For this weekend’s NHL All-Star festivities, NBC Sports will produce two digital feeds that will incorporate player and puck tracking technology via data and tech provider SMT. It is a continuation of the league’s push -- along with partners NBC and the Durham, N.C.-based SMT -- to have the new technology ready for this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs. In year two of testing player and puck tracking around All-Star Weekend, NBC Sports Producer Steve Greenberg, who oversees the digital experience, said it will be less of an experiment this weekend in St. Louis and more so an emphasis placed on NBC determining what graphical and visual information is best to highlight for the upcoming postseason games. One of the digital feeds available for mobile users will include an upper scorebar featuring data such as players' ice-time. Viewers who have connected televisions and watch via desktop will have access to a feed with both the upper scorebar and a right-side panel that includes a player Iso-cam displaying data like an individual’s on-ice speed, shift time and shift distance. Greenberg added that new this year will be a possession circle that will identify who has the puck and will naturally change from player to player when the puck moves. NBC Sports Game Producer Matt Marvin also will have access to pull the digital feed with just the top scorebar and utilize it as the main NBC broadcast feed during the All-Star Game.
ALL SYSTEMS GO: Greenberg said of catering to both intense and casual hockey fans with the data, “There is the balance of how much information you want to display during live action versus in replay. ... We really want to find the balance between what is distracting to the viewer and what enhances the experience.” NHL Senior VP/Business Development & Global Partnerships Dave Lehanski said that what the league is monitoring during the All-Star Game will not change from prior uses of the system. Accuracy and low levels of latency will both be watched closely, he said, while there will also be a focus on what official, coach and player feedback will be. The NHL has been installing the system in arenas since October, and immediately after All-Star weekend, Lehanski said, the league and its partners will conduct further tests of the system throughout the regular season. Lehanski: “The plan is to have the system tested and calibrated so that it’s fully operational throughout the playoffs.”
