Hawk-Eye – the sports technology you should know about

[_J.G.M_]

In the professional sports world, there are always moments that unfold too quickly or are too complicated to be tracked by the human eye. That’s where Hawk-Eye technology comes into play.

What is Hawk-Eye?

The two main technologies that Hawk-Eye provides are ball tracking and Synchronised Multi-Angle Replay Technology (SMART) video replay.

Ball tracking technology has been integrated into various services, including Electronic Line Calling (ELC) and Goal Line Technology (GLT), and SMART video replay has been adopted by football Video Assistant Referees (VARs) and rugby Television Match Officials (TMOs).

How did its development begin?

Paul Hawkins, the founder of Hawk-Eye, established this idea of ball tracking (based on missile tracking technology) back in 2001. Initially, the technology was developed to make cricket more enjoyable for viewers, but it quickly expanded to cover a variety of other ball sports, including tennis, football, badminton, and volleyball.

In 2006, Hawk-Eye entered the global spotlight following the introduction of the Challenge System at international tennis competitions. With Hawk-Eye technology in place, a player can challenge the umpire’s judgement, and within mere seconds, the trajectory of a high-speed ball and where it landed can be accurately analysed using the video footage taken by multiple cameras around the court.

Hawk-Eye became a Sony Group company in 2011.

How does ball tracking work?

Using the scenario above as an example, optical 2D vision processing finds the centre of the ball, 3D triangulation models the ball’s flight over time, and typically, between eight and twelve cameras running at frame rates of up to 340 frames per second will be recording the game. The data captured is fed into a central control system that can deliver a variety of real-time services, including officiating solutions, broadcast enhancements, and data streams.

How does SMART video replay work?

If you’re a football fan, you’ll likely be familiar with SMART video replay technology, as it is a popular tool for football VARs.

The technology encodes video at up to 340 frames per second in real-time with minimal image degradation and encodes multiple resolutions so that the output device can select the optimal proxy video size on a per-frame basis. Previously, the same footage had to be sent to all parties involved, but with SMART replay, officials, medical staff and broadcasters can access the scenes they personally need, from any angle, at the same time, without the need for further equipment or operators.

How is Hawk-Eye technology being used to support the sports industry in light of COVID-19?

Hawk-Eye’s real-time line-calling system (Hawk-Eye Live) is now being used at several international tennis tournaments to remove the need for line judges on-court. The aim is not to replace umpires and referees, only to support them, but it could help maintain social distancing and limit the spread of COVID-19.

Following the outbreak of COVID-19, Hawk-Eye have also started providing remote replay services, allowing a replay operator to use the system from their home to make live-to-air cuts.

For golf matches, a system that links official data to video feeds and automatically tags which golfer is on which hole allows operators to quickly jump to the video feed they want to replay. This, and the fact that the operator can now provide broadcast replays from home on a 10Mbps consumer internet connection, significantly changes the industry’s workflow.

What does the future hold for Hawk-Eye?

Hawk-Eye technology is currently used in over 20 sports, and not only ball sports, but for athletics, and even motorsports. Ball tracking has started to be used for strategy analysis and scouting, and multi-angle viewing for matches shown on television and in videos is also under consideration.

With innovation at the core, the possibilities truly are abundant as we continue to leverage emerging technologies in new and different ways to provide value for sporting professionals, producers, and fans across the world.

Where do you think this technology should be utilised next?

This article has been adapted from a piece on Sony.net. The original can be found here: https://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/technology/stories/Hawk-Eye/