The cameras were to be following the crowd, as well as the on-court action, when the Euroleague basketball playoffs started yesterday.
Facial recognition technology, along with video and audio analytics and social media, will be used to provide content for a free mobile app, with younger audiences mostly in mind.
The players will also be wearing “smart” shirts with sensors on the back, while coaches have tech bracelets to measure stress levels.
The HEED app maps out the pulse of the game, using artificial intelligence (AI) to detect significant “micro moments” with video and data displays sent to the app in real time.
“It’s the first time that AI and IoT [Internet of Things] have been incorporated into a major sports league,” HEED business development executive Lawrence Norman said.
HEED’s partnership with Euroleague extends beyond the Final Four in Belgrade next month.
The cameras and microphones are to measure the energy and excitement of players and coaches, with the AI able to distinguish cheers, chants and boos.
“We are looking at the fans and saying the fans are the storytellers of the game,” HEED cofounder Mati Kochavi last week told a SportsPro Live conference in London.
He likened the app to having a robot watching the game from all angles and sending regular updates based on AI rather than human observation.
“He’s going to tell you that something is shifting and changing in the game or something special is happening. He’s also going to connect it to the visual in order to represent it,” Kochavi said.
While the analytics would be ready almost instantly, video could take up to two minutes to package and deliver.
“Fans are watching less and less the full matches — this is a fact,” HEED chief executive Danna Rabin said. “Being able to draw them in, in a unique way, you have a higher likelihood to connect them back to broadcasting in many ways and to different sport categories.”
Player comfort had been a concern around using wearable technology, as well as ensuring the aims are clearly understood, Euroleague chief business officer Roser Queralto said.
“It was not only: ‘Here, you put this shirt on, the Euroleague said it,’” she said. “We wanted the players to understand that the days in which they were only playing, those are over. They need to be active and they need to embrace the new technology.”
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