IBM’s ‘My Group’ Is the Next Evolution of Livestreaming
In 2018, firefighter and amateur golfer Matt Parziale was invited to the Masters after winning the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship. Though it was a great, Rudy-like story, Parziale was never going to take TV time away from the likes of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy, unless he hit a hole-in-one or came out of nowhere to contend for the green jacket (he did neither, missing the cut.)
Most golf fans wouldn’t have noticed Parziale’s absence from the broadcast, but what about friends and family back home in his native Brockton, Mass., who wanted to check in on their guy?
Thanks to IBM, those kinds of situations are no longer an issue. This year, IBM worked with the Masters to deliver a personalized digital experience to fans, no matter where they are, and no matter who they wanted to follow. My Group is a new feature on the Masters app and website that allows fans to watch every shot, on every hole, from every player they want to follow. Interested in just watching the next Parziale? Check. Only care about the contenders? Done. Always wanted to watch every single one of Tiger’s shots at Augusta National? No problem. Want to focus on Dustin Johnson finishing his record 20-under-par to win his first green jacket? Go ahead, become your own roaming gallery. My Group allows fans to produce their own customized broadcast.
“People want to follow various players and we can now give them that opportunity,” says John Kent, a program manager at IBM Sports & Entertainment/Partnerships, who coincidentally grew up playing at Parziale’s home course in Massachusetts. “Broadcasts weren’t going to produce a highlight reel of Matt Parziale. But we can do that. And those fans get to enjoy that.”
Here’s how My Group works: First, an end-user selects the players they want to follow. It can be all the players from Australia. Or just Phil Mickelson. Anything you want. And in between shots, My Group leverages the AI of IBM Watson to analyze the excitement levels of more than 20,000 video clips, identifying the can’t-miss-shots and serving them up to fans, regardless of who they’re following.
“We’re able to ensure that you won’t miss an exciting moment,” says Kent. “And we can do it in real time. You can pick your favorite players and have that in the channel. But in golf, of course, there’s down time. And we can fill in that down time by using Watson to ensure the viewer doesn’t miss anything.”
IBM is able to do this because of its hybrid cloud architecture with Red Hat OpenShift, which allows the various elements of My Group to run on any cloud, anywhere in the world. The system is able to instantaneously adjust to spikes in demand, and it lets IBM place the right workload on the right cloud, taking advantage of whatever services and security protocols are necessary.
That was especially important given the unique nature of this year’s Masters. With no fans, and a split-tee format for the first two rounds, there was more golf packed into the weekend (especially as event organizers have to deal with earlier sunsets given the fall season). Because of that, viewing habits were different. The flexibility of the cloud allowed IBM to be ready for anything.
My Group is the next evolution of livestreaming, allowing fans to create their own broadcast of the Masters. And because of Watson, which uses historical data, shot context and player reaction to serve up important highlights in real time, no iconic-moment-in-the-making will be missed.
This technology has applications for an array events, in sports and beyond. “When you think about the word broadcast, it’s broad,” says Kent. “My Group produces a tournament that appeals to you. And it boils down to AI being able to personalize the experience.”
Question? Comment? Story idea? Let us know at talkback@sporttechie.com
border="0" alt="" width="0" height="0" />