The showcase required the development of a backend system to establish a connection with the racetrack, a frontend interface for displaying race results, and an additional frontend for user registration. Overcoming the challenge of enabling seamless communication from SAC to the local laptop for race initiation proved to be a complex task. However, the integration of Azure EventHub served as a valuable solution, providing a reliable publisher-subscriber system for this purpose.

Starting with the SAC registration application, where attendees have their first interaction with the showcase, users can register, select their desired opponent, and initiate a race seamlessly within the platform. The driver’s data is then efficiently transmitted via a custom widget to Azure Event Hubs, which subsequently routes the data to a local laptop connected to the racetrack and enables the race to commence.

Our custom backend solution introduced the flexibility for users to manually adjust car speed and race length in laps, offering a tailored racing experience. During the DSAG Congress, lap numbers were dynamically adjusted to provide a diverse racing experience. To prevent inaccuracies due to wrongly placed cars at the starting line, we implemented a four-second threshold for invalidating overly short lap times, ensuring accurate race tracking. Additionally, we incorporated a practice lap into the system to fine-tune the experience.

Throughout the race, the laptop diligently tallied laps, lap times, and total race times in real-time. This critical data was then seamlessly transmitted to the database using the HDBCLI client. Notably, as soon as a driver achieved the specified lap count, their speed was automatically reduced, and the race came to a halt once both drivers reached the designated lap limit.

SAP Datasphere processed and transformed the data efficiently, creating real-time views for diverse purposes. Simultaneously, SAC retrieved and visualized this dynamic data (seamlessly).

After the completion of each race, our real-time enabled dashboard delivered the race insights. This custom dashboard, embedded with tailor-made widgets within SAC, helped extract real-time, race-relevant, and partially computed KPIs directly from the Carrera racetrack. Subsequently, SAC provided participants with a comprehensive analysis of their performance, offering a visual representation through a line chart. Additionally, it enabled the comparison of individual race statistics and insights into the current daily leaderboards.

More than just an enjoyable project, this endeavor yielded valuable insights into the potential of real-time integration between SAP Datasphere and SAP Analytics Cloud. Our efforts resulted in an impressive achievement: a real-time data processing speed of under 3 seconds. Furthermore, it underscored SAP’s commitment to enabling clients to seamlessly integrate data from almost any source into their analytics environment leveraging SAP Datasphere.