Summary

Social in 3D is an innovation project that revitalises the coverage of sports which have so far been inaccessible to spectators. The premiere of Social in 3D is set to take place at the 2010 SAP 505 World Championship in Aarhus, Denmark, from 24th July to 5th August 2010.

It will make it possible for on-site spectators to follow the 505 dinghies on big screens, in the kind of 3D environment familiar from Google Earth and Bing Maps. Hence, the spectators will be able to get firsthand insight into the developments that take place at sea. It will be possible to zoom in on selected dinghies from different angles and so get a live view from small cameras mounted on the dinghies.

During the race, two reporters will be situated on boats in the racing area. From their positions, they will be uploading photos to Flickr and text messages to Twitter. These same pictures and text messages will be pulled into the 3D model, giving the spectators additional newsfeed information.

Aim

The aim of the Social in 3D project is to create a new platform for broadcasting sports that are in general inaccessible, thereby making them more attractive. In this case, the concept is applied to the World Championship for 505 dinghies, where we combine live tracking, live streaming and participatory sensing and use them in a 3D environment, accessible to all on big screens at the harbour area.

Target groups

Everybody who is passionate about sailing: young and old, practitioners and spectators, pros as well as amateurs, and also the curious and everybody with an interest in knowledge, social media, technologies and innovation.

Partners

• ACTIVE institute
• Alexandra Institute A/S
• University of Aarhus, Department of Computer Sciencet
• Aarhus School of Architecture
• TracTrac Aps
• BlomInfo A/S
• 43D ApS
• Sailing Aarhus

The project is funded by iKraft and the participating partners.

Criterion of Success

The criterion of success for Social in 3D is to bring the different parties involved in the project closer together, to develop and test a new system, and finally to introduce it successfully during the SAP 505 World Championship 2010. The system should: a) be stable and function well during the event; b) be studied on both qualitative and quantitative levels, to find its use in a requirements specification for further development of the concept; and c) be presented both to its stakeholders within industries of technology and to business industries in general.

ACTIVE’s role in the project

• Idea and concept development
• Matchmaking
• Fundraising
• Project and process management
• Documentation

Result

See also:

1. Introducing the Open Source Camera Mount (OSCM).
2. Outcome of the three focus group meetings (in danish).
3. The project vblog (in danish)
4. All posts regarding the Social in 3D project (in danish)

Project period

1st May to 1st October. The 2010 SAP 505 World Championship takes place from 24th July to 5th August 2010. The venue is the bay area of Kaloevig boating guilds, Denmark.

Background

The project is based on a desire to solve the “dissemination problem” in inaccessible sports. As such, this pilot project represents the beginning of a paradigm shift in the dissemination of sailing, in which continued rapid developments in information technology and changes in peopleʼs media habits make it possible to redefine the broadcasting of sport.

The problem lies in the fact that itʼs very difficult, and sometimes impossible, to create a situation in which itʼs possible to follow developments in certain sporting competitions. This means that sports such as sailing have hitherto not been able to achieve coverage that even remotely provides insight into, or even an overview of, the fascinating elements taking place within the activity.

Most people can remember the Danish 49er during the Olympics in Beijing which, despite the massive coverage, failed to give viewers and spectators a real picture of what was happening. For instance there was very little coverage to demonstrate the dramatic process during which the mast on the Danish boat broke, followed by the loan of the Croatian boat and, later, their re-entry into the competition.

To boating and other inaccessible sports, the fact that itʼs so hard to communicate means, first of all, that audiences with an interest to maintain will be left with no opportunity to do so. For organisers, it has a series of unfortunate consequences; in particular, reflected in the lack, or reticence, of sponsor interest.

The idea for the project arose from a series of workshops attended by project partners. In this regard, the combination of TracTrac, 43D, BlomInfo, Alexandra Institute, Sailing Aarhus and ACTIVE institute emerged as a serious proposition as to how future dissemination (of sports), more driven by companies through hyper-embeddable technologies and working methods, might create entirely new approaches for a market which is hungry for solutions.

Media coverage:

• Jyllandsposten.dk d. 26/7: Teknologisk regatta rammer bugten
• aarhuskommune.dk d. 26/7: Verdensmesterskab i 3D
• mynewsdesk.com d. 30/7: Innovation har fået en kvik lillesøster
• ritzauinfo.dk d. 30/7: Velkommen til fremtiden
• stiften.dk d. 30/7: Teknologi skal sende VM til Århus
• TV Østjylland d. 1/8 (19.30): Lokker med 3D teknik
• amv.dk d. 2/8: Oplev sejlsport med Twitter og Flickr
• DR radio Østjylland d. 2/8: (live kl. 11.20)
• alexandra.dk d. 29/7: 3D-miljø på kajen gør sejlsport sjovere for publikum
• ikraft.dk d. 31/8: Social in 3D rundede et vigtigt mærke i Kalø Vig
• alexandra.dk d. 22/11: Social in 3D – the movie
• iKraft.dk d. 22/11: Video fra “Social In 3D” projektet

core media:

• baadmagasinet.dk d. 27/7: Følg 505 VM med banebrydende koncept
• sejlunionen.dk d. 3/8: Teknologisk symfoni fra Århus
• sailinganarcy.dk d. 4/8: our house
• sejlnet.dk d. 4/8: Publikumsvenligt VM i 505 jolle
• sejlerland.dk d. 5/8: VM i 505 jolle i Århus-bugten, følges fra hele verden
• baadmagasinet.dk d. 3/12: Fredagsfilm: Social in 3D fra 505 VM