Sportvision Captures 10th Emmy Award

Sportvision, an innovator of digital sports content, broadcast enhancements, and motion tracking data aggregation, has captured its 10th Emmy Award, as the company was recognized in conjunction with the America’s Cup Event Authority and Versus for the America’s Cup LiveLine Innovation.  LiveLine is a breakthrough data and graphics system for sailing, developed exclusively for America’s Cup broadcasts.

Among the company’s 10 Emmy Awards, this latest achievement marks the fifth occasion that Sportvision has been honored with the prestigious George Wensel Outstanding Technical Achievement Award, recognizing extraordinary technical innovation that enhances the broadcast for viewers.  The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) announced the winners of the 33rd Annual Sports Emmy Awards at a special ceremony on Monday, April 30, at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City.

“Winning our 10th Emmy Award is a great honor, and truly validates the impact our technology has had in the growth and popularity of a wide spectrum of sports,” said Mike Jakob, president, Sportvision, Inc.  “We are thrilled to share this Emmy with the America’s Cup Event Authority, who has been a wonderful and inspired partner throughout this effort.”

Underscoring the technology used for revolutionary innovations such as Sportvision’s Emmy-Award winning Yellow 1st & Ten Line and RACEf/x System for NASCAR, the LiveLine System overlays geo-positioned lines and data streams at an accuracy of within an inch on live race course video shots that are taken from rapidly moving helicopter and water-based platforms.  This system serves to more effectively educate the global viewing audience by providing analysts with more tools, via visuals & graphics, to support their commentary.

The LiveLine superimposed graphic elements and visuals are used as technical aids, revealing information such as ahead-behind lines that clearly distinguish who is leading the race, and official out-of-bounds and turn markers that clearly reveal course boundaries.  Further, a trail of dotted lines is used to track the path of each respective boat disappearing gradually into the water, while the system also displays graphics above each mast identifying the boat and its speed.

As the demand for precise performance data continues to grow across all sports, Sportvision remains at the forefront of developing and implementing data capture and visualization applications.  While these comprehensive data sets are being used to enhance television broadcasts and Internet and wireless applications for multiple sports, they are also being evaluated by executives, analysts, physicists, and fantasy players by delivering performance data that has never been available.  With LiveLine, racing teams, officials and avid fans have the opportunity to analyze and quantify the new data sets, to better understand the intricacies of sailing, while teams can leverage the data to support race management operations.

Added Jakob, “We continue to see the popularity of sailing grow on an International level, and our team is committed to developing and implementing innovative technology that serves to enrich the viewing audience, while more effectively communicating the intricacies of the sport through enhanced visuals.”