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Commissioner Gary Bettman at the NHL general managers meeting this spring had a clear answer for when the league might be able to use tracking technology to determine a variety of things with certainty, from high-sticking to whether a puck fully crossed the goal line.
“When we’re certain that it works,” Bettman said at the time. “We will test it and re-test it, but we haven’t hesitated to spend the money or the time on technology to improve the game.”
The NHL is taking another step in that innovation with the expansion of the use of Hawk-Eye measuring and tracking technology as part of a new technology partnership with Sony announced Wednesday, hours before the start of the Stanley Cup final.
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The same technology that has become omnipresent in tennis to determine whether the ball is in or out has evolved to the point that it could in help hockey officials and the league’s situation room make more precise calls for close plays on the ice.
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“We’re closer — we keep getting closer,” NHL executive vice-president of business development and innovation David Lehanski said. “It’s going to be a solution that includes multiple inputs and different types of technology.
“Likely it will be a combination of active tracking in the puck, in the players, the jerseys — wherever it might be — optical cameras and maybe some other type of technology that all need to get stitched together.”
The league has used Sony’s Hawk-Eye technology for the past decade as part of Synchronized Multi-Angle Replay Technology (SMART) services in every team’s arena to make replay reviews and coach’s challenges faster and more accurate. It also helps organizations keep track of player health and safety.
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The technology has improved to the point where cameras capture 29 skeletal points on each player and three more on sticks.
“What that enables us to do is to have an incredibly high-fidelity, low-latency view of the athletes’ movements in real time,” Hawk-Eye Innovations CEO Rufus Hack said.
“The NHL have a real clear vision around what they’re going to do with this, but obviously it’s still very much in the early stages of what that could look like for them.”
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Lehanski said a mix of various tech elements could help on the ice with everything from penalties to positioning on the ice. Off the ice, beyond animated telecasts and visualizations that will continue, the league is hoping Sony cameras can get the home viewing experience closer to in-arena excitement.
“(It’s about trying to) bring that game experience into everyone’s homes,” Sony president of imaging products and solutions in the Americas Theresa Alesso said. “As the cameras get better and smaller and lighter, get those angles to the game into someone’s living room is really important.”
