Technology brand NTT, formerly known as Dimension Data, has renewed its data provider agreement with Amaury Sport Organisation, the organiser of the Tour de France.
Under the renewed partnership until 2024, NTT will provide a number of technology-based innovations to enhance the fan experience and digitise the sport.
Jason Goodall, chief executive of NTT, said: “As Dimension Data, we increased the appeal of the Tour de France and brought its supporters closer to the action and their favourite cyclists.
“As NTT, we now enter a new and exciting era of innovation, driving the continuous innovation of software-defined technologies to support the transformation of our client’s business.”
Yann Le Moenner, chief executive of ASO, said: “Together, we’ve accelerated the digitization of the Tour de France to engage younger fans. By launching a new mobile app, developing an all-in-one digital platform to follow the race in real-time (Race Center), and creating @letourdata, we’re allowing data to tell the story of the race.”
New additions to “add extra colour to the tour” have also been incorporated including graphical charts, 3D mapping and an interactive palette”, said Le Moenner.
The new deal will see the following new or updated technology features being implemented or tested:
- Enhanced TV graphics – for the international television broadcast feed – including data insights from NTT’s live data team, and 3D mapping of the live race situation
- Trialling augmented reality – using technology to create a vision for how home-based fans could watch and interact with the race in the future
- ‘Le Buzz’– a new machine-learning model being trialled for the first time at the 2019 Tour de France. It will analyse the movements within the peloton to predict potential key moments such as the increased likelihood of a crash, a split in the peloton, or a change in the race dynamics
- ‘Catch the Break’ predictor – the #NTTPredictor has been enhanced to better account for the different race strategies that are in play at different points in a stage, through the creation of individual machine-learning models for every 10km section of the race
- Live stage favourites – stage predictions can now be updated live throughout the stage based on the events occurring within the race
- Cloud platform automation – all solutions delivered at the Tour de France will be hosted on the NTT cloud, and developed and supported by a distributed global team
- Platform-delivered Managed Services – powering all innovation in fan experience at the Tour de France, providing a robust, reliable platform
In future, both NTT and ASO, are looking to develop connected services for spectators on the road and at connected stadiums and velodromes.
Read this: Dimension Data makes global play with ASO deal
Dimension Data and four divisions of parent company Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation – NTT Communications, NTT Data, NTT Security and NTTi3 – merged to create NTT in August 2018.
ASO’s initial deal with dates back to 2015.