Alcatel-Lucent LTE technology supports world’s first live, on-deck video coverage of prestigious sailing race

Unique usage of next-generation mobile network revolutionizes live video coverage of sports happenings and events

Click here to follow the race in real time: external linkwww.matchrace.de/display/live-video.php

Paris - A world’s first, Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) will use its market-leading end-to-end LTE network solution to provide TV broadcasters with a live video feed of the World Match Racing Tour’s German Grand Prix, an international sailing boat race (May 19-24th, 2010 on Lake Constance, Germany). This innovative usage of 4G LTE technology replaces a ‘traditional’, more complex set-up for streaming video - and shows that LTE can have a significant impact on the transmission of live video content during sports events.

Live feeds from Formula-1 and cycling races, soccer games or track and field events are common today. However, the effort involved to get all video shots transmitted to the production studio is significant. Expensive satellite links, proprietary trunk radio systems, and even helicopters with mobile radio antennas are used for this very complex and costly operation.

A world’s first, the German Grand Prix will now see live on-deck video streams captured by onboard cameras and transmitted via LTE to the on-shore production studios, guaranteeing a high-speed, reliable and high-quality connection.

“Thanks to the partnership with Alcatel-Lucent, the complexity related to relaying video content to the TV production studios is reduced significantly,” says Eberhard Magg, Managing Director, Match Race Germany. “The end-to-end LTE solution powered by Alcatel-Lucentshowcasesnew ways of making major sports events’ video coverage available to a worldwide audience.”

“This unique event demonstrates that Alcatel-Lucent is at the forefront of introducing new technological and commercial benefits through our portfolio of next-generation mobile and fixed technologies,” says Dr. Erich Zielinski, End-to-End 4G/LTE solutions, Alcatel-Lucent. “Today, we prove there is real business potential behind service providers selling LTE capacity on-demand to TV broadcasters who are interested in offering live video streams from sports events. This whole undertaking is a model of what Alcatel-Lucent calls its High Leverage NetworkTM architecture - providing sufficient capacity for the ever-growing data traffic at the lowest cost per bit, all with the intelligence necessary to create new business opportunities for our customers.”

For this project, Alcatel-Lucent has set up a complete end-to-end network - to stream live video content directly from the sailing boats into the public viewing area, and onto the Internet. The Alcatel-Lucent LTE network covers the 4-5 kilometre racing event area -spanning Lake Constance, Kressbronn as well as the city of Langenargen where the TV production centre is located.

About the World Match Racing Tour
The World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) is the leading professional sailing series featuring 10 World Championship events across the globe, sanctioned by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) with “Special Event” status. The World Tour awards over US$1.5million in prize money with points awarded at each event culminating in the crowning of the “ISAF Match Racing World Champion”. In addition, an incentive to compete in the world’s premier sailing series just got bigger. A US$250,000 overall prize pool for the top nine teams with a $50,000 bonus for the outright winner of next year’s World Match Racing Tour is now on offer. Events utilise the same “match race” format used in the America’s Cup with racing taking place in identically supplied racing yachts which places a focuses on team work and skill. Racing takes place close to the shore for the general public to follow the races as virtual on-the-water stadiums.

Media and television highlights coverage reaches over 600 million households in excess of 100 countries around the world.

More info: external linkhttp://www.matchrace.de/ and external linkhttp://www.bymnews.com/news/newsDetails.php?id=68105

About Alcatel-Lucent and LTE
Having been selected to support 40+ LTE trials around the globe and securing commercial contracts with two of the largest operators in the world, Alcatel-Lucent is a recognized market leader in LTE. To help operators realize their potential, Alcatel-Lucent is offering a unique, pre-integrated, end-to-end LTE network solution and a full set of associated professional services. Alcatel-Lucent’s end-to-end network architecture is pre-integrating Alcatel-Lucent converged radio access network (2G/3G/4G RAN) and an industry-leading IP networking solution encompassing Alcatel-Lucent’s Ultimate Wireless Packet Core, IP/MPLS mobile transport, wireless network guardian, and a comprehensive IMS solution. This network solution allows scaling of GSM/W-CDMA networks and a smooth evolution to LTE. The company also founded the external linkng Connect Program, a global initiative to drive the development of an open and diverse ecosystem of LTE device manufacturers, content providers and application partners. Through the ng Connect program and with Alcatel-Lucent’s end-to-end LTE solution, wireless broadband operators benefit from open innovation, pre-integrated solutions, reduce time to market with LTE-enabled services, and the ability to drive new and non-traditional business models.

For more information about Alcatel-Lucent’s end-to-end LTE solution, please visit: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/lte

About Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) is the trusted transformation partner of service providers, enterprises, strategic industries such as defense, energy, healthcare, transportation, and governments worldwide, providing solutions to deliver voice, data and video communication services to end-users. A leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, IP and optics technologies, applications and services, Alcatel-Lucent leverages the unrivalled technical and scientific expertise of Bell Labs, one of the largest innovation powerhouses in the communications industry. With operations in more than 130 countries and the most experienced global services organization in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with a global reach. Alcatel-Lucent achieved revenues of Euro 15.2 billion in 2009 and is incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris. For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on the Internet: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com, read the latest posts on the Alcatel-Lucent blog http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/blog and follow us on Twitter: external linkhttp://twitter.com/Alcatel_Lucent.