Tata Communications Powers Formula 1® Technology at U.S. Grand Prix Race in Austin, Texas

Austin (Texas) – November 1, 2014

Tata Communications’ F1® technologies on display are also helping U.S. enterprises reach global audiences faster, expand into new territories, and drive better collaboration worldwide

Tata Communications, a leading provider of A New World of Communications™, speeds into Austin, Texas, this weekend for the FORMULA 1® UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX at the Circuit of the Americas on October 31 – November 2. The 2014 Formula 1® season marks the third year of Tata Communications’ connectivity partnership with F1®, delivering the connectivity backbone to all 19 Formula 1® race locations this year over its wholly-owned global cable network, the largest in the world. The company owns and operates the world’s largest fiber network, measuring more than 300,000 miles of subsea fiber facilitating over 24 percent of the world’s internet routes across 240 countries and territories.

When the Tata Communications and F1® partnership was announced in 2012, it was described as the “most significant moment for F1 since the advent of satellites.” Today, Tata Communications continues to revolutionize the sport with new capabilities, including:

  • Connectivity—Tata Communications’ connectivity solutions are ten times faster than previous F1® solutions, allowing vital, real-time content to travel quickly and reliably at every track around the world.
  • Hosting—As the official Web hosting of Formula1.com, Tata Communications has reached 107 million unique users over the past two seasons, demonstrating a resilient platform, managed and monitored for security and availability 24×7.
  • Content Delivery Network—During every race weekend, Tata Communication’s technology allows Formula1.com to instantly share a vast amount of real-time data with up to 7 million simultaneous users.
  • Professional Services—A dedicated onsite team travels over 124,000 miles during the race season, responding instantly to issues and requests, including setting up a trackside data center at each race location in two days and dismantling it in just three hours, a process that would traditionally take weeks.
  • Remote Operations Center—Tata Communications provides Formula One Management (FOM™) with a remote operations center in Biggin Hill, UK, powering live remote connectivity to feeds from the trackside. Production teams at the operations center have access to two multi-view video feeds for raw footage and a reverse data path, allowing them to operate a robotic trackside camera for the best possible race coverage.

“The same enhanced capabilities that Tata Communications develops for Formula 1® to accelerate operations across the globe and amaze fans is also helping U.S. enterprises reach global audiences faster, expand into new territories, and drive better collaboration worldwide,” says Mehul Kapadia, Managing Director F1® Business, Tata Communications.

Tata Communications continues to drive technology innovation by becoming the first company to deliver a live 4K feed from a Formula 1® event. This landmark was achieved in September during a practice session at the 2014 FORMULA 1 SINGAPORE AIRLINES SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX, where live footage was delivered end-to-end over Tata Communications’ Global Video Connect Network, to the FOM™ Technical Headquarters in Biggin Hill. Demonstrated to an exclusive group of broadcasters, the live delivery highlighted the next generation 4K broadcast capabilities afforded by fiber-optic cable, as well as illustrating how the future of 4K sports broadcasting could look.

As the official managed connectivity supplier for the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS team, Tata Communications is also powering three times faster trackside connectivity from the Silver Arrow cars at each Grand Prix location to Mercedes’ headquarters in the UK. The rapid transfer of rich data from over 150 of the car’s sensors gives Mercedes the ability to share vital data and to report issues from trackside to the factory in real-time, improving speed, handling and stability.

“U.S. enterprises have the ability to know more about their global customers today than at any other point in business history,” says Kapadia. “Just as we do for the Mercedes team on race day, Tata Communications is helping U.S. enterprises in retail, manufacturing and financial services leverage data-driven insights in real-time to find the next leap that pushes them out ahead of the competition.”

For more examples of how Tata Communications’ F1® technologies and capabilities are helping today’s U.S. and global enterprises, please visit https://www.tatacommunications.com/blog/.


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™ runs from March to November and spans 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.

For immediate release

Natalie Chak
Tata Communications
+44 (0)7833 043 779
natalie.chak@tatacommunications.com

Press Release

Paul Crouch
Hill & Knowlton Strategies
+44 (0)20 7413 3713
paul.crouch@hkstrategies.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 over 240 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.

https://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 Limited’s Annual Reports. The Annual Reports of Tata Communications Limited are available at www.tatacommunications.com. Tata Communications is under no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any obligation to, update or alter its forward-looking statements.