The NHL takes another step forward in data, analytics, and puck and player tracking.
The competition has reached an agreement with Amazon Web Services to put all of its video and data in the cloud. The hope is to provide an integrated view of the game for everyone from coaches, executives and players to fans, using new camera angles, artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Being able to search and sort each player’s speed, speed, and more isn’t there yet, but this is a starting point.
Before we can start building, let’s just say that as a new augmented reality app that fans in the arena can use to get real-time stats and feedback on puck and player tracking while sitting and watching the game, there is a lot of infrastructure that needs to be in place, ”said Dave Lehanski, NHL Executive VP of Business Development and Innovation.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon Web Services, revealed the deal on NBC Sports Network late Wednesday. Bettman said the “state-of-the-art technology and services enable us to deliver analytics 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 Stats, the Seattle Seahawks have also used it to study exercise habits.
“There is potentially a lot of opportunity for coaching staff to actually help their teams get better just by learning where players can be efficient, where there are some opportunities to better coordinate,” said Matt Garman, VP of sales and marketing at AWS.
Later this season, fans who look up statistics on the NHL website will receive accompanying video clips and vice versa. The league expects to have new 4K cameras mounted on the center scoreboard of each arena by at least adding different angles to the playoffs.
Despite all the data puck and player tracking, that video could enable Amazon’s AI to collaborate even more on goaltending, face-offs, stick positioning and potentially pave the way for new stats and analytics.
“It’s just the beginning of where this is going,” said Lehanski. “It reminds you of the number of opportunities ahead.”
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