One of the most famous motorcycle races in the world, The Isle of Man TT sought to live stream the event for the first time in its 100 year tenure. Greenlight, who are responsible for the event’s coverage, knew they would need to outsource coverage to a connectivity and telecoms specialist. The investment BlueWave have made in connectivity across the island in recent years made them the perfect company for the project, so when Greenlight asked them for their assistance they were both eager to participate and confident their network could provide a stable and quality connection capable of broadcasting race footage.

BlueWave knew they wanted to create a green solution with minimum impact. This, coupled with the lack of mains electricity across a lot of the race course, made solar powered batteries an ideal option. As BlueWave has invested heavily in island connectivity in recent years, a solid connectivity infrastructure was already largely in place, meaning the 5G solar-powered units the team designed were capable of providing 100MB/PS of bandwidth - enough to live stream race coverage in 4K.

With the prototype up and working, BlueWave took just three weeks to produce 31 more units and install them in sites across the island to ensure the course had full high-speed network coverage, even in remote uninhabited locations. Thanks to the solar-powered batteries, the units were able to keep a charge and cover the race seamlessly in a discreet eco-friendly way.

Matthew Sayle, Director of BlueWave, said
“Many of us are passionate motorcyclists and we were thrilled to have had the opportunity to provide connectivity to the Isle of Man TT races, powering the first-ever live broadcast of the event. We have provided internet access to over 30 locations across the racetrack. It was important to us to look at how we could achieve this with minimum impact. We have built this entirely solar-powered network specially to support filming this year.”

Thanks to the BlueWave team, over 700,000 hours of cumulative footage of the Isle of Man TT were live streamed successfully to almost 60,000 viewers around the world.

David Beynon of Greenlight commented
“At Greenlight we pride ourselves on providing high-quality live production in remote locations, all over the world. This means that we’re involved in some exciting, high-profile projects and The IoM TT Race has certainly been one of these. We’ve enjoyed working with Bluewave and can say that their work ethic and technological enablement have underpinned our ability to reach a wider target audience. The connectivity provided all around the track ensured we could provide instant video content to viewers globally.”

Since the races finished, the 5G equipment BlueWave installed has been modified so that it can provide WiFi in those remote areas that previously had no signal, giving back to the community in a lasting way. Following the success of their coverage of 2022’s Isle of Man TT, BlueWave have also been asked back to cover future iterations of the event, ensuring fans can continue to watch the event in real time year after year.