Puck and player tracking technology was tested last week at T-Mobile Arena, where it was in use during two Vegas Golden Knights home games.
Although it has been used in All-Star Games, last week marked the first time that puck and player tracking technology was tested during NHL regular-season contests. It was tested in a game between the Golden Knights and the New York Rangers on January 8, and then again when the Golden Knights hosted the San Jose Sharks on January 10.
That was an important step as the NHL continues working toward implementing puck and player tracking technology on a full-time basis. It is expected that, if/when implemented, it could have sweeping implications on broadcasts, sports betting, and virtual/augmented reality offerings. More from the Las Vegas Review-Journal:
The Knights tested out puck and player tracking technology during games against the New York Rangers and San Jose Sharks at T-Mobile Arena. The league has lofty goals for the new equipment and plans to use the data for broadcasts, virtual/augmented reality experiences and, of course, for sports betting.
“The overall objective has always been to use it to grow the game,” Dave Lehanski, NHL senior vice president of business development and global partnerships, said Friday. “To capture all this new data that basically no one has ever seen before and use it to showcase the incredible speed and skills of our players.”
The technology has been used at All-Star games, but Tuesday and Thursday were the first time it was used during regular-season games. Sensors were added to players’ shoulder pads and special manufactured pucks were used to collect the data, such as how fast a player was skating or how hard a puck was shot.
The data then was transmitted in real time through radio frequencies to 18 antennae placed around T-Mobile Arena. The pucks are tracked 2,000 times per second and players are monitored 200 times per second using the system, which was developed by Jogmo World Corp. and the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany with the NHL in the past three years.
The technology is slated to be used at this month’s All-Star Weekend in San Jose, though the NHL is reportedly not planning to run any additional regular-season tests during the 2018-19 campaign.
