Features
TECHNOLOGY UPDATE
Is your technology ready for 2007’s exciting sporting schedule??
Christmas Gadget List Success
I am always amazed to discover that people read my articles or even stay awake long enough to get to the end, so was hugely gratified by the great response I got to this year’s Christmas Gadget List.
Much to my surprise, the “Slippers with Headlights” came out as the number one must-have gift! Obviously the inventor has hit on a raw nerve and created a much needed solution.
Admittedly, some of the calls which I received were asking if it was a joke.
Honestly, I didn’t make any of them up, they were all extracted from the “Sky Mall” catalogue.
Purely in the interests of research, I visited Hamleys during a trip to London in January, and couldn’t find anything there which looked even half as much fun as the Sky Mall marshmallow gun.
A year with a flying start
The year has got off to a flying start already with visits to London, France, Monaco and Italy.
Typically for this time of year, the IYCA in Antibes is empty, Monaco is full but quiet, MB92 is humming and in Italy the boat builders are hard at work.
It sometimes seems as though every available patch of land is housing a partly-built boat.
There are new boats being built everywhere.
From the latest statistics in The Yacht Report there are over 400 yachts over 30m in build currently.
Apart from this, nothing very new and exciting to report from these locations that we didn’t already know.
However February sees the annual 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona again, which we are all looking forward to attending as this is the window onto the vast world of GSM communications.
Some 50 million people now have mobile phones and the market is growing and growing, so we are excited to see what new innovations will be launched.
I will report back on what we find next month.
What’s the plan this year?
Over the Christmas and New Year period we all usually sit around and discuss our plans for the new year. We do this for the business during January when we get back from celebrating the festive season.
This year during our discussion of our clients’ potential needs, we realized that there are a whole series of extremely important events which he or she is likely to want to watch and monitor all the way through from March to October, with just a few weeks off in August.
They are, of course, as follows:-
The Cricket World Cup 2007 – March/April - West Indies
Luis Vuitton Cup 2007 – April to June – Valencia, Spain
The Millenium Cup 2007 – June – Palma de Mallorca
The Americas Cup 2007 – June/July – Valencia, Spain
The Rugby World Cup 2007 – September/October – France and UK
Amongst our clients there are some who will have an interest in keeping abreast of the results in all or some of the above sports, to watch various matches or to even attend or even compete.
As part of the annual preparations for your yacht, make sure you find out well in advance what the coverage will be, on what channels, in what area and at what time. You may need to change decoders and satellite or make sure your cruise is within a satellite footprint.
As part of our planning we are already collating this information.
If you look on our web site, www.e3s.com/information/America’s Cup 2007, you will find a document detailing all the Louis Vuitton and America’s Cup events and how you can receive them.
This year you will be able to receive The Americas Cup Live Interactive Sailing Service on your mobile phone.
For any visitors to Spain this summer or, for that matter, any of our existing clients, we can supply Spanish Vodafone SIMs with phones appropriately configured for monitoring the America’s Cup and other events.
Contact my colleagues Tony Holland or Nicola Kay, and you may even get a free mobile phone.
If you plan to watch the matches
on the TV make sure:
a) You find out what TV stations have the rights and will be covering it..
b) You have a transmission schedule.
c) what decoders/cards you need ie Sky or DirecTV.
d) What the satellite footprint is.
e) What size dish you have.
f) Where you will be at the time.
g) Will they be transmitted in HD format.
If you need help, just leave it to us and we will advise you. We can supply all Sky and Sky card configurations or DirecTV for the cricket together with any tuning and configuration to your Sea Tel or KVH stabilized antenna and distribution system on board. Even if your plans mean you will not be within the TV satellite footprint or have terrestrial coverage we still may be able to help you.
By Roger Horner of E3 Systems
For further information on any of the above, please contact us.
email on info@e3s.com and website www.e3s.com
Tel: +34 971 40420/400738/702975