Next week’s Wimbledon tennis championships will trial tablet PC technology to improve its real-time statistics service, as well as extending the use of WiFi networking to enhance security.

Tournament host the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC) has worked with IT partner IBM for several years on capturing match statistics, feeding updates to its web site and to the information system that supports broadcasters.

The process uses specially-designed keyboards, but this year is testing tablet PCs from supplier Lenovo.

‘The outside courts have traditionally used a small handheld device and uploaded data to the system, so the statistics have been there about half an hour after the match finished,’ said AELTC IT director Jeff Lucas.

‘This year, we have a proof of concept to capture real-time stats on the outside courts, and if that works well it will be expanded to all the courts next year.’

The greater focus on security at the tournament has also led to the expansion of Wimbledon’s wireless network.

‘We put WiFi in about two or three years ago to help capture information on people coming through the gate and some of the access for photographers. We gradually extended that to the press areas, centre and number one courts, and the players’ area,’ said Lucas.

‘This year we are expanding to cover all the gates around the ground. We now have real-time security checking. In the past we did scan people coming in, but used a batch file downloaded during the day. With security being stepped up, it is essential we know who is in the ground and who is not.’

The IBM-hosted web site, www.wimbledon.org, received 4.6 million unique users during last year’s tournament.

‘We want people at the ground to enjoy the tennis without technology having any impact on them,’ said Lucas.

‘It is about watching tennis in an English garden. But we are very keen to make sure we use as much technology as we can to get that experience to people who cannot come here.’

Further reading:

Jeff Lucas interview