Was it beginner's luck when Dunedin company Animation Research Ltd won a Sports Emmy for its first attempt at creating a mobile phone app?
ARL chief executive Ian Taylor says it was foresight and planning.
The awards ceremony was held in New York yesterday.
The America's Cup Event Authority's official America's Cup app won the outstanding new approaches for sports event coverage category in the awards, which recognise United States sports television programming, including sports-related series, live coverage of sporting events, and best sports announcers.
The free app allowed users to get real-time images, data and graphics, to tap into onboard cameras and microphones so they could see and hear live action on each yacht.
Mr Taylor, who had been involved in the America's Cup since 1992, said as the 2013 challenge unrolled, it became clear it was an event for the Facebook age, not the Flintstones.
''We figured we had better do something about it, so before they [America's Cup Event Authority] actually started putting out tenders for an app, we actually built one ourselves, then took it over and showed the America's Cup people over there, and they loved it.''
Mr Taylor paid tribute to mobile app developer Stu Sharpe, of Cannonball Software in Queenstown, Nathan Martin, of Dunedin digital graphics company Moving Pixel, and a former two-man operation in Timaru for help in producing the app.
He also praised the involvement of several other New Zealand companies in the work of three other Emmy nominations.
''This America's Cup resulted in five Emmy Award nominations and, of those, four of the awards had New Zealand companies involved, which I think is remarkable.
''We're the only one to have won out of those four companies, but our application wouldn't have looked half of what it did without the work that other New Zealand companies have done as well.
''It's really quite special for New Zealand.''
