One of the three most important technological storylines from this 2014 NFL season is Zebra Technologies’ RFID chips.
From the outset, players have had to wear two tags inside their shoulder pads, provided they were in one of the 17 launch stadiums. This player-tracking technology was most visible during the NFL’s Thursday Night Football, where the league’s NFL Network would showcase it on the broadcast. The player orientation derived from these chips dispels positional and location-based data, which the league wants to collect and produce proprietary new statistics in real-time. By doing so, more possibilities to enhance fan experiences would emerge, especially for media consumption purposes.
Zebra’s MotionWorks functions as the tech hub for this analytical endeavor. It’s this kind of technology that enables fans to see stats that wouldn’t otherwise be immediately available, especially on TV. Coaches would be able to clearly identify certain player miscues that have been broadly labeled in the past. The questions for who, when, and how so for any play can be traced back to its origin–the new metrics just need to be defined at greater granular levels.
The spatial nature of the sport becomes quantifiable.
The RFID chips generates transmission that delineates acceleration, velocity, distance run, and impact measurements, among other information, in real-time to receivers in the venue. Once housed in a database, graphics or tables can be yield to the end-user’s display interface. The means in which the data is gathered and broadcast integration always remains consistent. It’s the programming that can be altered for the specifications of the football game, which speaks to MotionWork’s ability to be flexible. This entire process occurs within a couple seconds window during the game.
“The first year of this partnership has exceeded our expectations. Zebra’s world-class player-tracking technology has revolutionized the data collection process for NFL players, coaches, broadcasters, and fans by delivering ‘Next-Gen Stats’ in real-time,” Jill Stelfox, Zebra Technologies’ Vice President of Location Solutions, tells SportTechie.
Accordingly, the University of Phoenix Stadium represents the 18th site that this technology will be deployed–a Super Bowl first–which has been outfitted with 22 receivers mounted between the upper and lower decks.
The fact that these RFID chips conveniently fit inside the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks’ shoulder pads and can withstand the physicality of the sport, it gives Zebra’s MotionWorks an edge over competing tracking technologies–like Bluetooth or some GPS devices–to ensure the fulfillment of speed and accuracy for its data. This season, 30 percent of a player’s effort on game-day comes from warm-ups would be one statistic that has been discerned thus far. Being far less intrusive also bodes well, both for the players and TV producers–no need for extracurricular activities to be demystified further.
Stelfox mentions the additional use cases for the teams besides what the coaches want: “Athletic trainers can utilize the Zebra Sports Solution for player wellness-tracking, including player participation, practice observation, and high risk activity.”
RFID’s capabilities lets the NFL to control the rate in which data points are transmitted prudently coupled with new insights gleaned for NBC’s telecast and the venue’s video boards–a comparable effect to what the league did social media-wise for last year’s Super Bowl. By and large, the output has been revealed via replays and infographics after being initially received by the broadcaster near-live; expect more of the same display mechanisms during the big game.
Last week at the Pro Bowl, though, the NFL debuted a Wilson football integrated with Zebra’s RFID chip. Just about every ball, actually, possessed this tech inside of it. It’s one of the missing pieces in this analytical puzzle. Unfortunately, this high-tech infused ball won’t see the lights of the Super Bowl–left solely to the league’s Pro Bowl, where innovation is far more permissible.
For Zebra Technologies, having the stakeholders believe that the complete fan experience has been improved as a byproduct of its tags would justify a win at the Super Bowl XLIX. The reception from all these parties should be fulfilled, considering the expedited vehicle to stream the data and exposing novel statistics to such a large audience.
Next season, the remaining stadiums will be installed, including Wembley Stadium in London. A lot of information that can extracted is unknown. Zebra Technologies and the NFL will continue to work together to make sense of the data for practical reasons–cannot be data for the interest of data alone. Revenue and medical applications are in the distant future. Conservatism tends to be league’s position for technological advancements–in spite of its adoption for player-tracking tech in real games, ahead of the pack for players wearing it.
“We’re hoping fans get an advanced look at what’s happening on the field and an overall enhanced viewing experience, both in-stadium and at home via the broadcast,” says Stelfox.
