Australian Open 2012: photos

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    (Credit: Luke Hopewell/ZDNet Australia)

    World men's number three player, Roger Federer, smashes the ball back down the court with a confident one-handed forehand stroke in last night's session.

    Caption by: Luke Hopewell

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    (Credit: IBM)

    Underneath the arena — unbeknownst to the spectators sitting several feet above — lies a technology bunker that powers virtually the entire park. From player scheduling, umpire scoring, media broadcasting and statistics aggregation, these guys do it all.

    Caption by: Luke Hopewell

  • photos3.jpg

    (Credit: IBM)

    The scoreboards around the ground are powered by 13 Lenovo laptops.

    Caption by: Luke Hopewell

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    (Credit: IBM)

    It's important that all of the official broadcast partners get the latest statistics as they happen. That's why statisticians and radar operators sit on each court and feed information back to this station for proper distribution.

    Caption by: Luke Hopewell

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    (Credit: IBM)

    The state-of-the-art media room that holds hundreds of print journalists from all over the world. Each is able to watch specific matches, access live statistics at the drop of a hat, and go back through a decade's worth of specific details on the players and their matches.

    Caption by: Luke Hopewell

  • photos6.jpg

    (Credit: IBM)

    The on-site infrastructure that powers the Australian Open is stored safely in the server room underneath the arena. IBM staff remarked that these racks resemble only one third of what used to be housed down here, due to the gradual move into IBM's private cloud.

    Caption by: Luke Hopewell

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    (Credit: Luke Hopewell/ZDNet Australia)

    An example of the statistics IBM and Tennis Australia need to have on hand at the drop of a hat to display between sets. Aces, faults, winners, errors and points information are all recorded and displayed in near real time.

    Caption by: Luke Hopewell

  • photos8.jpg

    (Credit: Luke Hopewell/ZDNet Australia)

    The scoreboard in the 17,000-seat Rod Laver Arena is powered by a tiny Lenovo laptop below the stadium.

    Caption by: Luke Hopewell

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    (Credit: Luke Hopewell/ZDNet Australia)

    Chair umpires preside over the games, and record statistics and scores on their personal handheld devices.

    Caption by: Luke Hopewell

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    (Credit: Luke Hopewell/ZDNet Australia)

    The IBM radar operator records the speed of the ball as it flies across the court.

    Caption by: Luke Hopewell

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    (Credit: Luke Hopewell/ZDNet Australia)

    Spidercam is back for this year's television coverage and allows free, suspended movement around the court into virtually any location.

    Caption by: Luke Hopewell

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    (Credit: Luke Hopewell/ZDNet Australia)

    Here, Spidercam hovers above Federer's challenger, Russian player Alexander Kudryavtsev, as he is treated for an injury.

    Caption by: Luke Hopewell

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    (Credit: Luke Hopewell/ZDNet Australia)

    Tennis Australia's CIO talks tech with journalists in Melbourne yesterday.

    Luke Hopewell travelled to Melbourne as a guest of IBM.

    Caption by: Luke Hopewell

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Every second tennis players are on the courts at the Australian Open, they are generating new data and information that needs to be catalogued. Tennis Australia brought IBM back on board to handle the massive workload in 2012 and ZDNet Australia went behind the scenes.

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(Credit: Luke Hopewell/ZDNet Australia)

World men's number three player, Roger Federer, smashes the ball back down the court with a confident one-handed forehand stroke in last night's session.

Caption by: Luke Hopewell

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