Smashing: Fox launches innovative technology
MATTHEW Wade has volunteered as a guinea pig for Fox Cricket’s new “Smash Factor” technology, which is set to unlock the deepest riddles of Test match batting and revolutionise cricket broadcasting.
Thanks to a sensor placed underneath the bat sticker, the technology provides viewers with unprecedented batting analysis in real time.
It allows bat speed, shot power, timing and launch angle to be beamed into lounge rooms – a tantalising prospect in Wade’s battle with Kiwi nemesis Neil Wagner.
“If Wade gets on top of him and starts smashing him everywhere, we’ll be able to measure every shot,” Fox Cricket executive producer and Smash Factor mastermind Brad McNamara said.
“Or, if Wagner does bowl him a short one and he fends it off, we’ll get that as well. We’ll see how hard the ball is hitting the bat.”
McNamara, a renowned cricket tactician and former NSW captain, has made the development of Smash Factor a personal project for several years, combining with New
Zealand company Animation Research Limited.
“In the world of cricket television, Brad knows the game better than anyone in the world,” said Fox head of sport Steve Crawley, who has worked alongside McNamara for 15 years.
Fox had hoped to launch Smash Factor earlier in the summer but held out to ensure the technology would be right for a blockbuster debut.
Crawley, a former sports boss at Channel 9, said Smash Factor would rival the impact of his old network’s baby, Hot
Spot, which Richie Benaud once described as the greatest innovation he had seen in cricket.
“It’s a world first. I think it’s the biggest innovation in the game for a long, long time,” Crawley said. “Hot Spot was big ... Snicko was massive when it came in, Stump Cam was big. “This is on that level.
“It’ll be really interesting to get the force of a shot and when someone hits it sweet out of the middle, we’ll now get the power of it and be able to compare it to other players.”