Tata Communications, a leading provider of A New World of
Communications, recently announced the Grand Prize winner of the inaugural
F1Connectivity Innovation Prize, a press release stated. The jury consisted of 2014
FIA Formula One World Champion and Mercedes AMG Petronas driver Lewis Hamilton
and F1 Commentator Martin Brundle. The jury 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. Of the four, two of them will attend next year’s Formula 1 Grand Prix
De Monaco as VIP guests of Tata Communications.
The winning team consisted
of Jody Allen, Tom Williams, Chris Randall and Chris Belmore from London. They 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.
Lewis Hamilton noted
that “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 said, “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 Lewis
Hamilton, Mercedes AMG team Executive Director (Technical), Paddy Lowe, Formula
One Management’s Chief Technical Officer, John Morrison; F1commentator, 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.
Kapadia confirmed 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.”