Thrane & Thrane To Sponsor The Volvo Ocean Race

Thrane & Thrane will play a vital role in delivering the close-up, onboard action from the next Volvo Ocean Race - the world's premier ocean race - to the millions of fans worldwide. The Copenhagen based company has signed up to become Official Sponsor of Satellite and Radio Communications Equipment for the third consecutive race. The agreement means that Thrane & Thrane's latest generations of SAILOR FleetBroadband and VHF equipment will be onboard every cutting-edge Volvo Open 70 as they line up in Alicante for the start of the race in October 2011.

"We have once again selected Thrane & Thrane to provide a comprehensive communications package for the teams, based on the support and faultless performance of the SAILOR equipment in the previous two races," said Knut Frostad, CEO, Volvo Ocean Race during the sponsorship signing, which took  place in Copenhagen. "We need the latest and best technology to ensure our
vision and commitment of bringing the extreme offshore racing to a global TV and web audience. In this context we're delighted to have Thrane & Thrane back onboard, and we're confident that their latest FleetBroadband and VHF solutions will facilitate unmatched broadband and safety communication to the racing crews."

The scope of supply for the 2011-2012 race includes new generation products. With the World's first 2nd generation FleetBroadband antenna, the in-house developed SAILOR 500 FleetBroadband will be the central communication hub for each race team. From upload of race footage, reports
and interviews for television and web, to download of weather data vital for competitive navigation performance, all of the teams will benefit from true broadband communication along the entire course around the globe.

Every Volvo Open 70 race boat as well as Volvo Ocean Race's own crew and umpire fleet will be fully equipped with variants of the newly introduced and advanced SAILOR 6200 VHF series. This series is highly regarded by users thanks to its famous replay function and robust waterproof design, which makes it suitable for even the toughest marine environments.

The teams will also benefit from the compact SAILOR 150 FleetBroadband for crew voice calling and IP data whilst two SAILOR mini-C systems will be onboard for constant positioning data and global safety communication.

"The Volvo Ocean Race really is about Life at the Extreme so we relish the challenge of putting our equipment through its paces once again," says Walther Thygesen, CEO, Thrane & Thrane. "It is the ultimate test platform and we receive invaluable and immediate feedback from the crews, which has made Volvo Ocean Race an integral part of our product development process.

Our products have performed consistently successful during the two previous races and if the SAILOR products can withstand such an ultimate test, then their credentials as the toughest most reliable communications equipment for all maritime applications are well deserved."

The race will visit eight stopover ports on five continents and race through four oceans, in under nine months. The Volvo Open 70s will cover over 39,270 nautical miles racing around the globe. The race course has already been revealed with the start in October 2011 in Alicante (Spain),
followed by stopovers in Cape Town (South Africa), Abu Dhabi (UAE), Sanya (China), Auckland (New Zealand), Itajai (Brazil), Miami (USA), Lisbon (Portugal), Lorient (France) and finally the race finish in Galway (Ireland) in July 2012.