US Open Tennis: 7 Technologies Power Game, Set, Match
The US Open upgrades its tech for 2014 with new data sets, improved analytics, and immersive mobile apps backed by IBM predictive cloud infrastructure.
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Mobile, social, analytics, and cloud technologies have been part of the United States Tennis Association's game for some time, but, working with tech partner IBM, it's upping the ante for theĀ 2014 US Open tennis tournament.
New mobile and social apps, big data sets, improved analytics, and predictive cloud infrastructure are among the capabilities USTA and IBM are bringing to this year's end-of-summer tourney. IBM also sponsors and provides the technology behind the three other big tournaments that make up the professional tennis Grand Slam: The Australian Open, The French Open, and Wimbledon. But each tournament has its own host organization, character, and tech-support needs.
As an example, IBM worked with USTA to develop a Trendcast social app that's unique to the US Open. The Web and mobile app aggregates and filters social media comments about the tournament, identifies key trends, tries to engage fans in the conversation, and provides a sponsorship opportunity for the USTA.
"Sponsorships are critical for the US Open, but they are less important at Wimbledon, where it's more about enjoying tennis in an English garden," said John Kent, program manager of IBM Worldwide Sponsorship Marketing. USTA is a nonprofit organization that relies on the US Open as its primary funding source for tennis promotion and youth tennis programs in the US, whereas Wimbledon is run by the charitable arm of The All England Lawn Tennis Club.
IBM's SlamTracker match statistical-analysis app is used by all four Grand Slam tournaments, but this year's US Open version features an autopilot mode that pushes a steady stream of point-by-point insights during the course of a match.
"What's nice about the design of the new SlamTracker app is that it speaks to the more casual fan as well as avid fans who know exactly what stats they're looking for," said Nicole Jeter West, USTA's senior director of ticketing and digital strategy.
New data sets, including ball and player position data, have added SlamTracker data visualizations for 2014, so in addition to stats such as forced and unforced errors, first services, and successful returns, fans can now see a serve-depth chart and corresponding percentages on winning and losing points.
Other nuances of the US Open 2014 tournament include IBM Watson Foundation technologies operating behind the scenes, predicting and constantly reforecasting site traffic loads so the tournament site never goes down even as Web and mobile visits fuel traffic spikes during the height of the tournament. Read on to see the new apps, new data visualizations, and fresh capabilities behind US Open 2014.
Traffic starts building on USTA's USOpen.org site a few weeks ahead of the end-of-summer tournament. At the height of the tournament, traffic spikes up as much as 40 times higher than off-peak loads. The site runs on IBM cloud infrastructure running in three separate data centers, with capacity spinning up automatically to ensure that the website, mobile site, and mobile apps are always available.
Cloud capacity-planning has recently been enhanced with IBM Watson Foundation technologies that constantly predict and reforecast site traffic levels, relying in part on social media activity. As seen above, predicted traffic is shown in gold and actual traffic in purple. Cloud infrastructure capacity (shown in light blue) is kept 50% higher than expected need, with new server instances spun up automatically by IBM cloud orchestration technologies.
IBM's SlamTracker app brings interactive, data-driven analysis to all four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, but this year the USTA and IBM added new data including player-position and ball-position data, similar to the Pitch FX and Field FX systems used by Major League Baseball and Stats Inc.'s SportVU technology used by the NBA. The data supports new analyses and data visualizations, including speed- and position-of-serve visualizations. These analytics enhance the app's "Keys to the Match" feature, which pinpoints what players must do to win.
SlamTracker has always been a great app for avid tennis fans who want to explore the stats, but this year the app has been redesigned to offer an autopilot mode that serves up a steady stream of point-by-point statistical observations. The mode is designed for casual fans and as a second-screen enhancement to watching matches on TV. Want to dive into the details? You can always check out stats such as first-serve percentages and forced and unforced errors for current matches and those already played.
Chair umpires use a mobile device, displayed above by IBM's John Kent, program manager of IBM Worldwide Sponsorship Marketing, to record which player won each point. This data is fed to IBM's Scoring Operations Center, seen above, deep within Arthur Ashe Stadium.
As stats accumulate during a match, analysts in the Scoring Operations Center take note of stand-out stats and push out graphics to television and radio commentators, the SlamTracker app, and more than 350 interactive US Open Vision kiosk displays installed in the media center and elsewhere throughout the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. The shelf life of the data is very short, as commentators need to make key points before play moves on to the next point.
The social Trendcast app is unique to the US Open, aggregating and serving up the key topics of conversation in social media. The social sphere is where unknowns such as Catherine (CiCi) Bellis emerge. Bellis captured the hearts of fans on the second day of the tournament when the unseeded 15-year-old beat 12th seed Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia. Alas, Bellis lost in her Thursday-night match to Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan, but the Trendcast app showed overwhelming support for @cicibellis99.
The social Trendcast app is unique to the US Open, aggregating and serving up the key topics of conversation in social media. The social sphere is where unknowns such as Catherine (CiCi) Bellis emerge. Bellis captured the hearts of fans on the second day of the tournament when the unseeded 15-year-old beat 12th seed Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia. Alas, Bellis lost in her Thursday-night match to Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan, but the Trendcast app showed overwhelming support for @cicibellis99.
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