- Sony has entered a multi -year global technological partnership with the NHL
- This could mean animated simulcasts in real time and animated games are on the horizon
- Sony’s Beyond Sports, Hawk-Eye installations and cameras will always be used in the arenas
If you’ve already dreamed of seeing your hockey heroes play alongside the biggest animated stars, Sony’s New Deal with NHL could excite you.
Sony has already expanded to the world of professional sport via its brand Beyond Sports, which is essential to the processing of data in real time and the possibility of taking all these measures and translating them into something else.
Its partnership with the NFL (National Football League) led to the dissemination of The Simpsons Funday Football On Disney + and ESPN last year, and now NHL could be the next one for this type of treatment.
The NHL already uses the Hawk -Eye technological system of Sony – a combination of cameras above the ice and portable sensors on players – but this new agreement will develop, while continuing the use of Sony cameras for photography and video.
More exciting, he promises to expand the role that Beyond Sports could play in the change in how fans of all ages can experience a hockey game.
If animated simulcasts in real time are on the horizon as part of this agreement, it will not be the first time that the NHL and Sony have collaborated on such a company.
In 2023, the NHL Big City Greens Classic was produced using Beyond Sports Technology and this system, as well as the configuration of Hawk-Eye, is now installed in the 32 arenas.
As with other animated programs, the objective is to extend the attraction and attract a wider audience – the one that could be different or adjacent to those who attend the game in person.
Addressing Techradar, David Lehanski, executive vice-president of business development and NHL innovation, said the talks had started with a question about how the league can reach more fans.
Now, however, “we will eventually come to a point where we allow the fan to personalize so that he can have a role in determining the environment. And then another step after that could even give fans the ability to interact with the content, “continued Lehanski.
These comments resonate with Techradar’s conversation with Sander Schouten, managing director and co-founder of Beyond Sports last year.
Schouten then suggested that more environments could come according to the partner and that we could see more interactive flows. He also underlined the volume of data generated and its rapid rhythm, suggesting that the track is wide open for various implementations.
This could mean several flows or different ways to access the action – whether on a traditional, streaming, or even virtual reality environment. The latter is something that the NHL has already explored, both for analysts and for players.
For Sony and the NHL, this is an exciting company – a formalized partnership built on technology already used in games. This should open the door to more robust interactions and an increase in investments, improving the game experience, whether you are in the stands or you look at home.
Although neither Sony nor the NHL comment on future partners for animated moments in real time, I hope that we could see a return of Simpsons – Not for football, but for hockey.
