ATP & ATP Media Experiment With Biometric Sensors

The ATP and ATP Media has announced that in partnership with Sports Data Labs (SDL) it has completed an experimental trial of real-time, medical grade, biometric sensors at the BNP Paribas Open, Indian Wells.

The SDL platform has been developed utilising its team’s experience building complex and scalable technology platforms, and integrates directly with medical grade sensors and bypassing their native software.

The trial saw a variety of high-resolution medical grade sensors attached to an elite athlete at the Masters 1000 tournament. The data was transmitted wirelessly to a device that allowed for insights to be processed in real-time.

ATP and ATP Media will now undertake a consultative process with players and their teams with the aim of developing a common set of measurements and derived insights that ultimately lead to optimised medical grade sensors that could lead to standardisation of measured biometric data in sports.

Although still in the development stage, the biometric technology has the potential to generate insights and measurements into performance from both a player and fan experience perspective.

Shane Warden, director of broadcast and technology, ATP Media said: “These are very early days in this field, and this ground-breaking trial focussed on using a variety of third party, high resolution, medical grade sensors on an elite athlete at a tournament to wirelessly transmit real time Biomechanical and Biometric data directly to a single platform, achieving something that has never been done before.

“Basic biometric and biomechanical data acquisition is not new, but this test proves in an intensely radio frequency hostile environment that high resolution, medical grade measurements can be transmitted wirelessly to a device agnostic system that will process insights in real time. From this test, we can begin the next stage of development of both the platform and next generation sensors through consultation with players and their teams.”

Mark Gorski, CEO of Sports Data Labs added: “We are excited to be supporting ATP Media and the ATP on their pioneering initiatives to unlock the value of biometric and biomechanical data for all stakeholders within the ATP tennis ecosystem.

“Advancements in data technologies are outpacing sports organizations’ ability to use them. Our agnostic and open approach allows organizations to adopt the best technology at any given time and seamlessly work with multiple third-party sensors through a single application.”

Chris Kermode, ATP executive chairman & president said”This was an important first step to take with Sports Data Labs. While we are still in an early developmental stage, we look forward to making further strides in this exciting area which has the potential to benefit player training and performance, as well as enriching the fan experience through enhanced data.”