PR Archives:  LatestBy Company By Date


Press Release -- December 18th, 2014
Source: Tata Communications
Tags:

Tata Communications announces the winner of the inaugural F1® Connectivity Innovation Prize

London

December 18, 2014

Concept of using a crowd sourced commentary competition to catalogue FOM’s digital archive  takes $50,000 top prize


Tata Communications, a leading provider of A New World of Communications™, today unveils the Grand Prize winner of the inaugural F1® Connectivity Innovation Prize. The jury, which included the 2014 FIA Formula One™ World Champion and MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS driver Lewis Hamilton and F1® Commentator Martin Brundle, delivered its final verdict announcing a four-man British team as winners of the Grand Prize. Their novel idea of how 60,000 hours of footage in Formula One Management’s digital archive could be catalogued was a hit with the judges and will see the team share $50,000, and two of them will attend next year’s FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DE MONACO as VIP guests of Tata Communications.

The winning team – Jody Allen, Tom Williams, Chris Randall and Chris Belmore from London submitted a user-centric solution that could empower fans around the world to contribute to the process of cataloguing over 60,000 hours of video in Formula One Management’s digital archive. The team proposed a solution to the ‘Crowd Sourcing Commentary Challenge’ where fans would be given access and encouraged to submit their ‘greatest moments’ compilation each week. Searching the archive, which has already been tagged with baseline metadata, fans could explore the relevant race and using the simple editing interface, find and clip their moment. The fan community would vote on the winning clips and the winners could receive VIP prizes. This user-centric approach could empower F1® viewers to catalogue the digital archive, whilst also adding a new dimension to the fan experience.

As one of the judges making up the F1® Connectivity Innovation Prize jury, the 2014 FIA Formula One™ Drivers’ World Champion, Lewis Hamilton says, “There were lots of really strong entries for all three challenges. The competition really seemed to engage the fans and sparked some great responses. The winning solution understood how race fans think and act, and how our sport can develop ways to connect with our fans at the race tracks and at home.”

Reflecting on their win, team leader Jody Allen says, “At the heart of our belief as Formula 1® fans was the conviction that everyone has their own treasured memory of key moments in the sport’s history. Some are the instantly recognised seminal events, others are highly individual and personal. By connecting these moments to narrative allowed us to build something that was more than just a rigid and structured database, but rather a fluid and dynamic set of linkages between everyone’s personal views of the sport. We’re delighted the judges’ welcomed our approach as the work required plenty of detailed consideration – and quite a few late nights.”

The full judging panel was made up of some of the foremost names in motor racing including 2014 FIA Formula One™ Drivers’ World Champion and MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One™ Team driver, Lewis Hamilton; Lewis’ 2014 FIA Formula One™ Constructors’ World Championship-winning team Executive Director (Technical), Paddy Lowe; Formula One Management’s Chief Technical Officer, John Morrison; F1® commentator, Martin Brundle; Tata Communications’ Managing Director of F1® Business, Mehul Kapadia; Tata Communications’ Julie Woods-Moss, Chief Marketing Officer and CEO of the Nextgen Business; and John Hayduk, President and CTO at Tata Communications.

Mehul Kapadia, MD of the F1® Business, Tata Communications brought the 2014 Tata Communications’ F1® Connectivity Innovation Prize to a fitting conclusion by confirming that the challenge will be back in the future. “We at Tata Communications decided to partner with Formula One Management and MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS to give fans around the world a chance to show their creativity and passion for the sport. This has been a genuinely global competition, and we’re proud to have been a catalyst for some truly visionary thinking.”

John Morrison, Formula One Management’s Chief Technical Officer says, “I must congratulate all of the many entrants from around the world for the quality of their work and the self-evident effort made to compete in the challenges. The bar has been set incredibly high.”

The competition, launched by Tata Communications, along with Formula One Management and the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One™ Team, was a three-part crowdsourcing platform for innovation that engages international brainpower against the demanding backdrop of Formula 1® racing over the 2014 season. The challenges have inspired a legion of innovators from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Finland, Germany, India, Singapore, UK, USA and Spain among other nations to make submissions to the judging panel, making it a truly global affair.

A video of the judging and winning team can be viewed here.


About Formula 1®
Formula 1®, which began in 1950, is the world’s most prestigious motor racing competition and is the world’s most popular annual sporting series. In 2013 it was watched by over 450 million unique television viewers from 185 territories. The 2014 FIA Formula One World Championship™ ran from March to November and spanned  19 races in 19 countries across five continents. Formula One World Championship Limited is part of the Formula One group, founded by CEO Bernie Ecclestone, and holds the exclusive commercial rights to the FIA Formula One World Championship™. For more information on Formula 1® visit www.formula1.com. 


About Tata Communications

Tata Communications Limited (CIN no: L64200MH1986PLC039266) along with its subsidiaries (Tata Communications) is a leading global provider of A New World of Communications™. With a leadership position in emerging markets, Tata Communications leverages its advanced solutions capabilities and domain expertise across its global and pan-India network to deliver managed solutions to multi-national enterprises, service providers and Indian consumers.

The Tata Communications global network includes one of the most advanced and largest submarine cable networks and a Tier-1 IP network with connectivity to more than 200 countries and territories across 400 PoPs, as well as nearly 1 million square feet of data centre and collocation space worldwide.

Tata Communications’ depth and breadth of reach in emerging markets includes leadership in Indian enterprise data services and leadership in global international voice. Tata Communications Limited is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India.

http://www.tatacommunications.com

Forward-looking and cautionary statements

Certain words and statements in this release concerning Tata Communications and its prospects, and other statements, including those relating to Tata Communications’ expected financial position, business strategy, the future development of Tata Communications’ operations, and the general economy in India, are forward-looking statements. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, including financial, regulatory and environmental, as well as those relating to industry growth and trend projections, which may cause actual results, performance or achievements of Tata Communications, or industry results, to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The important factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from such forward-looking statements include, among others, failure to increase the volume of traffic on Tata Communications’ network; failure to develop new products and services that meet customer demands and generate acceptable margins; failure to successfully complete commercial testing of new technology and information systems to support new products and services, including voice transmission services; failure to stabilize or reduce the rate of price compression on certain of the company’s communications services; failure to integrate strategic acquisitions and changes in government policies or regulations of India and, in particular, changes relating to the administration of Tata Communications’ industry; and, in general, the economic, business and credit conditions in India. Additional factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from such forward-looking statements, many of which are not in Tata Communications’ control, include, but are not limited to, those risk factors discussed in. Tata Communications’ various filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Tata Communications is under no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any obligation to, update or alter its forward-looking statements.

PR Archives: Latest, By Company, By Date