In the GoalControl system, seven cameras on each end of the field track the ball's flight in three dimensions and send a wireless goal alert to the referees' watches if it crosses the goal line.
IMAGES COURTESY OF GOALCONTROL GMBH
Infinitesimal margins—whether a baseball landed in fair territory, or a football crossed the plane of the goal—can send one team to victory and the other to defeat. Until recently, those inches and centimeters have been difficult for officials to measure—leaving plenty of room for debate.
That's changing, thanks to tech projects deploying advanced video capture, sensor analysis, data transmission, and processing and storage capabilities. Sports leagues worldwide are racing to test and implement new technologies that add precision and authority to the way games are officiated—and reduce doubt about final scores. Project managers are finding themselves in a new field of play, doing high-profile work that helps referees make the right call or athletes boost performance. Football, American football, hockey, auto racing and cricket are among the sports for which tech projects deliver game-changing results.
For the first time in World Cup history, matches played in Brazil last year weren't only officiated by referees. Seven cameras on each end of the tournament's football fields tracked the ball's flight in three dimensions and sent a wireless goal alert to the referees’ watches if it crossed the goal line. That's how the GoalControl system works.
“Goal-line technology will become a permanent part of football in all the major football leagues,” says Dirk Broichhausen, managing director of Goal-Control GmbH, Würselen, Germany. “The technology is mature and reliable, and we are focusing on new applications.”
Anticipating a demand for interactive replay technology, GoalControl and its partners have launched projects to develop applications giving sports fans access to replays of goal-line incidents and other on-field moments—whether on a TV, a tablet or a smartphone.
“Goal-line technology will become a permanent part of football in all the major football leagues. The technology is mature and reliable, and we are focusing on new applications.”
—Dirk Broichhausen, GoalControl GmbH, Würselen, Germany
These types of projects often involve narrow time frames and accelerated deadlines, which means project managers must take a creative approach to deliver initiatives on time—and on target.
A NEW PROJECT ARENA
The United States’ National Football League (NFL) just completed its second year using a real-time location system in which each of the 22 players on the field is tracked using two radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags. The project to launch this technology was run by Zebra Technologies Inc., a Lincolnshire, Illinois, USA-based provider of RFID solutions.
Zebra traditionally manufactured bar-code labels and supplied hardware and software packages for factory and supply-chain management, mostly for automakers. But the company's leaders saw untapped project potential. Real-time transmission speeds allow RFID technology to convey information about motion, which has applications across sectors.
“We took a whiteboard and wrote out industries and use cases where speed of information mattered. We actually wrote, ‘where real-time decisions could change the game,’” remembers Jill Stelfox, vice president and general manager, location solutions group, Zebra, San Jose, California, USA. The sports industry was on the list, along with healthcare and oil and gas. Precise data detailing players’ location and movements could be valuable to stats-hungry fans and coaches alike.
Ms. Stelfox approached the NFL about a collaborative trial project in which Zebra could test its MotionWorks Sports Solution product in two NFL stadiums during the 2013 season. The primary goal of the project was to create new opportunities for fan engagement. Ms. Stelfox proposed Detroit, Michigan, USA's Ford Field (close to Zebra's auto industry-focused offices in the area) and Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, home to the San Francisco 49ers and close to Ms. Stelfox's office.
“Proximity is extremely useful during the development phase because it keeps logistics from getting in the way of your velocity. It allows you to keep your momentum,” says Mike King, program manager for Zebra's NFL partnership in San Jose, California, USA.
In the 49ers’ brand-new Levi's Stadium, installation proved easy: Zebra servers are racked in the venue's server room and data is shared easily via alldigital connections. The only challenge was providing planning documents of sufficient specificity to stadium personnel.
AGAINST THE CLOCK
By the end of the 2013 season, the system was working so well at Levi's Stadium and Ford Field that the NFL awarded Zebra a contract to install its RFID system in 18 venues for the 2014 season, and then all 32 NFL venues for 2015.
But as lawyers from the NFL and Zebra negotiated the contract in the second quarter of 2014, another project management challenge emerged: The team would have to race to install RFID systems in the 18 venues, including Wembley Stadium in London, which hosted three NFL games during the league's 2014 season. Scheduling was a major hurdle, as NFL teams have varying levels of ownership of and access to the stadiums in which they play. “Most days of the year, these places are filled with pop music concerts and monster truck rallies,” Ms. Stelfox says.
“Proximity [to stadiums] is extremely useful during the development phase because it keeps logistics from getting in the way of your velocity. It allows you to keep your momentum.”
—Mike King, Zebra Technologies Inc., San Jose, California, USA
Although the Zebra system takes only about a week to install, booking a week inside 18 stadiums was no easy feat. Mr. King's team spent months surveying each venue, working with each stadium on a final plan and hiring contractors to run cabling. The installations occurred from August, when the league's preseason games are played, into early September, concluding just as the regular season got underway.
Zebra Technologies' MotionWorks Sports Solution uses receivers installed throughout the stadiums to communicate with radio-frequency identification (RFID) transmitters placed inside the shoulder pads of each player to capture precise location measurements, in real-time, during the game.
IMAGES COURTESY OF ZIH CORP.
INSTANT GRATIFICATION
1955
A Canadian television producer makes the first attempt at instant replay on the program Hockey Night in Canada. After filming a television screen's live broadcast of a goal, the producer rapidly develops the film and rebroadcasts the goal minutes later.
1963
The first true instant replay is broadcast on the U.S. TV network CBS after a touchdown scored during a U.S. college football game.
1986
The National Football League launches an instant replay system to aid referees. After team owners complain about too many game delays, it is ended in 1991. (A revised system launches in 1999.)
1996
Europe's rugby Super League introduces video replays to review referees' calls.
2001
The International Rugby Board allows referees on the field to consult a "video referee" during rugby union matches.
2002
The United States’ National Basketball Association approves the use of instant replay to review shots made in the final seconds of play.
2006
Hawk-Eye, a technology that tracks a ball's trajectory, makes its Grand Slam tennis tournament debut at the U.S. Open. The following year, major tennis tournaments around the world adopt Hawk-Eye to more accurately determine where balls hit the court.
2008
The United States’ Major League Baseball begins using instant replay to determine contested home runs.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India allows players to appeal an umpire's call by calling for a video review.
2014
The World Cup tournament features the use of a goal-line technology (GoalControl) for the first time.
“It was a very accelerated timeline, and so that was where the most classic project-management aspects came into play,” says Mr. King. “We had to schedule everything collaboratively with the NFL and give them predicted dates. It was a classic ‘put the puzzle together’ situation given all the venues, blackout dates and other bandwidth constraints.”
Beyond scheduling, installation challenges emerged. For example, at O.co Coliseum in Oakland, California, where the Oakland Raiders play, there were power issues and IT infrastructure issues. “Finding a permanent location for our system meant finding a Harry Potter-esque room under the stairs, then converting it into something where server-based computers might reside for the next five to seven years,” says Mr. King.
“It's a great time to be a project manager in this space—there are ample opportunities.”
—Jouni Ronkainen, Hawk-Eye Innovations Ltd., Reading, England
Ultimately, not only did Zebra complete the stadiuminstallation process on schedule, it also brought its control center in San Jose, California, USA, online. Every tag reading from each of the 92 uniformed players on game day is sent there (in the NFL, each team sends 46 players to the field for potential play): That's 2,208 readings per second for just one game. During a Sunday afternoon with nine games played simultaneously, Zebra would record about 215 million readings.
Once the technology has been installed in every venue, the league is considering giving access to coaches and officials as well, Ms. Stelfox says. Thus far, the NFL has used Zebra's data to enhance the fan experience by providing additional statistics to viewers.
PLAYER VS. PLAYER
The race to fuse sports and technology is nearly as competitive as the games themselves. In December, just months after GoalControl's triumphant assignment at the World Cup, Hawk-Eye Innovations Ltd. announced it would provide a similar goal-line solution for Germany's top football league, the Bundesliga, in 2015.
The sports-tech industry “has exploded, and it's changing very quickly,” says Jouni Ronkainen, senior product manager, Hawk-Eye, Reading, England. “It's a great time to be a project manager in this space—there are ample opportunities,” he says. “But there's less room for error because these types of projects are highly visible. Given the amount of competition, only the best products and services will thrive.”
Experts, including Mr. Ronkainen, expect consolidation in the sports-tech industry in the next few years, both in terms of the number of companies involved and the services they offer. He expects new projects to integrate video- and sensor-based solutions, and also add biomechanical and biometric tools to, for example, evaluate how tired an athlete is.
As the project landscape evolves, the competition will be fierce. Instead of inches and centimeters, however, the leaderboard will be set by milliseconds and terabytes. PM