CASE STUDY | HIGH PERFORMANCE ON THE HIGH SEAS HP CASE STUDY HIGH PERFORMANCE ON THE HIGH SEAS HOW HP ZBOOKS ARE REVVING UP THE EMIRATES TEAM NEW ZEALAND CAMPAIGN From note taking on clipboards to high computational devices that process data in real time. CASE STUDY | HIGH PERFORMANCE ON THE HIGH SEAS Challenge An America’s Cup campaign is a gruelling test of endurance – one that begins three or four years before the racing starts. Day after day, Emirates Team New Zealand is often out on the water for six to eight hours, testing the limitations of the boat and themselves. And every race day, another crew is right in their wake. But these aren’t just sailors – they’re data scientists and engineers. Industry: Country: “The America’s Cup is a technology race as well as a boat race. The team that wins the Sporting New Zealand technology race wins the sailing race. So the technology we use is critical,” says Marty Yates, Emirates Team New Zealand’s IT manager. IT Matters: “Going back to the late eighties, technology started coming into full effect. Whether it’s • Leverages local HP expertise to meet the customers’ cloud-based or on-site, everyone is now using the latest technology to get the edge requirements over the competition. That extra 1% is critically important. The America’s Cup has been • Provides high-computational infrastructure described as the Formula One of boat racing, and just like in Formula One, it’s those • Bespoke tailoring of technology and outcomes hundredths of a second that make all the difference. “You’re always asking how can we draw out every possible advantage over the Business matters: competition. The AC50 catamarans set the world alight in Bermuda but we’re going to • Allows for innovation at speed be seeing speeds even greater than last time with our AC75 monohulls – we’re really • Increases productivity and responsiveness on the go pushing the envelope.” • Supports digital transformation of the organisation Doing that requires some very special – and tough – technology, able to withstand the conditions to provide Emirates Team New Zealand with real-time data by land and sea. Hardware: • HP ZBook 15 G5, HP ZBook 15 G6 • HP ZBook 14u G5 • HP ZBook Studio G5 • HP Z27n Display • HP Z38C Curved display • HP Z8 x 8 all with Nvidia Quadro P6000 cards • HP Z4 with P5000 • HP Z1 x 4 Tower with RTX2080 cards “The America’s Cup is a technology race as well as a boat race. The team that wins the technology race wins the sailing race. So the technology we use is critical” – Marty Yates, Emirates Team New Zealand IT manager CASE STUDY | HIGH PERFORMANCE ON THE HIGH SEAS Story Highlights: Approach “When we’re sailing on race days, there are six engineers on the chase boat, all streaming data live from the yacht – monitoring performance, structure, hydraulic, electrical information and also debugging, monitoring the strains and loads from the yacht,” explains Dan Bernasconi, Head of Design for Emirates Team New Zealand. 40 “We’re in constant communication on two-way radios with sailors on the yacht, HP ZBook 15 G5 and 15 G6 laptops making adjustments to electrical and hydraulic systems on the yacht, making helping to power the team suggestions on choreography, like lowering the foil at different times, or changing the angle on the gybe.” Thanks to its partnership with campaign sponsor HP, Emirates Team New Zealand is equipped with top of the range HP ZBooks, mobile workstation, that not only provide high performance but are also built tough to ensure not a single second of design time is wasted. While they’re out on the water, data and video from cameras and sensors mounted FIVE on the boat is being monitored and crunched by an array of powerful HP Z ultra-slim HP ZBook Studio laptops are Workstations back at base. All that data helps make tiny adjustments to sail, foil and used by Emirates Team New Zealand hull designs, among other things, so the team can immediately see how functional 3D printed parts have performed and adjust them thanks to the team’s HP Jet Fusion 580 Color 3D Printer. Being able to feed all that information back in real time without the team at the base needing to go out on the boat has created massive time and efficiency gains across the board. “We used to take notes on a clipboard – things have come a huge way since then,” Bernasconi observes. “Things that used to take us until the next day to feedback and SIX address, now with HP ZBook devices in the chase boats we can do it in five minutes. engineers on the chase boat monitoring Because we can analyse data in real time on the boat, we can debrief while it’s still performance on the water in real time fresh in everyone’s minds, for maximum efficiency. And because it’s all in real time, we can spot and prevent failure before it happens.” “Things that used to take us until the next day to feedback and address, now with HP ZBook devices in the chase boats we can do in five minutes.” – Dan Bernasconi, Emirates Team New Zealand head of design CASE STUDY | HIGH PERFORMANCE ON THE HIGH SEAS Benefits Nonstop innovation, come rain, wind and lockdown A boat may not seem the safest place for a piece of powerful, high-tech kit, but Mobility: it’s their durability as well as their performance and mobility that’s key to the HP ZBooks’ selection for the job. As HP technical specialist, Carl Hansen, puts it: “The crew’s designers are constantly packing up to travel between sites or out on the boat, literally picking their laptops off their desks and chucking them in a bag, so their machines need to be as tough Slim, light devices that as their environments. And very few laptops out there have the capabilities to meet can be used in the office the huge computational design demands that are placed on them every day.” or on the go Bernasconi describes a typical working day for the team’s computers. “Our laptops monitor bow to stern, so while the machines are high-performance it’s also important how rugged they are, being able to capture and process that data High performance: out on the chase boat,” he says. “We need laptops that aren’t going to seize up in tough conditions.” Marty Yates is full of praise for how the HP ZBook devices have performed in every setting, cutting processing time with no bother at all. Intel ® Core™ i7 processors “We’ve been using the HP Z range since 2016, and with the inbuilt Nvidia Quadro cards that provide graphics support, the value of these is incredible. There are thousands of parts in our designs and using Solidworks we can zoom into these at a very fine level with no lag. And even after four years, they just keep on going.” Graphics clarity: He says his role has evolved from when the 150-strong crew first began using the laptops. When he started out, it was all about helping them understand all the capabilities of the software. In that final six-month crunch ahead of the race, it’s become more about maximising time as efficiently as possible. Even during the nationwide lockdown in March and April, when the Emirates Team Inbuilt NVIDIA Quadro® cards to support rendering, 3D New Zealand crew were home for six weeks, the designers were still running CAD and simulation designs simulations and software analysis to evolve their yacht in the virtual world. “It was absolute gold,” Yates says. It may be the oldest yacht race in the world, but data, not brute strength, is how today’s Cup is won. And if the America’s Cup is a race of technology, it’s the ability to keep innovating, no matter what, that may just give Emirates Team New Zealand the edge. Learn more at hp.com/ETNZ hp.com/workstations ©Copyright 2021 HP Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein. February 2021.