MWC25 | Warren Jones, Sail GP & Jonathan Fischer, Ericsson

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Warren Jones

Chief Technology Officer

SailGP

Jonathan Fischer

Vice President, Global OEM & Embedded Partner Sales

Ericsson

play_circle_outline SailGP global sailing championship events around the world with high-speed catamarans F50s

play_circle_outline Autonomous buoys resetting the course during races enabled by 5G technology

play_circle_outline LiveLine AR/VR technology used for broadcasting sailboat races

play_circle_outline Utilizing Ericsson private 5G for real-time data collection and communication on the water

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Warren Jones, Sail GP & Jonathan Fischer, Ericsson

Warren Jones

Chief Technology Officer SailGP

Jonathan Fischer

Vice President, Global OEM & Embedded Partner Sales Ericsson

Warren Jones, chief technical officer at SailGP, and Jonathan Fischer, vice president of global OEM and embedded partner go-to-market at Ericsson, join Dave Vellante and Bob Laliberte from theCUBE at Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona. Jones shares insights about SailGP, a global sailing championship with F50 catamarans powered by the wind. The discussion delves into how SailGP integrates Internet of Things (IoT) devices for real-time data collection, facilitated by Ericsson's private 5G network.

The video highlights the implementation of Ericsson... Read more

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What is the global sailing championship that has events all around the world and uses catamaran F50s? add

What technology is being used to create and manage autonomous AI buoys that can adjust their position based on wind conditions and the location of boats? add

What technology did the speaker create for sailboat racing and how has it been used for the past 14 years? add

What technology is being used to transfer data from the water to the shore in a data-centric, wireless environment for a sport with harsh conditions? add

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Warren Jones, Sail GP & Jonathan Fischer, Ericsson

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Dave Vellante

>> Everybody, welcome back to Barcelona. We're here at the Fira, the giant Fira, seven halls. It's amazing. We're at theCUBE in Congress Square, stand CS60. Come by and see us. My name is Dave Vellante. I'm here with Bob Laliberte. Savannah Peterson is walking the floor. She'll be here all week with us. This is day two. We're wrapping up day two. I'm really excited to introduce Jonathan Fischer. He's the vice president of global OEM and embedded partner go-to-market at Ericsson. And Warren Jones is chief technical officer at SailGP. Wait till you hear about these guys. Folks, welcome to theCUBE. Thanks for coming on.

Jonathan Fischer

>> Thank you for having us.

Warren Jones

>> Yeah, thank you you very much.

Dave Vellante

>> You're welcome. Well, we know who Ericsson is, but who's SailGP? What are you guys all about?

Warren Jones

>> So, we're a global sailing championship that has events all around the world. So, we had an event in Sydney a couple of weeks ago. We have an event in Los Angeles in two weeks' time. We go around the world, we follow the sun and the wind. We have these amazing catamaran F50s, we call them. I call them an IoT device, but they're actually sailboats there, but we gather information on them and we'd be able to do it. But we have 12 international teams and 14 events around the world.

Dave Vellante

>> It's like F1 for sailing?

Warren Jones

>> You said that, not me. But yeah, pretty similar.

Dave Vellante

>> That's cool. And now, these catamarans... I'm going to be in catamaran in a couple of weeks, I'm guessing it's a little different than the ones you race.

Warren Jones

>> Yeah, these go about 100 kilometers an hour, they do. They're powered by nature. We're powered by wind. We have no engines on them at all. And-

Dave Vellante

>> Wow.

Warren Jones

>> They hydrofoil above the water, so they move very fast.

Dave Vellante

>> That's a mile a minute, right?

Warren Jones

>> It is, yeah. They're pretty amazing.

Dave Vellante

>> So, this is Larry Ellison class, is that right?

Warren Jones

>> Mr. Ellison is our founder. He founded the series around six years ago. Him and our CEO, Russell Coutts.

Dave Vellante

>> Yeah. So, if you go to Oracle headquarters, outside there of course you see the boat and that's quite remarkable. Well, congratulations on getting that off the ground.

Warren Jones

>> Thank you.

Dave Vellante

>> Who makes the best racers in the world? Is it the Australians or the Americans?

Warren Jones

>> At the moment, there's no competition I'm afraid. The Americans aren't doing that well. The Australians, New Zealanders. Spain are our existing championships, they won season four. Very young team. They look at data, they use data. They moved to be able to do it. So, unfortunately, the US team's got a bit to do. They've got to keep their boat upright. They keep flipping it over.

Dave Vellante

>> Oh, yeah. Larry's getting distracted. You got to pick it up, Mr. Ellison.

Bob Laliberte

>> Absolutely. Absolutely. So, I'm sure a lot of people are sitting there looking at this going, "Okay, wait a minute, we're at Mobile World Congress and we're talking about sailing." Now, clearly, you've mentioned data, IoT devices and so forth. I assume that we're here because you've got some type of connectivity that you're using to collect all that data off of that. Is that all happening in real time or is it when it comes back to the dock?

Warren Jones

>> It's happening in real time. So, we manage around 60 billion data requests a day, and that's GPS locations of the boat. We can manage one centimeter where that boat is in a spatial location and we need to get that information back then to a database. So, utilizing Ericsson EP5G, private 5G to be able to get all that information. So, telemetry data, video and voice.

Bob Laliberte

>> Okay. So, that's really interesting, but it brings up a ton of questions for me. So, you're doing a private 5G network for someone that's sailing in the ocean. Does that mean you're using and leveraging something terrestrial based to get it or you're actually got other ships out there and creating a private 5G in the middle of the ocean?

Warren Jones

>> So, at SailGP we do what we call stadium sailing with as close to the shore as possible. So, we go to areas where this is the end of the terra firma, this is the water, this is where the racing is there. So, as close as possible, we have antennas on the land side, then shooting down at the boats.

Bob Laliberte

>> Very cool. Very cool. So, you're able to collect data. When you're asking for the data requests, obviously, is it all to be collected to be used for the next, or is it actually in the middle of the competition, they're able to look and make adjustments based on the data in real time?

Warren Jones

>> They're able to look at that data... They're a little bit busy on the boat. There's six people on the boat, five male, one female on the boat. So, they're pretty busy in what they do in and they're looking at it. So, they have a coach that has live data. So, they have a rudder differential, camber of the wing, how many times someone's pressed a button, how many times someone's hit a steering wheel. This is all information that's available to them. And then, they can send that to the coach and the coach then can tell that to that. But at SailGP, we're a little bit different. We have open data. So, Team Australia can see what Team USA are doing and Team USA can see what Team France are doing. So, all the data's open, the boats are exactly the same. It's all about the athletes and how the athlete interprets the conditions.

Bob Laliberte

>> So, Jonathan, have you been out for a sail?

Jonathan Fischer

>> So, they won't let me on those boats, but I have been on a chase boat. In fact, I was on a chase boat right behind the US team in Bermuda when they flipped. So, I got to experience their first flip real time.

Dave Vellante

>> These guys are going with 60 miles an hour. Do you have an engine? Is that how-

Jonathan Fischer

>> Yeah, so we were in a chase boat with a big gimbaled camera on it at the time.

Dave Vellante

>> Oh, cool.

Jonathan Fischer

>> And so, it was a kind of a hydrofoiling boat. So, we're chasing behind the boats, trying to catch good angles of the boats as they're going along and sending all that data and that video back over 5G as well. So, really cool to see it in real time.

Dave Vellante

>> This has to be one of the most unique use cases of your technology, is it not?

Jonathan Fischer

>> It is, yeah. Sports is starting to really adopt private 5G. Some others that they're doing, I can't talk about here, but the sports arena, think about big arenas that need to have connectivity for monitoring balls going in the air, to speed of a bat. Just different things that are going on in the arenas. To concession stands, point-of-sale systems, credit card processing, things that need to be set up and brought down really quickly. And you need to have an overlay network, because oftentimes, the macro network could become busy. So, they need to have that flexibility and that private 5G really provides that really good coverage, as well as their own really private network.

Dave Vellante

>> So, when we see that on whatever, Fox or whatever the other networks are-

Warren Jones

>> CBS.

Dave Vellante

>> CBS? Okay. Is that network your favorite? Okay.

Warren Jones

>> No, that's who SailGP broadcast for.

Dave Vellante

>> Okay. So, when you see that, that necessitates that there's some kind of network infrastructure there that enables. It's not necessarily CBS's technology alone. There's an underlying-

Jonathan Fischer

>> And what they do is really unique in how they do their broadcasts. I've had an opportunity to really get in depth with the broadcast, but I'll let Warren talk about it. It is absolutely amazing what they're doing, sending that data all the way back to London to be able to be processed and managed and produced.

Warren Jones

>> So, yeah, we pioneered what we call remote production. So, before COVID, we were the first federation to be able to send all our video back to London. We have our producer, director, EBS, commentators, we even have our umpires. So, everybody's back in London and they use the data, they use the video to be able to call that and we do it from there. We do it A, because we know technology can work and we can be able to use cloud compute to be able to do it. And B, we do it for sustainability as well. We're traveling around the world, how can we leave a less impact on the world and having people stay where they are?

Jonathan Fischer

>> Wow.

Dave Vellante

>> You know a little bit about moving big videos.

Jonathan Fischer

>> Yeah.

Bob Laliberte

>> But you're actually setting up private 5G networks at each course you go to, because I assume the course is changing every time you come back to a place potentially and so forth?

Warren Jones

>> Correct. Well, to be honest though, we're going Los Angeles now in a couple of weeks' time. The course will change seven times within it because we need wind and we need that. So, the wind changes, so we change it as it is.

Bob Laliberte

>> Well, the network has to change wherever you go.

Warren Jones

>> Well, we have what we call AI buoys, so marks on there. So, they move around. So, they're built on Cradlepoint Ericsson router technology, and they're AI, they just move themselves. They look at the wind, they look at the data, where the boats are, what they need to do and they'll just move about, move around and things like that.

Jonathan Fischer

>> They're like autonomous water-based robots. And so, they're moving around the course and resetting that course based upon the wind and they're using some AI technology to really keep those buoys in place. And then, they have some really cool technology, you see over these really amazing graphic overlays. We can see the racecourse, maybe talk about that. I think that is absolutely amazing technology.

Warren Jones

>> Yeah. Well, historically, watching sailboat racing, it's a white sail against a blue background, so we needed to work out where boats are going, what boats are doing, what speed they're going. So, we created an AR/VR technology called LiveLine. So, we superimpose that onto the racecourse. It gives you the ladder line, so where the boats are. You have boundaries where they are. So, we've been using that now for the past 14 years, been able to do it and we're the market leaders in AR/VR for TV.

Dave Vellante

>> So, Warren, can you discuss a little bit more about what you had to do on your end to implement all this integration? It sounds like you've got some of your own IP, maybe you could describe that a little bit.

Warren Jones

>> It wasn't that too hard, to be honest. Their equipment, Ericsson, the EP5G equipment is pretty cool in a way. We did some testing all last year to be able to put that out. What's our distance? What's the throughput? Where we need to go? Where's our line in the sand? All those type of things. We started off on different assets on the racecourse, which boats we need to do? We have F50s, which is the catamarans. We have marks on the boats. We have safety boats on the water. How do we ? Everything we do, we need data. We're data-centric, very data-hungry in a way that we need data, so having connectivity and private 5G and good connectivity as well. This is one of the harshest conditions for sport. And being on the water, everything gets wet. Everything we do is wireless. We got no cables. We tried to put a cable on the boat, but it just didn't work.

Dave Vellante

>> So, the data model is your integration or your project, if you will. The data platform, that's something that you have-

Warren Jones

>> Yeah, we're partnered with Oracle. We use Oracle Cloud, so-

Dave Vellante

>> No doubt, but you still got to run it, right?

Warren Jones

>> It's pretty autonomous these days. It's really, really cool. But we still need to get that data from the water to the shore to the database. So, Ericsson private 5G is the funnel to be able to do that.

Dave Vellante

>> No, sneakernet. Sorry. No sneakernet.

Bob Laliberte

>> No, you'd have to run really fast. You're talking about the cable and being tethered, it would be more like a water ski rope at 100 kilometers an hour. So, what kind of special prep do you need to... We talk about putting things in ruggedized equipment, but talking about salt water, being in the buoys that are in the salt water, the devices that are on the boats, et cetera, being able to collect that. What kind of special work did you have to do to find the containers to hold all that?

Warren Jones

>> So, we've made them waterproof from that point of view, but these are hardware off the shelf, isn't it?

Jonathan Fischer

>> Yeah, so they're actually leveraging existing Cradlepoint Ericsson hardware. A few years ago, they started using our R1900. They put it in a waterproof box, we have the antenna external to that. And now, they've added our 2100 a portion of the way up the mast. So, now have two 5G routers in there to do some diversification. And so, the 2100 is already ruggedized and waterproof because it's being used on top of a vehicle. So, it really was a great use case by putting it inside of there. But yeah, when you go over on these boats, they're in the wing of the boat or the sail. And so, of course they could get dunked. And luckily, I've seen a couple that get scratched up, but they're still operating to this day and it's three years later.

Warren Jones

>> We've got loads of bowls of rice that we put them in. No, I'm only joking.

Bob Laliberte

>> Quick, get it in the rice.

Warren Jones

>> Yeah, exactly.

Bob Laliberte

>> So, this is really fascinating. I'm wondering if you could share maybe what some of the outcomes have been from instrumenting the boats from the... Has it been always the case that you've had the autonomous buoys that are resetting and things like that, or is that something that's been enabled by 5G?

Warren Jones

>> That's been enabled by 5G. They're the new product that we've introduced in season five from that point of view. For us, we travel all the time. We've got a back-to-back in Los Angeles and then a week later we're in San Francisco. So, we need to be quick, we need to be nimble and being able to set up and then de-rig and go to our next... That's one of our key logistics parts. But also, throughput data. That data to be able to get back and good data as well. No dropped packets. We need everything to be in place. And yeah, it's pretty transformational.

Jonathan Fischer

>> The setup that they do is absolutely amazing. Was there 50 or 60 of these big containers that they come off their own ship that they bring around and they have to set up a city. And inside of there are the boats that are taken apart, little buildings with all their monitors for the broadcast. And it is an extensive city that they have to put up and break down in two weeks. You're going to do it in LA, they're going to set all up, break it down. And then, four or five days later, rebuild that again in San Francisco. And it is absolutely amazing to see. And get all that technology, get all the fiber in there, all that backhaul, get the EP5G setup. Every time I go to see them, I'm absolutely astonished that that can even happen.

Warren Jones

>> But Ericsson's making it easier for us.

Dave Vellante

>> Well, I was going to ask you, what else could they do to make it easier for you? What's your biggest challenge? Maybe a challenge that Ericson can solve or others that you're kind of on your own?

Warren Jones

>> It is a great question in a way, but every time you fix a problem, another problem arises and-

Dave Vellante

>> You're a CTO, you're used to that.

Warren Jones

>> Yeah. To have data and have data being able to deliver in the milliseconds, not the seconds, that's key for us. And we'll keep on adding the amount... As I said, 60 billion data requests a day. In a couple of years' time, that'll be times two, times three, times four. So, having a network to be able to manage that and scale up is really great for us.

Dave Vellante

>> Guys, really fun example. Really appreciate you coming on theCUBE and sharing your story with us.

Jonathan Fischer

>> Thank you for having us.

Dave Vellante

>> Congratulations.

Warren Jones

>> Thank you for having us.

Dave Vellante

>> All right. Keep it right there. Bob and I will be back to wrap up day two at MWC. You're watching theCUBE. We'll be right back. Keep it right there.