In its first year as an official digital innovation partner of the tournament, the Indian based multinational business consulting, information technology and outsourcing services corporation rolled out an integrated activation programme utilizing virtual and augmented reality, data analytics and artificial intelligence which enabled fans to watch, experience, play, shop all at once.
The new partnership’s umbrella objective is to elevate the tennis experience for fans and players by leveraging latest digital innovations.
Infosys also offered tennis fans an opportunity to play against the greatest tennis players in the world on a virtual ‘Rod Laver Arena’ in the ‘Infosys Fan Zone’, to watch the live matches from the court via VR headsets, and to shop for Australian Open merchandise at the Official AO Virtual Reality Store.
To promote the tie-up Infosys and AO teamed up with tennis ambassador Thanasi Kokkinakis.
The initiative’s multiple threads were led by a programme called #MatchBeats which enabled fans at home and on site to engage with live games in new and fresh ways through the use of Match Beats.
MatchBeats offered live scores, insight and analysis through a fresh, visual approach as each game unfolded.
The analytics, which the brand compared to ‘musical notes of a match’, were designed to help fans (and players) to better understand how each match flowed: where the key points were and what each player’s key skills were.
The MatchBeats tool was built on the AWS platform using PostgreSQL as its database and the process pulls the data from sports media technology (SMT) to capture the game data and then plot the information visually.
Another strand of the partner’s activation was ‘Infosys AI Clips’; essentially a recap video of matches showing key highlights in near-real-time, shared on social media.
The idea is that ‘every moment of brilliance on court is uncovered’ using AI Clips: an artificial intelligence platform for real game-changing tennis moments.
This thread produced highlights in real-time by applying over 120 filters and more than a 1000 possible combinations, so fans never miss the moments that matter at Australian Open.
The Infosys programme is promoted across all the usual online channels,
Follow all the stats and scores from the #AusOpen men's semifinal action with #Infosys MatchBeatshttps://t.co/0CuokBcE9l pic.twitter.com/SRgIDLxcOi
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 24, 2019
Here's the Infosys MatchBeats round-up of key points from the day session of day 11 of #AusOpen. Head over to the live scores for a new way to visualise the game with point-by-point analysis: https://t.co/lqgxcPlMmL #AusOpenWithInfosys. pic.twitter.com/1QgjxupewI
— Infosys (@Infosys) January 24, 2019
We take you #backstage. Here are the brilliant minds from Infosys and @TennisAustralia who weave the magic behind MatchBeats and #AI clips of @AustralianOpen #Coders https://t.co/HdrAhjqWoS #ProgrammersLife #LifeAtInfy #AusOpenWithInfosys pic.twitter.com/bRm4OPhgKt
— Infosys (@Infosys) January 23, 2019
Since 2000, no other top-10 man has played as many minutes as Kei Nishikori to reach the quarterfinals at #AusOpen.
Get the numbers behind the challenge #Nishikori faces: https://t.co/G74e4PCTj8#GameInsightGroup | #Infosys pic.twitter.com/w6mMPWDCpM
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 23, 2019
Did you think #highlights don't give you the complete picture? Think Again! Infosys #AI highlights enables you to watch #AusOpen highlights with 120+ filters and 1000+ combinations, across multiple platforms #AusOpenWithInfosys pic.twitter.com/dRBgofcjaQ
— Infosys (@Infosys) January 22, 2019
“We’re thrilled to be partnering with such an iconic Australian event and a global grand slam, using our digital innovation expertise to create immersive and engaging experiences for the millions of people who watch, attend and play at the Australian Open,” said Onfosys Australia and New Zealand senior vice president Andrew Groth.
Craig Tiley, the Australian Open director stated that partnering with Infosys was “a key part of the tournament’s ongoing quest to innovate the Australian Open and engage new audiences across the world”.
“We have long understood the importance of using data and insights to improve connections with our fans, players, coaches and the rest of the tennis community and we look forward to working with Infosys to change the way we all experience our great sport in the future,” stated Tiley.
Salil Parekh, CEO and managing director of Infosys, explained that the partnership is about creating new ways of experiencing the Australian Open.
“We’re really excited about the opportunity to showcase how digital technologies can enhance the boundaries of this tournament, to change the way the Australian Open is watched, analysed and played. This association with Tennis Australia also reaffirms our strategic commitment to the region where we partner with some of the leading enterprises in driving their digital transformation agenda.”
Comment:
Unsurprisingly, Infosys isn’t the only official partner or ambush brand using cutting edge tech to leverage the 2019 Australian Open – Seiko, for example, also activated through VR (see case study) – but the Infosys work is certainly amongst the most technically impressive.
And this is only the first year of the three year strategic partnership, announced in September 2018, between the Australian Open and Infosys.
Has IBM Watson and its sports partnerships (from Wimbledon to the US Open) got genuine competition?
The initiatives are the result of some careful research and thoughtful information gathering.
Infosys and Tennis Australia ran design workshops last year to explore, prototype and test a range of concepts aimed at producing a immersive experience at the Australian Open.
“Together we prioritised and selected several for implementation for January 2019 AO,” an Infosys spokesperson said.
Infosys commissioned global expert teams from Australia, China, India and the USA to develop and deliver the products within the short time span of time.
The stated objective behind the tie-up was to bring new experiences to the tournament and to how the rights holder leveraged technology to further expand the boundaries of the game of tennis
One of the Australian Open’s primary objectives is to become the world’s leading sports entertainment event and to achieve that it needs to partner with global leading companies that think the same way and, more importantly, can help it achieve that aim.
So more alliances with partners like Infosys and more activations like this are the way forward.
Links:
Infosys
https://www.youtube.com/user/Infosys
https://www.facebook.com/Infosys
https://www.linkedin.com/company/infosys
https://www.slideshare.net/infosys
Tennis Australia
https://twitter.com/TennisAustralia
https://www.facebook.com/TennisAustralia/
https://www.instagram.com/tennisaustralia
https://www.youtube.com/user/TennisAustralia
Australian Open
https://www.facebook.com/AustralianOpen
https://www.instagram.com/australianopen/
https://twitter.com/australianopen
https://www.youtube.com/user/australianopentv
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