Australian Open serves up volley of tech

The Australian Open kicked off in Melbourne on Monday, with more technology than ever before. ZDNet UK's sister site ZDNet Australia went behind the scenes to bring you all the action.

From secret IBM technology bunkers beneath the arena to big screens around the ground, augmented reality and cameras that can fly, fans at this year's Australian Open are well catered for.

Pictured above, Australian tennis player Jarmila Groth returns a tough serve from Belgian Yanina Wickmayer as the IBM speed counter tracks every volley.

IBM's threat tracker program maps and stops potential cyberattacks against the Tennis Australia website from all over the world. This particular attack originated in China and is targeting IBM's US hosting centre.

Three datacentres are used across the US to serve the Australian Open content. This graph is tracking how many hits the site gets, as well as the load capacity of each of the centres.

PointStream is a new tracking system currently in beta from IBM. Deployed for the first time at the Australian Open, PointStream takes vital statistics collected from technicians on the court — such as the type of stroke, speed of ball, faults and unforced errors — and puts them in a graph so that a user can watch how their player is tracking in real time.

The minds behind the project say that the PointStream program can be duplicated and applied to other major events, such as the Queensland flood crisis, to aid analysis.

The Australian Open has made a push towards mobile devices this year, trimming down its website to work across multiple platforms and releasing an iPad app.

The Open's iPhone app, meanwhile, has augmented reality (AR) capability. This AR function shows points of interest to a user as they look around the ground with their smartphone camera. Points of interest include courts, big screens and toilet facilities.

A fleet of IBM ThinkPads broadcasts live match statistics to courts all over Melbourne Park.

This screen manages the live feeds for each of the courts around the ground.

The Australian Open also uses state-of-the-art broadcast facilities, including this suspended camera rig, which whizzes around the court, tracks players in between sets, and provides up close and intimate footage.

Pictured above, the camera moves down to score a close-up shot of Novak Djokovic's challenger, Marcel Granollers.

The Australian Open is set to run through to 30 January.

For more on this ZDNet UK-selected story, see Aussie Open serves up ace tech: photos on ZDNet Australia.

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