Why Wimbledon Is At The Forefront of Broadcast Technology
Artificial intelligence is changing the beautiful game for the better
Football may be coming home, but England’s Wimbledon grand slam tennis tournament is taking home the crown in innovation this summer.
Through its continued partnership with IBM, Wimbledon has delivered a world-class digital experience to millions of fans since the tournament began on June 28. The final matches will be played over the weekend, with Novak Djokovic in his seventh Wimbledon final.
Highlights, whether it’s sport or television, are one of the fastest-growing sectors of video, with the enterprise video market forecast to reach almost $20 billion by 2023. This prediction means, during the period, the enterprise video market will see a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7.9%.
By 2025, the market is expected to grow even more, reaching $25.6 billion during the forecast period at a CAGR of 9.3%.
The main factors propelling the enterprise video market include the growing demand for video streaming and quicker delivery of multimedia internet content. As such, in hopes of being at the forefront of a burgeoning market, content creators are using artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze large amounts of data and video.
And sports rights holders are doing the same.
Wimbledon and its continued partnership with IBM is a great example of this. Using IBM’s pioneering AI systems, the best highlights from multiple matches at the nearly 150-year-old tennis tournament have been captured concurrently.
With over 18 courts, up to four matches per day, and more than 147,000 points contested over the two weeks, hundreds of hours of Wimbledon footage are produced. To compile highlight packages, it normally would take a team of editors several hours.
However, thanks to IBM’s AI highlight system continuously tracking the action, highlight packages are created within minutes of a match finishing.
Most players aren’t even off the court by then.
The AI system ranks every point, watches player reactions — see Nick Kyrgios — analyzes gameplay statistics, and heeds crowd excitement levels. Wimbledon has used this to deliver emotion-driven, nail-biting, and unmissable moments throughout the match days and the overall tournament.
As a right’s holder, Wimbledon has been able to use IBM’s AI systems to better engage with its audience and create new conversations with fans this summer.
And it’s only a matter of time before IBM allows other major tournaments to deliver an immersive experience to fans through its artificial intelligence and sports analytics technology.
