Participant Sports is the official provider of the Tour de France iPhone (News - Alert) application. Participant Sports, together with EMS Global Tracking is now offering the progress of this year's 97th Tour de France online with near real-time tracking updates and animated replay videos.

 

In a release, Kevin Simmons of Participant Sports said that 'Last year, we were able to bring near real-time updates of the Tour de France to a worldwide online audience of more than one million. With the launch of the new iPhone application, I am eager to see how many fans will tune in to follow this year's event.'

 

These two companies have united to cover the event. They are utilizing the EMS Global Tracking's SAT-202 terminals that offer global two-way messaging using Inmarsat's (News - Alert) IsatM2M. IsatM2M is a two-way burst messaging service. With the help of the animated video functionality, the fans can track the race by means of virtually real-time map rendering. This facility helps to show the course and follow the riders' movements on it. The EMS Global Tracking satellite system's terminal and network performance potential were initially tested in the 96th Tour de France in 2009

 

In a release John McQueen who is the Senior Director of Global Sales at EMS Global Tracking said that 'Cycling fans around the world will be able to enjoy continuous updates on the race using our tracking technology. Not only do fans have the ability to track current progress of the race at any time, but with this new iPhone app, they are now able to have access to this data regardless of where they are. Information provided by our SAT-202 terminal will enable updates to be posted to the official Tour de France iPhone application and the Versus 'tour tracker' website, developed by Participant Sports.'

 

The race organizer's vehicles are set with Four IsatM2M devices. These vehicles follow both leading cyclists and break-away groups as they split from the main pack. By making use of this approach, stage-by-stage, the race officials and fans are able to track the distances between the groups.

 

The 97th Tour de France is ongoing from July 3 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, with a 'prologue' time trial, and will finish later in Paris on July 25.