What Do John McEnroe, Sony, Wimbledon, and Augmented Reality Have in Common?

I grew up watching tennis, and nothing ushered in July better than watching Wimbledon on the telly. To round out the fireworks on the 4th, you could always count on some colorful outbursts from tennis legend John McEnroe, who invariably argued points that didn’t go his way.

Thanks to ball tracking technology, Hawk-Eye, the days of throwing a tantrum about whether the tennis ball is in or outside the white titanium dioxide lines on the grass courts of the All England Lawn Tennis Club have been over for nearly two decades.

Owned by Sony, Hawk-Eye Innovations first debuted Hawk-Eye at The Championships, Wimbledon, in 2007, and each year has brought improvements, efficiencies, and innovations to its services. To ensure gold-standard ball tracking and officiating services, The Championships, the All England Club, has agreed to a multi-year extension of its successful collaboration with Hawk-Eye Innovations.

Enhancing the Viewer Experience

Hawk-Eye will continue to provide world-class data tracking and officiating services at The Championships through its player and ball tracking technology, which are used not only for the most precise officiating systems but also to power advanced performance analytics solutions.

At this year’s The Championships, Wimbledon, players, media, and fans will notice new bounce visualizations on replays, modernized broadcasts, live augmented reality views, and other innovative ways to use player and ball tracking data to enhance fans’ viewing experience.

Keeping the Hawk-Eye on the Ball

The collaboration will continue to explore how Hawk-Eye’s ever-evolving technology can further amplify the use of player and ball tracking information before, during, and after The Championships, increasing the overall engagement and dialogue as records are broken on the historic grass courts.

Bill Jinks, technology director at the All England Club, said, “I am delighted to extend our collaboration with Hawk-Eye. Since 2007, Hawk-Eye has delivered line-calling to the high standard expected at The Championships and has evolved its solution to fit the unique needs of the only Grand Slam played on grass. I am looking forward to working with Hawk-Eye on future innovations.”

Ben Crossing, Hawk-Eye managing director, added, “We are beyond thrilled to continue our very successful relationship with the All England Club for multiple years to come. Tennis is at our core and we are excited to continue bringing our very best innovation and technology in order to deliver exceptional experiences at The Championships that the All England Club, the players, and millions of fans around the world deserve.”

The Championships, Wimbledon are staged from July 1-14, 2024 at The All England Lawn Tennis Club and the Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s Semi-finals are set to produce historic moments once again through the weekend.

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