Company to deliver best-in-class technology to high schools across the country.
PlaySight’s SmartCourt sports technology is probably coming to a high school near you this summer. After getting a strong start in the sport of tennis over the past three years, PlaySight now has installed over 700 SmartCourts across the world and in over a dozen sports, from basketball and volleyball to football, wrestling, and even swimming.
To gear up for its move into high school athletics, PlaySight has created a new SmartCourt product — the SmartCourt PLAY (joining the SmartCourt PRO and LIVE in the product family). After consulting with numerous coaches, athletes and parents, PlaySight developed PLAY: a cloud-based video and analytics platform that is affordable enough for most high schools while still delivering the same cutting-edge experience that PlaySight’s top end customers (Golden State Warriors, UNC Tar Heels basketball and the United States Tennis Association, among others) receive.
Here are a few of the high school programs adding PlaySight to their home facilities for this season.
Ensworth School — Nashville, Tennessee
Ensworth became the first SmartSchool this summer by adding PlaySight technology to multiple sports facilities (indoor for basketball and volleyball, outdoor for soccer, lacrosse and football, in the studio for dancing, tennis, and even underwater for swimming). The Ensworth Tigers made the investment in order to take their student-athlete experience to the next level.
“Ensworth seeks excellence in instruction and expects daily improvement in its student athletes. PlaySight technology promises instant feedback and analysis to ensure our athletes and coaches have the very best information,” said Athletic Director Ricky Bowers. “PlaySight also provides our parents, alumni, and college scouts a user-friendly platform to access all performances live. We are excited to partner with PlaySight to create the most technologically advanced facility in the country.”
Automated and HD live streaming is another key to PlaySight’s high school offering — close to 40 NCAA tennis programs stream all of their home matches thanks to PlaySight technology, and many high schools are adding the technology for the same reason.
Sierra Canyon and Oaks Christian — California
Two of Southern California’s premier athletic programs both added PlaySight technology this summer. Sierra Canyon promises to have one of the nation’s best basketball teams, while Oaks Christian is a perennial contender — and they are adding PlaySight for both the basketball and volleyball programs.
“Sierra Canyon is extremely excited to partner with PlaySight to bring our student-athletes the latest technology to improve their individual and team game,” said Rock Pillsbury, Athletic Director.
“Sierra Canyon has always prided itself on having the latest and greatest for our students. In becoming the first high school in California to have this, we are proving once again how committed we are to provide our students with nothing but the best.”
Another key feature from PlaySight’s new SmartCourt PLAY is the SmartTracker 4K camera technology. PlaySight developed an automated streaming and broadcast experience, so these schools can stream their games and give fans, friends and alumni access to a professional-quality viewing experience for all home games. Similar camera tracking technologies are becoming standard in the sports technology space, and PlaySight expects this feature to drive even more interest from the nation’s top high school athletic programs.
Other schools becoming Smart with PlaySight technology
Trinity-Pawling (Pawling, New York), will become the second SmartSchool in the nation this summer, and this will also be the first high school in the nation to add PlaySight technology to ice hockey (SmartCourts become SmartRinks). To end the summer, PlaySight is also installing SmartCourts with Palmer Trinity (Miami, Florida) and Magen David Yeshivah (Brooklyn, New York).
There are a lot of camera-based broadcast and video sports technologies in the space right now. So, what makes PlaySight different? Two words. Connecting and athletes. PlaySight’s CEO Chen Shachar explains. “What is different about our technology is our focus on the athlete. We’re giving athletes of all ages the tools to improve faster and build their fan base to connect with friends and family, as well as college coaches and programs.
“We’re powering over 40 NCAA programs, including USC and Stanford, and those schools are using PlaySight to attract top young talent from across the sports world. We’re hoping to build a content, video and analytics pipeline from high school to collegiate sports. Many of our college tennis programs are already assessing recruits based on their PlaySight video and analytics.”
At the high school level, the broadcasting and streaming is important, and each Smart facility essentially becomes its own media channel with multi-angle video content for social media, highlights, recruiting and more. But the core is about improvement and harnessing the power of technology, especially for today’s youth, and using it with purpose and direction (developing athletic abilities and furthering oneself through sports).
If you are interested in learning more about PlaySight, visit www.playsight.com.
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