Based in Asia. Filming the World.

For the second time in twenty years, Laurie K. Gilbert was invited by an Olympic Host Broadcaster to bring his specialist offshore cinematography skills to a sailing venue and this time provide helicopter aerial camera support for the global television coverage of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Sailing Regatta.

In August 2008, a team of several hundred international television professionals travelled to the Chinese coastal city of Qingdao to overcome the challenges of what is the most difficult of all the Olympic events to shoot for live television.

Many of the venue technicians and land based cameramen were all from the American Xtreme Games OB Units but all of the aerial and camera boat cameramen were highly experienced sailing television experts from Europe who were also supported by Australasian and European boat drivers and race spotters. Every one of the team had extensive Whitbread, Volvo, Sydney Hobart, TRANSPAC, Kenwood, Rolex and America's Cup experience.

The helicopter air wing were supplied with two French designed, Chinese built Dauphin helicopters flown by Chinese military pilots and these aircraft were equipped externally with Cineflex and Scorpio HD Camera mounts

Operating from a dedicated helipad located inside the Olympic venue, the three helicopter cameraman worked for 20 days to provide the aerial coverage that was designed to complement the imagery originated by the camera boats and the long-lens, land based cameras. During the event, the weather challenges were as extreme and it was possible to imagine and this only made the broadcasters job of creating live, global television imagery from offshore, even more difficult.

At the post Olympic celebration dinner held in Lausanne, Switzerland on 16th Dec 2008, the Olympic sailing television team were awarded the Golden Rings Award for providing the "Best Sports Coverage of the Olympics"