PARAMUS, N.J.—Major League Baseball has deployed a sports tracking platform from Hawk-Eye Innovations North America at all 30 MLB ballparks and the temporary home of the Toronto Blue Jays in Buffalo, N.Y.
The Hawk-Eye optical tracking system and vision-processing technology makes possible live ball and player tracking to +/-0.1-inch accuracy with full-field coverage, the company said.
The system gives the league and each club a continuous data stream to assess what’s happening on the field. With the platform, they can inspect pitcher-batter mechanics, pitch execution, batted-ball trajectory and defense metrics, it said.
“We are already seeing excellent results during the early part of our season. We set a high bar for performance of the new tracking system, and Hawk-Eye has consistently met and exceeded those expectations,” said Jason Gaedtke, MLB chief technology officer. “We look forward to working with… [Hawk-Eye Innovations] to continue to innovate on this platform in the years ahead.”
The Hawk-Eye platform integrates with MLB infrastructure and Google Cloud to power the league’s Statcast system. It provides the statistics system with more accurate data and advanced metrics, the company said.
MLB selected the Hawk-Eye platform following an extensive competitive evaluation process. As part of the multi-year deal, Hawk-Eye Innovations will provide tracking and analytics services at all MLB parks and facilities, the company said.
Using 12 high-resolution, high-frame rate video cameras installed at each park, the tracking platform synchronizes and analyzes camera video to detect and track ball and player movement. Besides previously available data sets, the new platform provides real-time player pose and motion analysis by measuring multiple points on the body 30 times per second, the company said.
“Fans can enjoy baseball on a deeper level with increased stats on a specific player,” said Dr. Paul Hawkins, founder of Hawk-Eye Innovations. “Working together with MLB, we’re advancing our data capture service as the next core of our business.”
Since 2014, MLB has used the company’s Synchronized Multi-Angle Replay Technology (SMART) video replay and distribution system to support the challenge system used in its Replay Review.
Hawk-Eye Innovations North America is a Sony group company.
More information is available on the Hawk-Eye Innovations website.
