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Tennis Simulators

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Tennis Simulators ABOUT HAWK-EYE Hawk-Eye is the most sophisticated officiating tool used in any sport. It is accurate, reliable and practical, with fans around the globe now expecting and demanding it to be a part of every event. Annually Hawk-Eye is involved in over 100+ events worldwide including: The Wimbledon Championships, The Cricket World Cup, World Championships Snooker and the Indian Premier League.

Since its inception in 1999, Hawk-Eye has diversified and adapted to remain at the cutting edge of sports technology and broadcasting. It is now a fundamental part of tennis, cricket and football officiating, whilst consistently delivering insightful statistical analysis for multiple sports. Hawk-Eye has also diversified into the gaming entertainment industry by providing the technology platform for ‘Smaaash’, an immersive cricket simulator experience. This unique game was launched in November 2012 by Sachin Tendulkar in Mumbai, India (www.smaaash.in). Over 95,000 games of ‘Masterblaster’ have been played to date.

Hawk-Eye’s football simulator technology has been used for global brand exposure by the automotive giant Ford at the Champion’s League Final in Germany (2012) and the sporting goods brand Puma in Spain to launch their World Cup football boot (2014). The tennis simulator has been used by leading brands Credit Suisse and Ricoh (2014).

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WHY HAWK-EYE INNOVATIONS TENNIS SIMULATOR SYSTEM? The Hawk-Eye brand is renowned for cutting-edge, reliable and accurate ball tracking, especially within Tennis. The Hawk-Eye tennis simulator uses this expertise to provide a unique and immersive tennis serve experience for players of all ages and abilities. The Hawk-Eye tennis simulator has been used across a number of leading English Universities which have showcased various global brands and provided memorable and engaging experiences for the users.

CASE STUDY: In November 2014, over 2,000 people played the tennis simulator at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. So far the system has had two Wimbledon Champions play the game; Roger Federer and Marion Bartoli. At all events the tennis simulator structure provides great brand exposure given the size of the structure and the aesthetic look and feel of setup. The tennis simulator has been proven to be reliable, accurate and engaging.

THE GAME:

The game is played by serving into a screen, which has a Virtual Reality projected onto it. The Hawk-Eye tracking technology will then track the ball from the player’s racket to the screen. Once it reaches the screen, a trajectory of the ball into the virtual reality is shown, of where the ball would have gone if the serve was carried out on a normal tennis court.

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The object of the game is to serve as fast as possible while maintaining the necessary accuracy for the ball to land in the service box so that the ball is considered ‘in’. The virtual reality is set out to replicate a tennis court and so the participant can gain an idea of where they need to serve to get the ball in. The participant is given a customisable amount of time (usually a minute) where they can hit as many serves as possible. The game also comes with in-game sounds; however these can be turned on/off as requested. Throughout the day(s) a leader-board of the top ten fastest serves can be displayed for both men and women participants. There can be up to three different sub-categories of the leader-boards e.g. under 12’s, under 18’s and adults.

CASE STUDY: The tennis simulator was launched in January 2014 in

partnership with ‘Credit Suisse’; Roger Federer was the

brand ambassador for the tennis simulator event. The

Credit Suisse recruitment drive occurred at seven leading

English Universities.

HOW IT WORKS: The tennis simulator system utilises two tracking cameras operating at 120 frames per second to obtain the position of the ball (x, y, z positions) in three dimensional space in time (t). The space in the real world is calibrated with the virtual world, to provide an accurate projection of where the ball would have gone on a full size tennis court. As the position of the ball is known at a number of points in time, speed can easily be calculated. This impressive technology uses filtering to ensure the ball being tracked is the one in motion and not the balls that are on the floor. As a result the game can continue to be played with other balls in the field of view of the cameras. For each serve the 3D virtual trajectory of the serve is displayed and, if the serve is in, there are over 10 different outcomes that can be displayed. The faster the serve the higher the power bar animates, and based on the power of the serve an appropriate text appears above the power bar.

At each venue a leader-board of the top

ten fastest serves was displayed for both

men and women. The winner of each

category won £200 at the end of each day.

The competitive nature of the simulator

proved very popular with many players

returning multiple times.

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SYSTEM INSTALLATION: The tennis simulator is constructed in a modular design (see below) using lightweight, flat pack trussing manufactured from composite materials with an aluminium core. The trussing can be simply erected in 4.5 hours and uninstalled in less than 2.5 hours per venue based on a six man crew.

The system can be used with a custom trussing system and design as long as the requirements for the project and light levels are maintained. We would look to work with our partner to deliver a custom bespoke solution. MULTI-SPORT SIMULATORS Whether it’s testing service speeds, taking a penalty in the Champions League Final or receiving a cricket delivery from one of the world’s finest spin bowlers, Hawk-Eye can create unrivalled at-event experiences across multiple sports. Interested in other sport simulators? Get in touch: Email: contactus@hawkeyeinnovations.com Telephone: +44 (0)1256 822080 Website: www.hawkeyeinnovations.com