Oxfordshire's first 'hybrid' regatta involving 147 boats and over 1,500 participants has taken place in Oxford on the River Thames.

A live stream of Oxford University Rowing Club’s four-day summer regatta earlier this month was watched online by over 40,000 people from 95 countries, in addition to local spectators who gathered socially distanced in front of a giant screen at Christ Church.

The regatta was made possible by live streaming and event production specialist, First Sight Media, who transformed City of Oxford’s Boathouse into a media hub to broadcast the nail-biting and oar-locking action from Iffley Lock to Folly Bridge.

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Sarah Clifford, president of Oxford University’s Linacre Boat Club, said: “Summer Torpids 2021 has been a fantastic event and a definite highlight in such a difficult year. While this year’s regatta was obviously different from other years’ due to the lack of live spectators, the online live stream meant that lots of friends, family, previous rowers as well as current rowers (stuck abroad) could all follow and participate in the event.

"At Linacre Boat Club we had people following from the Netherlands, Thailand and many other places, providing so much support to all our boats competing in the regatta. The feeling of support from all over the world has truly been exceptional.”

In just five weeks, the First Sight Media team worked closely with the University Rowing Clubs to secure filming locations and overcame significant challenges with connectivity. This involved switching hosting platforms to YouTube when a nationwide internet outage threatened to thwart the event just 20 minutes before the first race.

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Richard Belcher, managing director of First Sight Media, said: “We are delighted to be out filming on location again and the entire First Sight Media team is proud that we have provided a taste of normal Oxford life to thousands.

“The regatta is a great example of how a hybrid event can deliver many benefits such as helping the university to increase engagement with students, alumni, donors and other key stakeholders."

David Seale, Bursar, Linacre College, Oxford University, added: “A bumps regatta is normally a highpoint of the Oxford rowing year and it was particularly pleasing to be able to run this in a Covid-secure way, nearly two years after we were last able to offer this experience to students.

“By working with First Sight Media, we were able to stream high quality footage so that we could effectively discourage spectators from attending but also make the event accessible to students’ families and our alumni around the world.

“It is a format we will definitely consider using beyond the pandemic.”