Presentation to the Overall Team Communications winner - Jesus Renedo/Volvo Ocean Race
Team Sun Hun Kai/Scallywag has won the coveted overall Inmarsat Team Communications Award for its raw, authentic storytelling during the Volvo Ocean Race 2017-18 edition.
As Official Satellite Communications Partner to the Volvo Ocean Race, each Volvo Ocean 65 boat was kitted out with our FleetBroadband technology to allow the Onboard Reporters (OBRs) and crew to bring to life the highs and lows of life at the extreme during the nine-month, 45,000 nautical mile offshore challenge.
The Inmarsat Team Communications Award reflects the massive team effort that goes into telling the authentic stories from the middle of the world’s oceans to enable fans to live vicariously through the content created and shared.
It was Scallywag’s ability to openly and honestly let race fans into their world onboard, share what they were going through – both the good days and the bad – and put their trust in their OBRs Konrad Frost, Jeremie Lecaudey and Richard Edwards to do their stories justice that clinched the award title for them.
From accounts of what it is like to have three bad legs in a row:
…and the realities of life onboard…
…to the devastation of losing much-loved team mate John Fisher during Leg 7 of the race. ”We may not have come back into the race and set it on fire since we lost John but sometimes the hardest thing is regrouping and carrying on and this team is slowly doing that and will continue to do that.” commented Libby Greenhalgh in her blog.
With a squad of 10 OBRs for the 2017-18 edition, the Volvo Ocean Race is the only professional sporting event to feature multimedia reporters embedded with the teams and given unique access to every aspect of the race. Described as the toughest job in sports media, all footage, photos and blogs sent back to race control was made possible by Inmarsat’s connectivity.
At the end of each Leg, the team with the most engaging storytelling was awarded the Inmarsat Communication Award. The overall award was judged by a panel of experts including Brian Nevins, acclaimed action and adventure photographer, and Wayne Yates, Red Bull Media House Producer and BAFTA award-winning director. Inmarsat CEO Rupert Pearce presented the award to winners Scallywag at the Awards ceremony in The Hague.
The Volvo Ocean Race 2017-18 edition was won by Dongfeng Race Team, with MAPFRE in second place and Team Brunel in third.
