As technology gets more and more advanced everyday, it is no surprise that we often find new technology being used in places we often wouldn’t have imagined a few years ago. Baseball is a professional sport in which there was limited technology used in the past. However, just as everything changes over time, so has baseball.
Many professional sports leagues, such as the NBA, NFL, and NHL, have already adopted the use of Instant Replay. Yet, baseball failed to incorporate this technology into everyday use, until recently. As of now, it is only used to find out whether a home run is, in fact, a home run, or if it should be a double or a foul ball. A home run call that was ruled incorrectly by an umpire can ultimately change an inning, game, series, or a season. Such an effect has led Commissioner Bud Selig to introduce Instant Replay to MLB.
How it works
Many grasp the concept of Instant Replay, but many probably do not understand the amount of technology behind it all. This is how it works: The crew chief will go to a small gray box located off the field where a 20 inch TV monitor and a phone are located. The phone is automatically connected to MLBAM’s (Major League Baseball Advanced Media) Manhattan office, their central location for all Instant Replay.
If the crew chief asks for specific replays of a play that just occurred, the crew in the Manhattan office, consisting of various technicians and umpiring supervisors, will then send back the requested footage. The interesting part is what they send back - various freeze frames, shots from different angles, the play rewinding, etc. After the crew chief receives all this, he then analyzes it all and makes the appropriate (and hopefully correct) decision.
The technology behind it all
The interesting part in all this is the efficiency in which everyone performs their task. In fact, the first time Instant Replay was used, the whole process took only 2 minutes and 15 seconds!
If we break down all that happens it would seem like it could be a very difficult and time consuming process. The umpire must contact the New York office, the office edits the specific footage he wants, send it back, and then have the umpire must analyze it. However, an average baseball game is already pretty long, so I’m pretty sure Commissioner Selig took time into consideration when deciding how to implement Instant Replay. Overall, the entire process should only take about 2 minutes and 30 seconds as cited by MLB.
There are 3 to 4 feeds sent out for each game and considering there could be 15 games per day, there is a lot of video information flying around. The Manhattan central office can get between 45-60 different feeds a day, many of which can come in at the same time. Now, we have to think about how they would receive all that video footage.
The good thing is that MLB already streams all the games, so gathering the necessary video is not too difficult a process. MLB spent about 2 months and over 2.5 million dollars prepping a control room that would feature the necessary fiberlink lines, all the monitors, and special telephone lines. To give some perspective about what the control room would look like, it features four TV screens spread out across the back wall, which receives all the feeds from each game, eight more screens across the other walls with different feeds, and in between would be three rows of computers, assorted video equipment, and the technicians.
Final thoughts
The whole process sounds like one big headache, and to get everything done that the crew chief wants—well that’s not a simple feat. The amount of precision, efficiency, and pressure that would go into such a process—it is all made possible by today’s technology. It’s a shame that people take such technology for granted; hopefully this will shed some light on just how much technology impacts our everyday lives in ways we normally wouldn’t imagine.
Read [NYDailyNews]
Read [MLB]
Read [SportsBusinessDaily]
Read [NY Post]
Read [MSN Fox Sports]
Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! - Subscribe to our feed →
The much-hyped mandatory transition from analog to digital TV in the United States has begun in Wilmington, NC. 
