Triumphant in victory: Bart Aernouts has won the Roth long-distance triathlon. Many of his fans were able to follow his victory up close thanks to Deutsche Telekom.
They were by his side online every step of the way thanks to Deutsche Telekom's tracking system Connected Sport. They could see second-by-second where their triathlon star was and when he could reach the finish line – assuming, of course, that he would be able to keep up his speed. And so he did, rising to meet every challenge.
He finally entered the stadium in Roth as the triumphant victor and crossed the finish line. With a time of 07:59:07, he was the only starter that day to finish in under eight hours. He was welcomed by the jubilant cheers of thousands of spectators. In total, 260,000 people came to watch along the route.
Roth is an absolute highlight of the sporting calendar for professionals and amateurs alike. Overall, 5,350 participants from 70 nations including teams took part, among them 3,400 individual starters. They dove into the water to start the race with a 3.8 kilometer-swim along the Main-Danube Canal.
Then all that remained for the triathletes was the mere trifle of a 42.195-kilometer run. They gratefully took every opportunity to cool off with drinks, water and wet sponges, helped by a large number of volunteers. 7,000 in total from all over the region gave up their time to help at the event.
Fans followed around 70 athletes via Connected Sport. The system is still being piloted. The plan is to initially make the platform available to business customers, for instance the organizers or sponsors of sports events. Then later it will be offered to individual athletes.
The most exciting moment of the day for the Deutsche Telekom team led by Thomas Eckert (left) and Ralf Verholen (right) was the automatic "wake-up" of the transmission modules shortly after seven o'clock, which the triathletes attached to their waists with a belt after the swim. Would they go online? To explain the background: each athlete had to leave their things in the changing zone the day before. Before they did, the triathlete's starting time was set for each transmission module. After all, there was no need to track them before the event started...
... and that way the battery was saved too. These preparations had to be complete before the transmission modules were handed over to the triathletes. So the transmission modules remained in sleep mode until the start.
Deutsche Telekom and its partners were meticulous in their preparations: the technology was set up days before the event. For instance, the tracking system management, which was developed with SAS Technologies, in the "control station."
The transmission modules were checked and checked again, and carefully stored. They are no bigger than a matchbox and weigh less than 20 grams. Built to be robust, they can cope with any amount of jolting during the cycling section or the marathon.
The system was tested again and again. In the city of Roth, as well as along the route. Thomas Eckert let himself be tracked on his bike online - and by his colleagues in the car. Does the LTE data transmission work? Does GPS work? And in fact at every point – in the finishing area, in the changing zones, as well as along the entire length of the route?
