Press Releases

Budapest, April 11, 2018 13:00

This year every attending racer can receive an individual, tailored video about his/her run

• The Budapest Sport Office – organizing the 2018 Telekom Vivicitta Pro Urbe Running Race - registered racers from 84 countries and 800 Hungarian settlements so far
• Telekom prepares for the event with a personalized video solution and an extra base station installed at the location
• Charity running race and collecting donations benefitting those living with autism

April 14, 2018 (Saturday) will earmark the start of the largest spring amateur sports event, the 33rd Telekom Vivicitta Pro Urbe Running Race in Budapest. Although this year the event was only announced in late January, the number of nations represented broke a new record: in addition to racers registered from Hungary, so far 2,100 foreign runners from 84 countries also registered.

The 28,000 Hungarian participants of Telekom Vivicitta represent all counties of the country, altogether 800 settlements, while 5,000 students also registered for the race in school groups. Runners can compete in 11 races, hence everyone can find the distance best matching his/her fitness level. The eldest racer is 84 years old, running 10 kilometers. Altogether 1,500 registered racers will run their first half marathon.  The most senior half marathon racers are a 79 year old man and a 69 year old woman. 51 percent of the registered racers at this year’s Vivicitta are women.

The start and finish line of the races organized by Magyar Telekom and the Budapest Sports Office ( BSI) on April 14-15, will be on Margitsziget. Following the Budapest race, the pro urbe run will also be organized at four further countryside locations:  lovers of running can cross the starting line on April 22 in Győr, May 6 in Miskolc, May 12 in Pécs and May 13 in Szeged.

Individual, tailored video for every runner

Supplementing its existing, superbly fast 4G network, Telekom also commissions an extra mobile base station on Margitsziget – considering the increased demand for capacity – providing high standard, glitch-free mobile voice and data service for tens of thousands of runners and spectators, as well as the technical background for the time-keeping system used by the organizers. Telekom will also showcase how digitization enhances the experience of sports: through the system already tested last year and further developed since then, this year even every runner can receive an individual, custom-made video about his/her own running performance. Using this technology solution – being still a rarity today – running is recorded by robotized cameras and drones, while the chip associated with the starting grid number enables the system to identify racers. These recording compose the tailored, personalized video of racers, which will be forwarded to the email address they provide upon registration. Racers running without chip can access the video about their crossing the finish line upon providing their running data on the website toltsdfelelmennyel.telekom.hu

Last year the system covered the run in the capitol city, racers covering the distances of 10 and 21 kms received the video as a surprise, while this year videos will also be made about the finish line crossing of racers at the countryside events and runners in Budapest covering shorter distances. Consequent to the further developed technology, the individual content of tailored videos about runners racing on longer distances will also be richer.

This year the system – producing even up to 40,000 videos - will operate with a new engine and 1,000 processors in the cloud (twice the amount used last year). The edit time and optics of the system was also improved, now being capable of adapting to weather circumstances. In addition, both fast and slow motion recordings will be mixed in the videos making them more exciting and spectacular, while runners crossing the finish line will be recorded by two cameras, as opposed to one last year.

Design running shoes with an app!

As the other Telekom novelty introduced this year at Vivicitta, anybody can design individual shoe graphics using the application developed for this occasion on the website http://toltsdfelelmennyel.telekom.hu. Telekom will raffle out Alcatel Moveband smart wristbands among those uploading their creations to Instagram, by applying #toltsdfelelmennyel and #telekomvivicitta.

Charity run for those living with autism

Telekom organizes a charity run and donation collection benefitting those living with autism, also at this year’s Vivicitta running race.  On Saturday, April 14 - the first day of the two day long competition -  a running team will participate at the 2.4 kms Minicitta race,  with members including professional athletes like attackers Tóth Renátó and Kovács Viktor, representing the FTC ice hockey team, goal keeper Pleszkán József, player of the FTC U10 ice hockey team, 49 times national team football player Lisztes Krisztián, the professional coordinator and director of succession of FTC, Theo Schneider, as well as boxers Bedák Pál and Kótai Mihály and para-athlete ski runner Lőrincz Krisztina.  The team is also joined by Gogetinho - Novák Dániel, e-athlete of FTC FIFA18. Members of the Sustainability Media Club also attend the charity run.

Not only team members collect kilometers, but simultaneously Telekom also donates HUF 1,000 to the Autistic Art Foundation after each kilometer done by members of the charity team, and all runners participating at this race.