With the Wimbledon tennis championships 11 days away, Karl Cushing
looks at how technology helps players, officials and fans keep on
top of their game
The All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club, home of the
Wimbledon tennis tournament, may have a reputation for being stuffy
and traditional but in one way at least its outlook is progressive.
Technology is everywhere at Wimbledon, most of it unseen, and the
IT professionals that keep it running are the unsung heroes of the
championships.
IBM, the club's IT supplier, employs a team of about 180 during the
championships to deliver a volley of stats and results as well as
the back-room systems. Probably the most important, IT-related role
is that of the data entry operative. "Data entry is pivotal to all
the services we provide," explains Mark McMurragh, IBM's director
for Wimbledon. "It's the start of everything." It's also a
high-pressured role, says McMurragh, requiring a considerable
concentration, speed and accuracy.
Another requirement is a sound knowledge of tennis. The 60 or so
data entry staff are all county-level tennis players and working in
pairs they analyse, define and input every stroke played. The ones
on the main televised courts are armed with laptops and headsets.
On the outer courts, they use personal digital assistants (PDAs)
and cradles in the main IBM control room to upload the information
after the match has ended. All the information is input into the
central IBM computer.
The data from the courtside operatives fuels the two core pieces of
kit used during the championships: the Wimbledon Information System
(Wis) and the Commentator Information System. The former is a
browser-based intranet system that stores and collates all of the
information generated during the tournament. Since being introduced
in 1999 to replace an earlier system, the Wis has helped the club
to build up an impressive archive of information and database. The
match information stored in the central Wis server is also used to
create graphics for use on TV.
The Commentator Information System is a client/server application
which supplies analysis, details of the draw, order of play, player
comparisons and previous form. Every year more than 750 journalists
from over 52 countries attend the championships and this vast pool
of data feeds information-hungry tennis fans with an endless rally
of facts and figures. The system also helps commentators to keep
track of the action on all the other courts without leaving their
seats. It is supported by the commentator prompt service. For the
duration of the championships, tennis expert Keith Sohl remains in
the main control room, surrounded by facts and figures, and has the
job of sending messages to the commentators' screens each time a
point of interest occurs or is about to happen.
IT also plays a crucial role on the court. The Championships
Management System, supplied by EDH Tennis, supports the referee's
office with information relating to entries, draws, match
scheduling, results and prize money and last year the umpires used
handheld computer score-pads connected to the central systems, to
provide immediate results. Other applications assist in the
scheduling of officials for matches and arranging players'
interview schedules.
A favourite with the viewers is the radar gun, which records the
speed of the serves. The system is based on two specially designed
radar sensors positioned behind the baseline at either end of the
court. The gun, designed by IBM, made its debut at the 1991
championships on Centre Court and has been a regular fixture ever
since. Punters who fancy themselves as the next Goran Ivanisevic
can test their strength using IBM's Speed of Serve net in the Kids
Zone, behind Court 13 at Wimbledon, which uses the same technology.
The official Wimbledon Championships Web site, run by IBM on behalf
of the club, is the largest sports site hosted by the company and
at its peak is supported by four server farms based in the US.
"It's a technological feat," says McMurragh.
The site contains pictures; real-time match scores; an interactive
section which enables users to go on a virtual tour of the
facilities by controlling robotic cameras; video footage courtesy
of the Wimbledon Channel; broadcasts from Radio Wimbledon; and
archive footage courtesy of the Video Vault. Users can also
register to get results as text messages to their mobile phones or
as nightly
e-mail bulletins. For the humorous there is a monthly caption
competition, with Wimbledon merchandise the incentive. The online
shop boasts an alarming array of Wimbledon merchandise, from
strawberry patterned socks to giant tennis balls.
More than 3.2 million unique visitors from around the world visited
the Web site in 2001 and, according to McMurragh, the average visit
lasted 69 minutes. Over 800,000 unique users logged onto the site
in one day alone, after the men's final was delayed until the
Monday because of rain. However, despite its success, the role of
the Web site is downplayed by the club. As McMurragh explains, "The
club does not want the Web site to overtake the Wimbledon
experience, it wants it to complement it."
The Wimbledon championships are obviously the high point of the
year but for a core team of six IT professionals the job of
supporting the club is year-round. As Paul Figgins, IBM's Wimbledon
project manager, explains, as well as being the IT supplier for a
wide variety of systems at the All England Lawn Tennis Club,
including hardware, software and networks, IBM Global Services
provides consultancy and project management skills. A recent
example was the migration from Token Ring to an Ethernet
infrastructure using Cisco switches. Figgins says IBM worked
closely with the club on the project which, with its Gigabit
backbone, he claims is "fairly future proof". Other yearround
activities include maintaining the Web site and the AS/400 computer
that supports the club's administrative, financial, ticketing and
debenture systems.
Little new is happening on the technology front at this year's
championships, "It's really just a case of consolidating where we
are," says McMurragh. There will be a few tweaks and subtle
enhancements - such as extending the number of courts covered by
the radar gun, modifying the players' reports and putting PCs in
the players' lounge to provide access to the intranet. The main
development will be the pilot of a mobile application. The idea is
to send real-time match information direct to mobile devices such
as PDAs using BT's GPRS mobile network and a wireless Lan.
McMurragh stresses that the pilot is "very limited", using about 40
volunteers, but he says IBM will consider rolling out the service
next year if it proves successful.
McMurragh says technology plays a crucial role at the championship,
helping to open it up to a massive audience worldwide. However,
technology is just an enabler. One thing is clear: Wimbledon
doesn't do gimmicks. "We only use tried and tested technology at
Wimbledon," asserts McMurragh. "We don't deploy technology for the
sake of deploying technology."
Wimbledon online
- URL:
www.wimbledon.org
- Built in1995
- More than 3.2 million unique visitors visited the Web site in
2001, with over 800,000 unique users logging onto the site for the
men's singles final
- On average, each visitor was logged onto the site for 69
minutes per visit
- The biggest market is the US, accounting for about 60% of
users, but countries like China are coming on fast
- At present the site is only available in English but McMurragh
says IBM will consider translating it into other languages in the
future if it identifies sufficient demand
- Last year there were more than 145,000 updates a day when the
site was "running hot", says McMurragh.
Facts and figures
- IBM employs about 180 people during the championships
- More than 20 miles of cabling are installed at the club
(equivalent to the length of about 1,350 tennis courts)
- Over 250,000 tennis strokes are recorded and analysed during
the tournament, creating about 800 facts per match
- IBM installs about 160 systems for use during the event
- More than 140 countries rely on the statistical output, as well
as the on-site commentators and journalists
- During the championships, more than 200 desktop and Thinkpad
laptops are used
- The physical network is managed by IBM and Cisco. After last
year's championship the network was migrated from Token Ring to
Switched Ethernet over a Gigabit backbone.