America’s National Football League (NFL) has made Sony its official technology partner and provider of its official headphones. The Japanese electronics firm will work with the league to develop a new sidelines headset for coaches, enabling them to talk to one another over a private, 5G wireless connection, to be supplied by Verizon. The device will be used next season.
Meanwhile, Sony is refining its tracking system, produced by Sony subsidiary Hawk-Eye Innovations, to “enhance the accuracy of game-critical items like line-to-gain measurement.” Such measurements have long been under the analog care of a “chain gang” that trots onto the field between plays. According to the AP, which has spoken with the NFL’s Chief Information Officer, Gary Brantley, the system will undergo tests during the forthcoming pre-season. “We’re in the installation phase for all of our stadiums, really getting them calibrated and up to date,” Brantley said. The chain gang will, in time, be relegated to back-up duty.
(The AP, incidentally, has had its own deal with Sony, its exclusive provider of imaging products and support, since 2020.)
The substitution of computers, with their all but instantaneous judgments, seems unlikely to win universal acclaim. Sony’s President and Chief Operations Officer, Neal Manowitz, has made one argument in its favor to AS USA: “We’re reducing a significant amount of time, 40 seconds for each time of use that basically is making the game that much more impactful.”
By Sony’s own account, Hawk-Eye “has supported the NFL Officiating Department to review and make critical rulings on plays” to help “achieve the highest level of integrity for the game.” Moreover, the system’s data will pair with the NFL’s own Next Gen Stats – which rely on both Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Sony’s Beyond Sports visualization tech – to generate “content” for broadcasts on ESPN and Disney+.
Earlier this month Hawk-Eye Innovations signed a multi-year extension of its deal with the All England Lawn Tennis Club, the body behind the Wimbledon tournament, for which it provides computerized line calls and visualizations.
