DALLAS, April 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- BT, together
with UK tech start-up Coderus, today revealed a tactical app which
will act as a virtual 'seventh crew member' to help Ben Ainslie's Land Rover BAR team gain a
competitive edge in their bid to win the 35th America's
Cup this summer.
Over the past 12 months, the bespoke app has been designed and
tested with the help of mobile app experts Coderus, who are based
at Adastral Park, home of the BT Labs, as part of the Innovation
Martlesham cluster of start-ups.
BT, part of the Land Rover BAR Technical Innovation Group, which
is chaired by the management and technology consultancy PA
Consulting Group, committed to help the team after the number of
crew members allowed on board the catamaran shrunk from eight to
six after the last America's Cup. This means that helmsman Sir
Ben Ainslie, and tactician
Giles Scott, have more
responsibilities and less time than ever before.
BT and Coderus needed to develop an app for use on mobile and
wearable tech which could intuitively show critical information
throughout the race, with no user interaction. It was also
essential that the software was well crafted so its operation kept
pace with events as they unfolded, as well as being optimised for
robust network, hardware and battery performance, given the length
of time that the crew spend on the water.
After a series of "agile development sprints" and testing
sessions over the past 12 months with Ainslie, Scott, engineers
from the team and user experience architects from BT and Coderus,
the new app has been designed to provide critical data to the team
about the strategic layout of the course, the position of the boat,
how many legs of the race are left and how far it is to the next
boundary, all allowing the team to make swift tactical decisions
and giving them maximum time for manoeuvring.
The app can also tell the team exactly when to power up so that
they cross the start line at the second the race begins, gaining a
critical advantage from the very beginning by getting the team in
front at Mark 1. The leader at this point is expected to win up to
80% of the races for the America's Cup.
The technology works both on a tablet screen and a smart watch,
so that the crew members can be alerted to glance down and see
vital information about the sailing course instantly. The
team will be using high water-resistant Android tablets and
watches. During training sessions the technology, along with
hundreds of sensors on the boat and voice communications, is all
connected back to the shore via BT's military grade 4G wireless
link, and back to experts at the team's Portsmouth base via a
subsea cable, part of BT's global communications network. This is
part of the agreement recently announced by the two companies, with
BT working as Land Rover BAR's Technology in Sustainability
partner.
The app will be used in a competitive race for the first time on
the 26th May as part of the America's Cup Finals in
Bermuda. During races the app runs
on its own, with no connection back to shore.
Sailing team tactician and Olympic gold medallist
Giles Scott said: "We were desperate
for an app which could act as a virtual seventh crew member and
become central to our decision making process during the race,
providing Ben and I with the data that we really need to gain a
competitive advantage. We've had great support from BT and Coderus
through all stages of the development, from design, build and now
refinement out on the water."
Howard Watson, BT Technology,
Service and Operations CEO said: "We have teams across the globe
dedicated to hunting the most talented user experience and software
experts. We found that the very best expertise lay with Coderus in
our start-up hub at Adastral Park, and we're delighted to be
supporting and working with such an innovative UK tech
start-up."
"It's been fantastic for teams across the business to work
together on this and showcase the very best of our innovation.
We're committed to helping Land Rover BAR not only bring the
America's Cup home, but also in helping them set the standard for
sustainability in sport, through our technology and technical
expertise in networking and engineering."
Richard Hopkirk, Engineering
Manager at Land Rover BAR commented: "This has been a fantastic
example of how our collaboration with our technical partners can
bring out the best of both teams, and allow us to achieve far more
than we could do as a Cup team alone. We've managed to merge our
in-house sailing and tactical expertise with the software
development knowledge of BT and Coderus, and the result will be on
the water helping us win races come the summer."
Mark Thomas, CEO of Coderus,
said: "We were excited to be identified by BT's technology scouting
team for our innovative software expertise, to help create the
virtual seventh crew member for Land Rover BAR's America's Cup
challenge. This flagship project demonstrates our capability to
deliver high performance solutions under extreme conditions. This
has been a great team to work with, plus a huge honour to play a
small part in representing Great
Britain at this prestigious event."
As exclusive broadcast partner for the UK and Ireland, BT is bringing live footage of the
competition to millions of people at home. BT will show the
35th America's Cup on BT Sport this summer, broadcasting
live coverage through to the finals in Bermuda.
For further information
Enquiries about this news
release should be made to the BT Group Newsroom 020 7356 5369. From
outside the UK dial + 44 20 7356 5369. All news releases can be
accessed at our web site. You can also subscribe to receive all BT
announcements here and you can follow us on Twitter here.
About BT
BT's purpose is to use the power of communications to make a
better world. It is one of the world's leading providers of
communications services and solutions, serving customers in 180
countries. Its principal activities include the provision of
networked IT services globally; local, national and international
telecommunications services to its customers for use at home, at
work and on the move; broadband, TV and internet products and
services; and converged fixed-mobile products and services.
BT consists of six customer-facing lines of business: Consumer, EE,
Business and Public Sector, Global Services, Wholesale and
Ventures, and Openreach.
For the year ended 31 March
20161, BT Group's reported revenue was £19,012m
with reported profit before taxation of £2,907m.
British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary
of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets
of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in
London and New York.
1The results for the period have been
revised to reflect the outcome of the investigation into our
Italian business. Detail of which is set out in our third
quarter results announcement published on 27 January
2017. This financial information is unaudited.
For more information, visit www.btplc.com
About Coderus
Coderus Limited is an innovative software development and
consultancy company based in the UK but working across the
globe. They pride themselves on close collaboration with
clients to understand their current and future business
needs. They build software with this in mind, because
technology trends change so rapidly, so adopting the most
appropriate design, tools and technologies at the outset is
crucial.
The experience and depth of capability of those working for
Coderus allows them to deliver solutions from a software
application to a fully featured cross platform end-to-end design
based on detailed customer requirements.
Every project is professionally managed and delivered using
world-class development and planning tools to ensure timely and
cost effective delivery. They use industry standard project
delivery techniques, including an agile delivery approach if
appropriate.
In all cases, Coderus assures that the user interface design,
coding and platform features will have all been fully optimised to
deliver a complete package with the best possible usability and
customer performance.
For further information about the limitless possibilities with
Coderus, please visit: www.coderus.com
Media enquiries
For photographs, quotes, interview requests or further
information, please contact:
Peter Lee
Marketing & PR
Coderus
E. peter.lee@coderus.com
T. 01473 633107
M. 07711 511864
www.coderus.com
To view the original version on PR Newswire,
visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bt-and-coderus-design-new-mobile-app-to-help-land-rover-bar-teams-americas-cup-challenge-300443912.html
SOURCE BT