IBM hopes smartphone app will prove a smash at Wimbledon

Smartphone app combines augmented reality with live location-based video streams

Users can watch live BBC video streams of the action from key matches at Wimbledon using the Seer app

Wimbledon 2010 spectators will be able to stream matches live, find their way around the grounds and keep updated with the score using a free downloadable app for the iPhone and Android.

IBM’s Seer app combines augmented reality with live location-based video streams of some of the action from the tournament. It offers geo-tagged information on food and drinks stands, queue lengths and even live video feeds from Henman Hill and taxi ranks, so that users know what to expect in terms of congestion around the stadium. In addition, users can watch live BBC video streams of the action from key matches at Wimbledon using the app.

Alan Flack, IBM’s Wimbledon client and programme executive, explained that the freely downloadable app does not represent a money-making opportunity for the technology giant in itself, but is aimed to showcase the technology to potential clients that may be interested further down the line.

“Apps have myriad uses beyond tennis and beyond sport. IBM invests in Wimbledon because we believe it helps us showcase our technology and this is a great example of how we can do something that benefits Wimbledon and IBM, but also shows the rest of our clients in other industries the art of the possible,” he said.

“It’s a marketing investment and its benefit is that it does good things for the IBM brand and also for the Wimbledon brand.”

He added that Wimbledon is particularly keen on getting IBM to attract a younger and more diverse market, and that taking content to the user through a smartphone app has gone down very well with the team behind the world’s premier tennis tournament.

In addition to providing the smartphone app for Wimbledon, spectators who own non- Android or Apple internet-capable handsets can keep up to date with what is happening at the m.wimbledon.org site.

IBM is also continuing its efforts in providing the technology at Wimbledon for the twenty-first year running. The company supports the infrastructure behind Wimbledon’s web site, using three datacentres situated in the US, and it also gathers and presents all data from each game, such as aces, unforced errors and serve speeds, so that broadcasters can use them in their coverage of the tournament.