ericsson is a global leader in telecommunications and networking technology, headquartered in Sweden. Founded in 1876, the company has played a central role in shaping modern communications infrastructure. Today, Ericsson is a driving force behind 5G deployment worldwide, providing mobile networks to operators that serve billions of subscribers. Its portfolio spans radio access networks, core networks, cloud infrastructure, private 5G, and IoT connectivity solutions. Ericsson’s technology underpins critical services in industries such as healthcare, manufacturing, transportation, and smart cities, enabling digital transformation at scale.
A major contributor to 3GPP standards, Ericsson continues to invest heavily in research and development, advancing 5G and laying the groundwork for 6G. The company is also recognized for partnerships in enterprise connectivity, including private 5G solutions for industries requiring secure, high-performance networks. With sustainability and innovation at its core, Ericsson remains at the forefront of global telecommunications evolution.
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