INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
full name, has been an indelible part of the sporting ecosystem since for over 150 years now, and now forms one of the four major global
tennis tournaments.But despite its long-standing history and famous traditions, Wimbledon is rapidly becoming one of the most
technology-friendly sporting tournaments in the UK, if not the world.Ahead of this weekend's finals, TheIndianSubcontinent Pro headed along
Housing the hundreds of journalists that cover the tournament every year, the facility is also home to the myriad of TV and online
broadcasters, whose content is provided to them by the club itself.But powering all of this top-end tennis action is a high-powered AI
The computing giant has been working with Wimbledon and the AELTC since 1990, and is now using its world-famous Watson AI technology to make
Seddon, IBM Wimbledon client and programme executive, who heads up the team at the All-England Club.Seddon took TheIndianSubcontinent Pro on
a tour of the bunker, which is lined with screens showing the wealth of real-time data from every game taking place
He notes that Wimbledon 2017 saw 4.8 million data points recorded during the Championships, and more is expected this year
also made available to the players and their coaches, allowing them to identify what areas of their game needs improvement - and can even be
with an IPTV system that delivers HD-quality footage of every court, allowing the team to quickly access records of each point.The footage
Last year saw the AI platform used to help create highlights for the first time, and Wimbledon 2018 takes it a step further
Watson analyses a number of areas to spot the key action points, including the noise level of the crowd, and even celebrations or gestures
from the players, to identify what are the real highlights of a match,Seddon notes that thanks to Watson, the production time of creating
the highlights packages (pictured below) has been cut down from 45 minutes in 2017 to just five minutes this year - meaning players can look
infrastructure to support it, though, and IBM has all this covered.The work is supported end-to-end entirely by IBM, with a hybrid cloud
platform that stretches across the globe
Although there are no data centres on-site, the information from every court is sent out to four IBM data centres in San Jose, Montreal,
Tokyo and London, with updates to a live scoreboard being available within a matter of seconds.IBM and Watson are also helping safeguard the
tournament from cyber-threats
Although Seddon notes that there is little of value on Wimbeldon.com save the tournament logo, the AELTC is incredibly proud of its image
times last year, with assaults from all around the world, so the need for rigorous cyber defences is paramount
Watson is able to continually monitor for threats, and identify key areas of interest that can be quickly blocked.Ultimately, IBM and
includes a dedicated Facebook chatbot which allows fans to see scores from every match in real-time, as well as signing up for updates on
their favourite players whenever they take to the court.Linked to the official Ask Fred AI service on Wimbledon.com, this makes the
tournament more accessible and personal than ever before, which Seddon says is hoped to boost viewer numbers and interactions even further
than before - not bad for an organisation that celebrated its 150th anniversary last year.Qm7D7oFZ5KfnnZZZc5D3pf.jpg#
