Sportvision was a private company, launched in January 1998, that provided various

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

viewing enhancements to a number of different professional sporting events. They worked with

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

, PGA and

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

broadcasts. Sportvision was co-founded by CEO Bill Squadron, CTO Stan Honey and COO Jerry Gepner, who had all worked together at Fox Sports and its parent company, News Corporation. The Emmy-award winning technology company introduced numerous groundbreaking innovations for sports broadcast, including the 1st & Ten yellow line for football and the K Zone pitch-tracking system for baseball, both done with ESPN. Sportvision's inventions paved the way for increased use of technology across sports and sports media. By way of background, in 1996, Rick Cavallaro, working for

Stan Honey Stan Honey (born April 8, 1955) is an American professional offshore navigator with world sailing records and a businessman who founded Etak and Sportvision. Honey's track record as a navigator includes a victory in the 2005-06 Volvo Ocean Rac ...

at Etak (then owned by Fox/News America) developed a way to track

hockey puck A hockey puck is either an open or closed disk used in a variety of sports and games. There are designs made for use on an ice surface, such as in ice hockey, and others for the different variants of floor hockey which includes the wheeled skat ...

s with a blue halo as seen by television viewers. It was assumed at that time that viewers had a hard time keeping track of the puck. Released as the FoxTrax puck, it was not a success but led to the 1998 formation of the Sportvision company and later that year the development of the 1st & Ten computer system, which generates and displays the yellow

first down A down in gridiron football is an attempt by the offensive team to run a play to advance the ball, while the defending team simultaneously attempts to halt their advance. The down is a distinguishing characteristic of the game compared to othe ...

line that a TV viewer sees during a live football broadcast. The system became a major hit with television viewers when used during a broadcast of the

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...

. It has since become part of all standard American professional and

and Canadian pro football broadcasts. Another popular Sportvision product is seen in broadcasts of

races. It is called RACEf/x, and creates virtual flags above the cars to make them easier to follow by the viewers. Sportvision also created the PITCHf/x system used by

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

to provide pitch data to users of MLB.com GameDay and viewers of

Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

, Fox Sports Net, Rogers Sports Net and TBS, until its replacement by Statcast in 2017. The latest attempt for hockey was tested for deployment during the 2015 NHL All-Star weekend. The new system used

computer chip An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a set of electronic circuits, consisting of various electronic components (such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors) and their interconnections. These components a ...

s to standardize and increase the volume of data tracked during the course of a game. In a deal finalized on October 4, 2016, Sportvision was acquired by SMT.

References

External links

*http://www.sportvision.com/ Technology companies established in 1998 Technology companies disestablished in 2016 Mass media companies established in 1998 Mass media companies disestablished in 2016 American companies established in 1998 American companies disestablished in 2016 2016 mergers and acquisitions Sports television technology Visual effects companies {{sport-stub

See also

References

External links