Take a look at the technology trends that will continue to impact sports industry and are here to stay:
Online streaming
A decade back, to view the matches or the highlights at home, the viewers have to wait for a couple of hours due to unavailability of any technology in place and time zone difference. With online streaming services that NBC and NFL provide, the viewers can now watch the sport broadcast at real-time, no matter in which corner of the world they are sitting or device they are using.
The best instance of it is 2014 Sochi Olympic games, where NBC with multi-channel digital broadcast, has made every event of the Olympic accessible to the entire world for every second on the myriad of the platforms and devices to make the live coverage as much as possible.
Artificial Intelligence
In the professional sports, every match generates million of data, whose simulation, getting insights and translation of the insights into actions is not a game of a human mind. That’s where the artificial intelligence is helping the sports professionals to come up with objective measures and improve the time-intensive role’s efficiency in different ways.
Watching sports highlight is a great deal for the sports fans, but no one knows the hard work and the endless hours the video editors spend on picking out the pertinent moments and assembling the clips to give a good shot. Here, artificial intelligence helps the editors to get rid of the repetitive video-editing task and get the work done in a couple of minutes.
The sports analysts are not required to spend endless hours before the screens to analyze the footage to arm the coaches with the actionable data to let the sports player train and not repeat the mistake they have made in the previous match. The reason behind deeper analysis of player performance data to be donw with AI with machine learning and provide better decisions faster, which adds a value to the coaching staff. It’s vital for the players to help them perform to their peak on the field.
Augmented Reality
The immersive technology has great potential in enticing the sports fans with breakthrough content which offers real-life like experiences.
It means at home, fans just by scanning the marker with an in-app camera can enjoy the live match along with giving a feel of sitting in a stadium and watching the sports on big screens. The stadium has integrated the augmented reality experience, for instance, in a stadium when super bowl 50 was hosted with the intention of engaging the audience on the second screens. With this initiative, the at-home experience is taken to a new level by allowing the fans to get a feel of cheering the team, while sitting on the stadium seats, while logging in from home with AR app.
Virtual Reality
The shattering world records of the players and the willingness to watch live matches is not a reason that can keep the sports fans coming to the stadium in the long run or view match from the home. Instead, in this digital world, the stadium owners need to go a step further to engage and thrill the fans.
Thanks to the virtual reality, which has blurred the line between watching the sports from the stadium and from the comfort of the couch. After wearing the virtual reality headset, the fans can find themselves sitting in the front row on center court of the stadium with other fans and getting excited about the outstanding performance of the players. The VR experience can be offered at the stadium to hook up the fans and at the home to offer stadium-like viewing experience.
When it comes to training on the field, the sports person spends hours, but the excessive training can hurt their performance due to the inadequate rest. This is where training through virtual reality headset is a great alternative. For instance, in a game of football the defense players are simulated in the room and the actual player plays with them and take the right decision that in turn buck up the decision-making capability and speed on the field.
Internet of Things
For the precision training, penning down the players’ moves is a story of decades before. With the pace of change, digital cameras, video technology, GPS system and accelerometer are added to precisely capture the data and improve the player’s performance with stats-based training.
However, the approach was good, but analyzation and implementation of the gained insights in the game play is a time-consuming process. Here, the sensors embedded in various accessories wore by sports person, provides the crucial data that when summed up help the coaches in knowing what precautions need to take and the exercise to do for every player, to improve their game.
When the smart items adding to Internet of Things like- smart clothes, smart shoes, smart watch and fitness bands are connected and transfer the actionable data to the coaches, they can train the players accordingly.
3D motion capture
Tracking statistical data with sensors works great in optimizing the players’ performance in the field, but tracking their every move is implausible and without which exacting the errors are not feasible.
3D motion capture technology when incorporated in the pitches, the cameras are capable of capturing every movement frame by frame as 3D images in the real-time. It facilitate scoaches spotting and tracking the wrong moves without any glitches that are completely changing how the players can be trained and performed.
Epilogue:
With technology playing a major role in revolutionizing industries, sports industry has also not been left far behind. Along with such advancements comes improved presicion and formulated strategy for learning to enhancing an athelete’s game. The sports enthusiast audience also have a chance to avail better experience of watching the game with the stats that makes watching the game more enjoyable.