Moment of truth: tech firms in tennis line-call battle
PARIS: A behind-the-scenes battle at the world's top tennis tournaments pits an upstart newcomer and an established star.
Hawk-Eye, the British firm that innovated ball-tracking technology, has been ruling the sector for more than a decade.
Its famous video simulations of contested line calls at Grand Slam tournaments are known to tennis lovers around the world.
They are produced by computer-linked tracking cameras that calculate a flight path and project the ball's landing point.
But start-up FoxTenn from Spain believes it can do better by eliminating doubt from the linecall business.
Hawk-Eye, which operates a dozen or so cameras placed around the tennis court, officially acknowledges a three-millimetre or so margin of error in its simulations of where the tennis ball would bounce.
For Foxtenn that tiny margin is too wide and it says it can offer real-time technology that eliminates any room for debate.
"What we are offering is the technology of truth and transparency, with the actual impact of the ball on the court," FoxTenn president Javier Simon told AFP.
In fact, FoxTenn's 40 or so cameras around the court, backed up by scanners and lasers, effectively capture the moment of impact of the ball, without need for any simulation.
Simon says the technology has been given a zero-error rating in a study approved by the main tennis federations, the ATP, ITF and the WTA.
Simon says that so far around 30 men's and women's tennis tournaments have adopted the FoxTenn system, or about 20 percent of the professional circuit.
"Our goal is to equip all the tournaments," he said, particularly the top-tier Masters 1000 events and the four Grand Slams.