The way fans watch sports, how coaches measure the performance of individual players – and the team as a whole – is set to take a whole new direction after yesterday’s R&D launch. Sport X By MLSE Digital Labs and Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Hamza Tehran, head of technology and digital for Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE), describing it as “a new incubator in collaboration with AWS, rooted in research, applied science and product development”.
SportsX debut follows Advertisement The two organizations, conducted last February, are among two organizations that were the first to “transform the way some of Canada’s best-known sports franchises — the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors Toronto, the Toronto Football Club (FC) and the Toronto Argonauts — creating and delivering extraordinary and enriching sporting moments Fan reaction.
As part of the agreement, MLSE has chosen AWS as its official cloud provider, as well as an official provider of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and deep learning cloud services.
The company said it will use AWS’ portfolio of cloud capabilities, including ML, advanced analytics, compute, database and storage services “to support their teams and lines of business. “. By innovating together, MLSE will create solutions that support the way teams play on the ice, on the court, on the court or on the court; how players stay healthy; how fans connect with each other and experience matches; and how sports franchises operate internally. »
Just as the company strives to “democratize technology by giving businesses of all sizes” access to the same cloud and AI offerings, “MLSE and AWS will empower anyone from enterprises to big fans, to take their incredible idea and transform the sport. they like. »
On Monday evening at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, the media were introduced to two pilots – Immersive Basketball Experience (IBX) And NHL Extended Reality Stats Overlay Both gave examples of the direction SportsX is taking.
One was made at the Raptors’ training center and is based on augmented reality technology that combines “visual tracking body position data, 3D models and a video game development engine to bring the experience to any mixed reality headset.
This experience means that with headphones, users can experience the game of basketball from the perspective of fans sitting on the court, coaches on the bench or even the players themselves on the floor.
The other, shown as the Maple Leafs square off against the New York Islanders, offered a whole new way to watch a live hockey game thanks to real-time stats from NHL Advantage, the game-tracking technology. pucks and league players that is currently deployed in all 32 NHL arenas and used in all NHL games. Using augmented reality glasses, SportsX created an overlay that allows fans to access NHL Edge data, which the fact sheet says “brings viewers deeper into playing on the ice.” .
“Infrared technology embedded in pucks and players gives fans dozens of new insights into things like puck possession, speed and distance covered. The system has the capacity to generate nearly one million coordinates and 3D data points during regulation play.
“The technology is displayed live using the AWS Multi-Access Edge Compute (MEC) infrastructure. Tracking technology adds a new digital experience for fans while pushing the boundaries of technology by giving fans access to real-time game information. »
The program, which is the release cases, is designed with a “bottom-up approach to capture, analyze and build the best ideas from key stakeholders, including coaches, fans, partners and employees. The selected ideas will be evaluated for their feasibility and developed and tested in an MLSE environment with the aim of creating solutions that can benefit the sports industry in general.
The launch is accompanied by a dedicated SportsX web portal, where interested stakeholders can join the collective and receive updates on idea submission slots.
In an interview with Computer World CanadaTeherany described this week’s announcements as the start of an “innovative partnership” that will involve not just MLSE and AWS, but potentially an entire fan base.
He said the SportsX online portal would allow anyone from sports fans to academics to make recommendations on what they would like to see and, more importantly, how to get there. Tehran said: “The next big idea can come from anywhere.
“There really is nothing like it in sport and I think over time we will discover incredible technical factors for sport and recreation.
“Where do we think NHL technology will go? And where do we think NBA technology will go? Actually, we don’t know at this point, but having an R&D mindset and having the two entities together, and working on it with the rest of the other smart people in academia, research and elsewhere, it doesn’t There really is nothing like it in sports. »
Meanwhile, Christian Magsisi, VP of Technology and Digital at MLSE, said there were three main goals associated with the SportsX initiative, the first of which is to create experiences for the fans they have never had before.
“Obviously the second is that you want to create a competitive advantage for teams, and with the help of AWS and the R&D program that SportsX has built, it will help us do that. The third, and perhaps most important, is that we want to create positive social impact – both environmental and social.
