CHANGING THE GAME
SMT serves the sports industry with innovative, award-winning technology for organizing bodies, leagues, events, broadcasts and live streams with a focus on real-time data generation, collection, integration and visualization. With more than three decades of developing best-in-class solutions, SMT is an unsurpassed leader in sports technology
36
YEARS
60
SPORTS
70
PATENTS
20K
ANNUAL EVENTS
220
CLIENTS
36
EMMY AWARDS
Industry Recognition
We are honored to have been awarded 36 Emmys over the past two decades on behalf of our work with our stellar roster of clients, including three this year for our contributions to:
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Outstanding Playoff Coverage: NFC Wild Card Game | Nickelodeon (CBS Sports)
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Outstanding Live Sports Series: Sunday Night Football | NBC
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Outstanding Technical Team Event: Super Bowl LV | CBS
Clients and Partners
Over 200 clients entrust us with their most valuable assets: their fans.
OASIS: OUR NEWEST INNOVATION
SMT’s OASIS Approach:
an organizing philosophy and a data platform
SMT’s 36 years of experience touching every aspect of the live sports industry has led SMT to create a powerful organizing philosophy called OASIS and a powerful data management system called the OASIS Platform (Organization of Asynchronous Sports Information Subsystems).
OASIS as an organizing philosophy views the data landscape of a sports league in three (3) layers:
Level 0 All subsystems that create data or video
Level 1 The central hub that absorbs, collates, synchronizes, organizes, expands, and distributes all
Level 1 data via push and query APIs
Level 2 All subsystems that consume, present, or use the data
OASIS’ organizing philosophy defines a simple, intuitive, approach to a sports league’s data governance and data management but requires a highly disciplined, central authority to maintain the proper separation of the layers and to maintain functional independence between layers for a sports league to gain the full benefits of the OASIS organizing philosophy.
OASIS is agnostic as to whether there are multiple individual vendors supplying the various subsystems at Level 0 or Level 2 or whether there is just one vendor supplying all subsystems at Level 0 or all subsystems at Level 2. The OASIS organizing philosophy ensures all subsystem suppliers maintain functional independence, communicate clearly to others and receive the full benefit of their participation.
As a product, the OASIS Platform is a highly integrated, multi-venue, time-synchronized, multilevel, data/video management system that SMT architected, designed and created to provide professional sports leagues with a centrally controlled and league-controlled platform to organize, maintain, administer, and manage all phases of the league’s data creation, data distribution, data visualization, and data monetization.
An SMT OASIS Platform implementation for the NFL would include:
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Organizing and synchronizing live stats, scoring and tracking systems;
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Creating new and advanced stats via an Eventing Intelligence Engine;
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Providing commentators with live-updating, in-game information;
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Providing the league with the ability to centrally control which partner receives what NFL data feed via the league’s administration and assignment of micro-authenticated user credentials which gate and control each partner’s access to the library of OASIS APIs;
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Supplying broadcasters with live data for their graphics display systems and for broadcasters’ virtual graphics enhancements; and
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Supporting a myriad of in-game betting markets and supplying real-time, robust gaming feeds to gaming partners.
CASE STUDY
NHL OASIS Case Study
In the video that follows, you will see how all the information from the OASIS Platform comes to life for the NHL. The OASIS “Quad Split” video has four components:
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Upper right quadrant: Our tracking video allows the user to see that all players and the puck are being properly tracked and tagged.
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Lower right quadrant: One of two multipurpose and interactive portions of the video controller allows the user to see (and change between) various screens including:
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The graphical interface screen where operators can insert virtual elements in real time;
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A Commentator Information Screen (CIS);
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A data analysis screen that confirms the system is receiving data as planned and measures the real-time quality of the data being received against agreed-to protocols;
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An eventing screen that recognizes data and newly created events as they occur; and
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A script editor that allows the operator to change instructions to the system for insertion of virtual elements and/or pre-programmed instant replay scripts.
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Lower left quadrant: This quadrant is similar to the lower right-hand quadrant in that it allows the operator to toggle between screens. This video clip demonstrates the real-time generation of automated events being created through the OASIS Platform’s live eventing engine.
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Upper left quadrant: Displays the real-time output of the system; this output will be highlighted in future videos showing the application.
OTHER FOOTBALL SOLUTIONS
Since 1992, SMT has played an integral role in the growth of American football, from college to professional. SMT’s advance football technology draws fans into the action with storytelling tools with our Emmy- winning yellow first-down line, player tracking, telestration systems and data-driven graphics.
Along that 36-year journey, SMT has continued to improve, evolve and enhance its solutions, leading the way in virtual enhancements, tracking solutions, and our innovative approach to an organizing philosophy and data platform that changes the way leagues operate and manage resources.
The Yellow Line Company: Virtual Insertion Systems
Broadcasters worldwide use SMT’s 2D and 3D virtual graphics to help viewers focus on key plays and statistics, insert targeted virtual ads or create dramatic and compelling visuals. Products include:
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Virtual yellow first down line (configured camera and image-based)
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Camera Tracker platform (mobile camera solution)
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V-FAB (Virtual Fans, Ads and Brands)
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2D and 3D volumetric graphics
Tracking
From the NFL to the NASCAR, SMT’s tracking technologies help tell stories through data visualizations via the four key forms of sports tracking technology (optical, GPS, infrared (IR), and ultra-wideband (UWB)/RFID).
Optical: SMT assists Major League Baseball, Minor League Baseball and the PGA Tour with our optical tracking technology. We use computer vision to track baseballs and golf balls to within a pixel or better accuracy. SMT has tracked over 10 million pitches in baseball as well as all of the approach shots for every PGA Tour event. For NFL broadcasts, SMT’s CameraTracker provides an optical data tracking system on an aerial broadcast camera to insert live 3D virtual graphics onto the playing field.
GPS: SMT captures a plethora of GPS-generated information for motorsports, including telemetry data (speed, throttle, brakes, gears, and RPM), positioning data and camera data. The data is used to create a real-time digital record of the race that is dispersed to various systems that feed on-air graphics.
Infrared: SMT’s Puck and Player Tracking technology for the NHL is based on infrared technology. We place sensors in the back collar of the player uniforms as well as sensors inside the puck to track accurately within an inch.
UWB/RFID: The Professional Fighters League uses our Ultra-Wide Band/RFID technology to help determine punch speeds of their fighters which is then visualized throughout the fight as graphical insertions to help augment the broadcaster's storytelling efforts.
Statistics and Graphics
SMT seamlessly integrates real-time statistical, historical and real-time data into a variety of SMT-designed graphics packages in conjunction with the NFL’s Next Gen Stats and RFID-based tracking system.
SportsCG
Our real-time, statistical football engine provides a comprehensive on-site solution for live broadcasts, studios or commentators.
Tickers
Our dynamic graphics and data publishing platform keeps viewers informed in real-time with content-rich, scrolling display of information such as final scores, upsets, injuries and social media messages.
Analysis tool and Commentator Information Screens
SMT’s CIS/telestrator is a multipurpose tool that displays real-time data feeds to assist commentators in delivering expert analysis through statistical, historical and real-time information to provide context and in-depth storytelling.
Graphics Integration
SMT’s in-house design entity, SMT Creative Studio, specializes in the creation and implementation of compelling content presentation for live audiences, including video displays, broadcast and digital platforms.