PlaySight Interactive is a cloud-based sports technology company, offering its SmartCourt video and analytics platform across several sports, including tennis and basketball. There are close to 700 SmartCourts installed around the world, including with the NBA's Golden State Warriors and Phoenix Suns and close to 40 NCAA sports programs, including Harvard University, the University of Southern California, and Princeton University. The United States Tennis Association installed PlaySight's SmartCourt technology on 32 courts at its new national campus in Lake Nona, Florida. PlaySight was named one of Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies for 2017.
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Company history
In 2010, PlaySight was founded in Kfar Saba, Israel using technology with roots in the Israeli military. After years developing weaponry and war simulators for the Israeli army and other defense clients, the three partners looked to apply their skills and knowledge to a new challenge. After one of the partners, Evgeni Khazanov, observed his daughter's tennis practice, he wondered why a sport with so much money did not have any advanced technology to help players improve their game. It was from that idea that PlaySight was born.
PlaySight has continued to grow through partnerships and investment from players in the tennis industry including Billie Jean King, Ana Ivanovic, Chris Evert, Pete Sampras, Novak Djokovic, Tommy Haas, Paul Annacone, and Darren Cahill. Other notable investors include Bill Ackman, Mark Ein, Dr. James Loehr, Gordon Uehling III, and George Mackin. Since the technology was commercialized in 2013, the technology has been adapted for numerous other sports including soccer, martial arts, volleyball, squash, handball, gymnastics, dancing, hockey and wrestling. So far, PlaySight has raised over $20 million and now has offices in Kfar Saba, NewJersey and Los Angeles.
In June of 2017, Verizon Ventures and golfer Greg Norman announced an $11 million investment in PlaySight to further SmartCourt expansion in tennis, basketball and other sports and to also introduce the technology to golf.
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Method of operation
A PlaySight "SmartCourt" is a system of six fully automated high-definition permanently installed cameras and a touchscreen kiosk. The technology uses image processing and analytical algorithms to track strokes, ball trajectory, player movement and shot speed and spin. PlaySight's SmartCourt system provides players and coaches instant multi-angle video and detailed statistics through the court side kiosk. Their cloud-based platform allows teams to live stream matches and stores all video from SmartCourt sessions for coaches and players to review later from any web enabled device.
PlayFair challenge
Cheating has become a prominent issue in tennis particularly on junior circuits where players call their own lines. PlaySight developed the idea of PlayFair Tournaments that use the line-calling feature of PlaySight's SmartCourt technology to tackle the cheating problem in tennis. These tournaments allow players to challenge close line calls and use the PlaySight court side kiosk to access video replay to confirm or overrule the call. PlayFair Tournaments have been organized at both the junior club and collegiate levels.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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