Intriguing new technology to be made available at the grassroots of the game

About PlaySight’s SmartCourt technology

Based on concepts originally designed to train fighter pilots, PlaySight‘s SmartCourt is an affordable, proprietary technology that is easily installed at tennis facilities and private courts. The SmartCourt provides players with professional real time (and post session) match statistics, analytics, line-calling and video. SmartCourt’s combined capabilities dramatically enhance the tennis-playing experience and greatly improve training and coaching efficiency.

Using five HD cameras, PlaySight’s SmartCourt automatically classifies and tags all the events that take place during a session without the need for court-side operators or wearable sensors. Players can watch selected events (e.g. every backhand down the line that went long), with no need to watch the whole video or manually tag it. PlaySight is also able to record 3D tactical game management information including the height of balls over the net, speed of every shot and the depth of balls hit within the court. The SmartCourt is easily operated by the players through a courtside kiosk and all video and data can be shared within seconds with coaches, friends and family at remote locations. Players can also track distance covered and calories burned during a match or practice session.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140519005401/en/PlaySight-Closes-3.5m-Investment-Fund-Global-Roll-out

Djokovic and Billie Jean King are both investors. It is supposedly a relatively inexpensive system that provides pro level information ranging from line calls to distance covered, net clearance, distance ran etc. to a tennis match. It even lets you instantaneously send it to a coach anywhere in the world for analysis or focus the video analysis on one shot in particular. Really intriguing if it is affordable enough I could see every academy and even high level clubs using it. Again it all depends on the price tag. I would love to know this information as a player.

That sounds expensive to me. Maybe for a rich club with 20 courts to set up on 1 court.

There's also a security question - do you have to carry the 5 HD cameras home with you, lock them somewhere in the clubhouse, or leave them on the court. Unless they are left on the court then it's a hassle to set up. If they are left on the court you will need a 6th camera somewhere to record the video of someone stealing the first 5 cameras.

Jeez, who needs a machine to call lines in a social match? We all know when we hit the ball out pretty much all the time anyway, and if it's social then we trust the opponent. If it's competitive then having people calling lines is great, makes it 'real'.

As for the coaching, then maybe. I dunno, I remember enjoying tennis far more when I knew least. I always say that when I knew less I used to walk off court remembering the really good shots; when I got coached, knew more, and got better I walked off remembering the bad ones. That feels deep somehow

Bill - don't forget the security for the 6th camera.

I think if I knew my actual winners:UEs ratio, I might give up playing altogether.

I don't think it is for every court or every player. But there are a lot of academies that could make good use of this for competitive juniors, also to have this technology at the junior, future, and challenger level makes sense to me. It is a teaching tool as it can highlight and focus the coach in on technical issues in a players game. A good coach, can see your problems by watching you live and just watching you hit. But this is a tool that can real help to fine tune things. I would love to play on a court with this technology and get video and a statistical breakdown. Sure I might not like the UEs to Winner ratio or miles and hour on my second serve stat being public knowledge but it can help a great deal. It is like the smartphone giving you a bunch of apps and bells and whistles that as a whole enhance the functionality of coaching.

The website shows where they have the technology installed but socal is out of luck unless he travels some way east (the closest to him is probably UGA). In the UK we have 2 (Stoke Park and Queens); France has 1 at RG; the Netherlands seem to have a couple and Sweden has 3.