The NHL is taking another step forward in data, analysis and tracking of discs and players.
The league reached an agreement with Amazon Web Services to place all of its videos and data in the cloud. The hope is to provide everyone, from coaches, executives and players to fans, with an integrated view of the game with the help of new camera angles, artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Being able to research and rank each player’s speed, shooting speed and more is not yet here, but this is a starting point.
“Before we start building, say, as a new augmented reality app that fans can use in the arena to get real-time statistics and disc and player tracking feedback while sitting and watching the game, there’s a lot of infrastructure that it needs to be in place, ”said Dave Lehanski, executive VP of business development and innovation at NHL. “There is an enormous amount that we will be able to do.”
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy announced the deal on the NBC Sports Network on Wednesday night. Bettman said that “cutting edge technology and services will provide us with resources to provide analysis and insights that highlight the speed and skill of our game.”
The NFL, Formula 1, Bundesliga football and Six Nations rugby already use Amazon Web Services, along with individual teams. In addition to the NFL’s “NextGen Statistics”, the Seattle Seahawks used their study practice habits.
“There is potentially a great capacity for training teams to really help their teams improve by just learning where players can be effective, where there are some opportunities to better coordinate,” said Matt Garman, vice president of sales and marketing at AWS.
Later this season, fans looking for statistics on the NHL website will get corresponding video clips and vice versa. The league hopes to have new 4K cameras mounted on the center scoreboard of each arena at least in the playoffs to add different angles.
For all the data the puck and player tracking can provide, this video will allow Amazon’s AI to gather even more about goalkeeper, head-to-head, positioning the stick and possibly pave the way for new statistics and analysis.
“It’s just the beginning of where this is going,” said Lehanski. “It kind of melts your mind with the number of opportunities before us.”
___
More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports