Hawk-Eye is coming to Atlanta and The Atlanta Tennis Championships. No, the University of Iowa Football Team is not going to be making a special appearance for all you Big 10 fans. What I'm talking about here is the famous Hawk-Eye lines calling cameras that will be used in all U.S. Open Series events leading up to Flushing Meadows and the U.S. Open. In an era where every referee, lines person, and umpire's call is looked at with instant replay, remember The World Cup, and Baseball's "Almost Perfect Game", it's a relief to everyone involved when Hawk-Eye is present.
Hawk-Eye will be something new to Atlanta tennis fans. It isn't new to tennis fans watching big-time tennis on television or at the Grand Slam events. Hawk-Eye is a setup using multiple cameras placed around the court to track the players and the ball. These movements are then processed by computers. Hawk-eye takes ball skid and ball compression into account and is accurate to about 1mm.
Hawk-Eye has been used in some form for professional tennis for years. It was actually developed by engineers at Roke Manor Research Limited of Romsey, Hampshire in the UK, in 2001. The great thing about Hawk-Eye is that is was developed especially for tennis, although it is also used in cricket as well.
Much work and research went into getting Hawk-Eye up to speed for use as an officiating aid in professional tennis. As a bonus, Hawk-Eye's tracking technology also allows for a new range of statistics to be captured and presented to the viewing audience; something that many tennis viewers may already be familiar with. In addition to calling lines, statistics that Hawk-eye can measure include speed of the ball at any point of a rally, service comparisons (i.e. service patterns, direction and depth of aces, placement of 1st and 2nd serves etc), bounce points of the ball, percentage of time a player spends in a region of the court or an approximate measure of distance that a player has run throughout the match. All is valuable information for officials, the players, and the viewing audience.
More recently, Hawk-Eye has gone high-tech with video output. Giant video boards are a large part of the in-stadium atmosphere on centre court for instant replay coverage, statistics, fan interaction, contests and corporate partner recognition. You may even see players sneak a peak at their stats during changeovers, in order to make in-game adjustments. The television broadcast is also enhanced by this system, primarily through the usage of the various camera vantage points around the court, and the display of statistics during the course of the match. With all this technology in place, there is always big cost. The system costs approximately $30,000 a court per week (excluding the video screens in the stadium). I'm sure Olympus is helping with this add on.
At all U.S. Open Series tournaments, the on-court instant replay system can be used by the players in the form of a challenge system. The challenge system will work in the following manner:
Each player will receive two challenges per set to review line calls.
If the player is correct with a challenge, then the player retains the same number of challenges.
If the player is incorrect with a challenge, then one of his/her challenges is lost.
During a tie-break game in any set, each player will receive one additional challenge.
Challenges may not be carried over from one set to another.
Once a player challenges a line call, an official replay will be provided simultaneously to the television broadcast and in-stadium video boards, allowing players, officials, on-site fans and television viewers the opportunity to see the live results of a player challenge. There is no doubt this adds to the excitement of the tennis.
Now you may be asking, how accurate is Hawk-Eye, and what do the players think about this technology? In a 2006 test, Hawk-Eye made the correct call in 100% of all tests, showing an average error of only 3.6mm. The system recorded 100% of all rallies. In addition, Hawk-Eye is affected by wind, heat, rain, or darkness/shadows. The players are also fans of Hawk-Eye, Andy Roddick gave his opinion of Hawk-Eye when it came out - "On top of getting just the calls right time after time, which will be nice, it’ll add another aspect for TV viewers. If a player has two challenges per set, it will add drama and excitement. This will add to tennis and take out a lot of human error."
Hawk-Eye will be used on Stadium Court during The Atlanta Tennis Challenge, now you will know a little more about it to impress your friends and add to your enjoyment of watching tennis.
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