Roland-Garros Gets Modern Makeover

Infosys, a digital services and consulting company, and the French Tennis Federation have unveiled new technologies to help bridge the gap between remote fans and the game. Using modern digital technology, they say they have transformed the “Roland-Garros experience for the entire tennis ecosystem”.

Roland-Garros 2021 will see Artificial Intelligence (AI), 3D and cloud solutions being leveraged to transform match viewing, player training, tournament reporting, and broadcast editing. A first-of-its-kind digital art museum will also be launched.

“This is our second year impacted by the challenges of the pandemic and social distancing, but partnering with Infosys we have set a gold standard for other sporting organisations navigating a disrupted season, and looking to bridge the gap between players, coaches and fans across the world,” said Amélie Oudéa-Castera, Chief Executive Officer of French Tennis Federation (FFT). “The innovations we have created are leading the way in establishing a long-term immersive and digital standard for sporting tournaments”.

Building on AI-powered match analysis introduced last year in the Roland-Garros Players App for players and coaches, Infosys AI Videos have been enhanced with new cognitive capabilities such as natural language search. Players can analyse their performance by querying the AI tool in English, which will return insights to make better-informed training and match strategy decisions.

Infosys AI in the official Players Portal has also evolved to analyse positive elements of performance as well as areas to focus on, whilst generating instant summaries for players, seconds after the match. The tool enables remote collaboration amongst the player and coaching community from across the world to enhance communication and analysis, which will ensure better-informed training decisions and performance improvement.

The actual sights and sounds from the tournament have been integrated with Infosys’ data and insights capabilities so fans can follow the game and analyse it at the same time. The ever-evolving Infosys Match Centre is available in a 3D format with data-driven court-side views, whilst the Match Centre in the Roland-Garros app delivers a mobile-first data visualisation experience. Through the app, commentary and insights via AI-powered voice assistants will also be made available to audiences through popular smart home devices, including access to match schedules, live radio broadcasts, event podcasts, and a roundup of the day’s events.

Infosys will provide its AI Highlights solution to a number of official broadcasters. The solution includes richer analysis and identification of key, shareable moments such as post-match player camaraderie and signatures on camera, while also dynamically resizing videos with AI, to produce ready-to-publish clips for different new-age social platforms that require specific aspect ratios. Infosys AI-Assisted Journalism has also evolved this year to include additional filters for generating insights and graphics.

Some of the technology the organisers of the tournament are also using include a 3D Virtual Art Museum. The museum will be a place where audiences can interact with official posters and artwork from the past 41 years, and benefit from insightful commentary on each piece as if they were there

Pravin Rao, Chief Operating Officer, Infosys, said, “As the official Digital Innovation Partner for Roland-Garros, we have innovated to ensure the digital experiences we create are truly human experiences. This year, we are proud to have leveraged digital technologies in ways that truly immerse remote audiences into the full tournament experience. Through AI and 3D technologies we now have the potential to revolutionise the ways in which coaches and players train, and can ensure that fans, players, and coaches remain as close to the game as possible. We continue to find breakthroughs as we evolve the role of data, AI and digital in sport, and I look forward to what the future holds”.

You can find more information about the partnership between Infosys and Roland-Garros here.

Stay up to date with the most recent automation, machine vision, and robotics news on MVPro. Read the best stories every Friday with our newsletter.