IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that it is working with the Fédération Française de Tennis (FFT) to deliver a richer, more personalised, and more engaging Roland-Garros experience for fans than ever before. For the first time, fans will be able to follow all the action from Roland-Garros on virtually any mobile device-including iPad, iPhone, Android and others. IBM's new PointStream application, which tracks and analyses matches in real time, enables fans to view a visual representation of their chosen match at www.rolandgarros.com. These new applications are all powered by a dynamic cloud computing infrastructure, which also enables the FFT to quickly ramp up its capacity to meet the surge in web traffic during the tournament.
IBM PointStream
IBM PointStream is designed to enhance the fan experience and deepen their relationship with the tournament. The application gives fans a visual representation of a particular match, illustrating which player is winning and graphing break points, unforced errors, double faults, and aces. For the first time, fans can see exactly when players scored (or missed) key match points at Roland-Garros. For example, instead of simply noting that a player missed 15 break points in a match, IBM PointStream captures exactly when those pivotal moments occurred. Features such as SlamTracker also let fans interact in real time with players, draws and scores, make visiting www.rolandgarros.com the next best thing to being there.
Smartphone and tablet solutions
Recognising that fans want the freedom and flexibility of experiencing sports tournaments on their terms and on the device of their choice, IBM and the FFT have built a media-rich Roland-Garros mobile website (m.rolandgarros.com), which provides real-time scores, schedules, draws and player information.
New for this year's tournament IBM, in collaboration with Orange, has developed a dedicated Roland-Garros iPhone and iPad application so tennis enthusiasts can easily access all of the latest tournament news. Loaded with all the information fans need to get the most out of the tournament, the application features live scores, schedules and draws, video highlights, player photos, biographies and live radio.
For 2011 the official website has also been fine-tuned to offer an iPad-friendly browsing experience, making the tournament accessible to the greatest number of users possible.
Interactive Television
This year, television viewers in France will also be able to explore the new possibilities offered by connected TVs based on the new HbbTV pan-European standard through an interactive application. IBM's interactive Roland-Garros TV application enables viewers to personalise the tournament content so they can choose to view more details on the topics that most interest them, such as live scores and statistics, player biographies and match information. The application was designed using the agile development platform WebSphere sMash in a Cloud environment.
Enhanced Web Technology
With an improved interface for 2011, the state-of-the-art Roland-Garros website www.rolandgarros.com now displays featured matches on the homepage, enhancing the user experience for fans that prefer to access tournament news and live action from their laptops. In 2010, the site attracted over 9.3 million unique users and received over 333 million page views, a 47 percent increase on 2008. IBM continually invests in new technologies to ensure Roland-Garros benefits from increased visibility around the world and has done so since the start of its partnership with the FFT in 1985.
Harnessing Cloud Computing
During the two weeks of Roland-Garros, interest in tennis explodes and web traffic to www.rolandgarros.com surges. Every year, IBM helps the FFT scale up its infrastructure to meet the demands of global audiences. Once it's all over, IBM helps it scale back down to support regular operations. This elasticity is made possible by IBM's world-class cloud computing capabilities. This technology enables the rapid creation and provisioning of services on a common secured infrastructure. Through IBM virtualisation technology, the FFT has reduced its energy demand by 40 percent and cooling demand by 48 percent. In 2006, 60 servers were required to cope with the 100-fold increase in traffic that the Roland-Garros website experiences during the tournament. Now, Cloud-based services are utilised to allocate the required amount of services to support the tournament.
The French Federation of Tennis, content editor
Since 1996, the French Tennis Federation provides access to the official site of Roland Garros conducted jointly with IBM, to all the news from France International. The Multimedia Service offers the Federation, in real time, a complete editorial content is available in two languages: English and French. Throughout the fortnight, Internet users worldwide may well read the minutes of matches and the echoes of the tournament, but also consult with player biographies, view photo albums, attend post-match conference, the most beautiful view points or behind the scenes and atmosphere of the tournament through topics daily videos and listen all day live broadcasts of Radio Roland Garros, in English and French. Alongside the site of the FFT, www.fft.fr, www.rolandgarros.com site is also available since 2003, throughout the year. It has all the information about the life of the stadium the rest of the year, including a detailed presentation of the French Federation of Tennis Museum (www.tenniseum.fr), the shop, the restaurant "Le Roland-Garros" and tours of stage.
IBM PointStream
IBM PointStream is designed to enhance the fan experience and deepen their relationship with the tournament. The application gives fans a visual representation of a particular match, illustrating which player is winning and graphing break points, unforced errors, double faults, and aces. For the first time, fans can see exactly when players scored (or missed) key match points at Roland-Garros. For example, instead of simply noting that a player missed 15 break points in a match, IBM PointStream captures exactly when those pivotal moments occurred. Features such as SlamTracker also let fans interact in real time with players, draws and scores, make visiting www.rolandgarros.com the next best thing to being there.
Smartphone and tablet solutions
Recognising that fans want the freedom and flexibility of experiencing sports tournaments on their terms and on the device of their choice, IBM and the FFT have built a media-rich Roland-Garros mobile website (m.rolandgarros.com), which provides real-time scores, schedules, draws and player information.
New for this year's tournament IBM, in collaboration with Orange, has developed a dedicated Roland-Garros iPhone and iPad application so tennis enthusiasts can easily access all of the latest tournament news. Loaded with all the information fans need to get the most out of the tournament, the application features live scores, schedules and draws, video highlights, player photos, biographies and live radio.
For 2011 the official website has also been fine-tuned to offer an iPad-friendly browsing experience, making the tournament accessible to the greatest number of users possible.
Interactive Television
This year, television viewers in France will also be able to explore the new possibilities offered by connected TVs based on the new HbbTV pan-European standard through an interactive application. IBM's interactive Roland-Garros TV application enables viewers to personalise the tournament content so they can choose to view more details on the topics that most interest them, such as live scores and statistics, player biographies and match information. The application was designed using the agile development platform WebSphere sMash in a Cloud environment.
Enhanced Web Technology
With an improved interface for 2011, the state-of-the-art Roland-Garros website www.rolandgarros.com now displays featured matches on the homepage, enhancing the user experience for fans that prefer to access tournament news and live action from their laptops. In 2010, the site attracted over 9.3 million unique users and received over 333 million page views, a 47 percent increase on 2008. IBM continually invests in new technologies to ensure Roland-Garros benefits from increased visibility around the world and has done so since the start of its partnership with the FFT in 1985.
Harnessing Cloud Computing
During the two weeks of Roland-Garros, interest in tennis explodes and web traffic to www.rolandgarros.com surges. Every year, IBM helps the FFT scale up its infrastructure to meet the demands of global audiences. Once it's all over, IBM helps it scale back down to support regular operations. This elasticity is made possible by IBM's world-class cloud computing capabilities. This technology enables the rapid creation and provisioning of services on a common secured infrastructure. Through IBM virtualisation technology, the FFT has reduced its energy demand by 40 percent and cooling demand by 48 percent. In 2006, 60 servers were required to cope with the 100-fold increase in traffic that the Roland-Garros website experiences during the tournament. Now, Cloud-based services are utilised to allocate the required amount of services to support the tournament.
The French Federation of Tennis, content editor
Since 1996, the French Tennis Federation provides access to the official site of Roland Garros conducted jointly with IBM, to all the news from France International. The Multimedia Service offers the Federation, in real time, a complete editorial content is available in two languages: English and French. Throughout the fortnight, Internet users worldwide may well read the minutes of matches and the echoes of the tournament, but also consult with player biographies, view photo albums, attend post-match conference, the most beautiful view points or behind the scenes and atmosphere of the tournament through topics daily videos and listen all day live broadcasts of Radio Roland Garros, in English and French. Alongside the site of the FFT, www.fft.fr, www.rolandgarros.com site is also available since 2003, throughout the year. It has all the information about the life of the stadium the rest of the year, including a detailed presentation of the French Federation of Tennis Museum (www.tenniseum.fr), the shop, the restaurant "Le Roland-Garros" and tours of stage.
