Better known for strawberries and cream than cutting-edge technology, the
old-fashioned, gentrified image of Wimbledon has been shaken up of late as IBM propels the world’s oldest tennis tournament into the digital age. Jessica Davies goes behind the scenes to find out how tech is shaping Wimbledon’s future.
Wimbledon is the quintessential English garden of tennis. From the lavishly flower-strewn promenades and trellises, to the glasses of Champagne and Pimms and afternoon teas, there is no other grand slam like it – even the queuing system is exemplary. Huge effort goes into creating this sense of intimacy and elegance at what has become one of the top four global tennis championships. Yet beneath the surface of the courts, and running through the whole fabric of the tournament, is an invisible current of technology, furiously reshaping Wimbledon for the future.
Juggling its brand mantra of ‘tennis in an English garden’ while meeting the demands of a global audience whose thirst for real-time data updates – whether that be on mobile phone, tablet, website, TV or on the courts of SW19 themselves – continues to grow is challenging, which is where long-standing partner IBM steps in.
It is this partner that provides the connective tissue of technology which binds the tournament together. From the score screens on the courts, the umpires’ chairs, the TV screens, the digital Wimbledon properties and everything in between, IBM collects 41m playing points within the two weeks. The official Wimbledon website is updated 140,000 times a day to meet the demands of more than 20 million unique users.
To meet the increasing demand, IBM assigned around 200 staff to this year’s tournament – a large proportion of them tennis experts themselves. They are dotted around the courts, inputting data from each point played. This information is then fed through to another layer of ground staff, who check the data before it goes live.
2011 was the turning point in the 25-year-old partnership, when both companies decided to change the proposition to cater for future needs, according to Sam Seddon, Wimbledon client and programme executive, IBM.“The amount of data being captured, what’s involved with getting a single point on to the scoreboard, and the relationships between all the data touch points, is a major process. Everything has to be thought of, even things like where court sound comes from. “You have the tablets on each umpire’s chair pushing the scores on to the scoreboard; you have others putting the content on to the scoreboard; you have data entry people capturing the stats and pushing it out via the network environment; you have the TV screen being displayed in the commentator’s booth; then the Wimbledon information system, large-screen TVs in the grounds; then you have the websites and the mobile apps and all the digital properties. All of this has to work seamlessly within a couple of seconds to make the point come to life. That’s why we spend 50 weeks of the year planning for the other two,” he says. This year for the first time, IBM’s artificial intelligence super computer (and Jeopardy! champion) Watson has been brought into the plans to capture and analyse relevant data from multiple sources, to help it predict web traffic and proactively adjust the cloud infrastructure to accommodate demand. With today’s tech-savvy viewers, any time lag, buffering, slow loading or incorrect data feeds will be ruthlessly criticised. And to maintain its status as a world-class grand slam, Wimbledon must perform well not just in terms of the tennis courts, but also across its entire network of channels. It is for this reason that Watson has been deployed this year, and in time its presence may be put to even greater use.
Another new capability introduced for 2014 came from IBM working with Hawk-Eye, which provides the replay player challenge system, to unite their data sets and create the ability to track when a player has used ‘aggressive play’ to win a point. This information is assimilated by the two computers and fed out within seconds to the Wimbledon properties and scoreboards. Alex Willis, content and communications manager of Wimbledon organiser The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), says it continually strives to maintain the right blend of tradition and innovation. “Wimbledon has this wonderful luxury in that it is very traditional but very forward-thinking at the same time. When you go onto Centre Court, it is absolutely about the tennis experience, but if you look at the boards there is phenomenal technology behind it – the umpires have technology going through their chairs – it’s stuff you don’t even notice,” she says. This year, the data generated and analysed by IBM has played a vital part in content creation for Wimbledon’s social and digital channels, according to Willis.The strategy behind this is partly to crush any notion of it being perceived as a ‘stuffy’ private members’ club. To achieve this it launched the Wimbledon Social Command Centre which includes ‘Evolving Topics’ – which shows what topics are getting most attention – while showing what players are discussing, and what fans are saying about them on social media. It also reveals who has the greatest share of voice and a social heat map to locate social media conversation hotspots.
Yet AELTC’s social strategy has evolved far beyond the boundaries of the fortnight-long tournament and even the build-up to it. Willis’s aim is for Wimbledon to be brought to life throughout the year, keeping people engaged with its existence beyond the tournament. She says: “When I first started here in 2011, we had digital properties – the website and iPhone app – but didn’t have a strategy behind them. IBM came in and supported us around the Championships, but after that we kind of went dark. We decided we not only wanted to be a relevant presence year-round, but do what we do here at the grounds, which is to create an immaculate, beautiful Wimbledon experience, across all our digital platforms and make them truly reflect and replicate the brand.” Social allows the team to share images of the courts covered in snow, for example – something fans would not have seen. Willis says: “The whole point is that it gives them a flavour of what is happening with Wimbledon throughout the year; that it is not just about the Championship. But also it gives a very different experience from the TV, which doesn’t really convey the extent of the environment. We want to educate people that there are things going on such as the youth tennis club and the museum. It’s about saying Wimbledon doesn’t just shut up shop [after the tournament].” Yet unleashing such a bold digital strategy after years of dormancy wasn’t without its risks, Willis says. In overhauling the website, Wimbledon bucked the trend of grand slam sites layering streams and streams of information in an attempt to satisfy viewer appetites for content. “We stripped the site right back and focussed on a main image, which was a risk, but it paid off and now we have been nominated for awards.” As we bid farewell to 2014’s tournament, plans are already being crafted as to how future events could evolve. Of course there will probably be an expansion of mobile apps to other platforms, and possibly responsive redesigns to the digital platforms – but there are other opportunities which it is keen to explore, around proximity-based capabilities and wearable technology. For example, iBeacon technology could be an area it develops in future, as a means of further refining the Wimbledon experience for spectators. “You could imagine using iBeacons to provide useful information for visitors when they get off the Tube, for example,” adds Willis. “If they have a ticket they could be sent alerts via their phones to inform them where they need to queue, while those without tickets could also be pointed to their relevant queue, which could further speed up the process. Although we must be careful not to do it for the sake of doing it.” Athletes across the board are exploring wearable tech, whether it be during their workouts to track vitals, or on the field to measure fitness. Most of the clubs in the Aviva Rugby Premiership now wear GPS fitness monitors in the lining of their shirts so coaches can ascertain whether players need to be substituted. The Irish rugby team has even started experimenting with how data can be used to predict injury. Sports including hockey, rowing and cycling are all experimenting with wearable tech of some sort. Currently Wimbledon players are not permitted to wear devices on court, although IBM already tracks and analyses numerous data points on players, which it relays back to their coaches.
However, there could come a time when wearable tech plays a much bigger role at Wimbledon. IBM’s Seddon believes this could open up a whole new layer of digital experience for viewers. “The players themselves are pretty tech savvy, and use devices to monitor things like their nutrition and how far they are running, so you can see a stage where they will be wearing these kinds of devices on court. At some point in time you can see us having access to that data.“Imagine how a fan would feel at home if, during the final last year, they could see what Andy Murray’s heart rate was and actually experience it in real-time while he served for match point – that kind of thing could have a part in the future of Wimbledon.”
