Volvo Ocean Race inaugurates brand new HQ in Alicante

A brand new era started yesterday with the official inauguration of the Volvo Ocean Race headquarters. Although it was a purely symbolic act, the premiere round-the-world race now has a new "home" at the Spanish city, and what a spectacular home it is. I had already been there a few times since 2008 but I have to admit the change has been radical in the last 12 months, transforming a temporary infrastructure into a fully-fledged office building that will house the headquarters of the event for nearly 10 years.

This being a sailing and not an architectural website, the building itself, a typical open-space structure, wouldn't be of great interest if it weren't for the Star Trek-like command center of the race or what is officially called the "Volvo Ocean Race Control Room". It's the neural center of the race, equipped with 8 workstations, one overview station situated in the center of the room and a giant screen wall. Knut Frostad, CEO of the Volvo Ocean Race, took great pride in this state-of-the-art control room in his (long..) talk during the official presentation but with good reason. Not only is ALL information about the race available in that room, VIP's and guests will have the opportunity to be the closest possible to the actual race, without getting wet.

Yet, the room will not be accessible by just a privileged few. In fact, it is separated from the rest of the building by glass walls. On one side, the media team will have a real-time view of the race and on the opposite side, the general public visiting the VOR museum will also be able to look through the glass and see what is taking place inside the bridge of "Starship Enterprise". The museum is still under construction but the official opening is scheduled in a few months.

The 8 workstations are interchangeable and all of them can carry out any operation regarding the race. The station in the center of the room will allow Knut Frostad, CEO, and Jack Lloyd, Race Director, to have a quick overall view of the race. Finally, the screen wall will display the main data and images from onboard the yachts. In fact, through the control room, race operations have access to nearly real-time data coming from the boats, such as position, speed, heading, and will be able to know, for example, that a yacht stopped even before the crew sends them an email.

Who better to guide us through the control room than Rick Deppe, Associate Producer and Media Crew Member (MCM) Manager? Rick was the MCM onboard Puma in the 2008-9 race and thanks to his outstanding coverage he set the standard on onboard reporting. I guess there is no mystery why the race organizers snapped him for this race.

Rick Deppe walks us through the Volvo Ocean Race Control Room. Alicante, 15 September 2010. Video copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing

Partial view of the "Volvo Ocean Race Control Room". The data and images on the screen are, obviously, from the previous race but the countdown clock is real. A little more than 400 days are left until the start of the 2011-12 race. Alicante, 15 September 2010. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing

Partial view of the "Volvo Ocean Race Control Room". Alicante, 15 September 2010. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing

Partial view of the "Volvo Ocean Race Control Room". Alicante, 15 September 2010. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing

Partial view of the "Volvo Ocean Race Control Room". Alicante, 15 September 2010. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing

The Communication & Marketing area with the Control Room visible at the background. The blue ticker around the wall will provide real-time information during the race. Alicante, 15 September 2010. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing

Wall decoration is actually graffiti. Since the offices were used during the day, local graffiti artists had to come every night and spray the walls. Alicante, 15 September 2010. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing

Part of the Finance & Administration department. Alicante, 15 September 2010. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing