Amazon Web Services In Deal With National Hockey League

Amazon Web Services or AWS, an Amazon.com, Inc. company, has inked a deal with the National Hockey League (NHL) to become the Official Cloud, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning Infrastructure Provider of the professional ice hockey league.

Under the partnership, AWS will help the NHL bring its more than 670 million fans closer to the ice with new viewing experiences and in-depth statistics and analytics built on AWS services.

NHL is also followed by more than 151 million followers, league, team and player accounts combined, across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube; and more than 100 million fans online at NHL.com.

The League also broadcasts games in more than 160 countries and territories through its rightsholders including NBC/NBCSN and the NHL Network in the U.S.

With this agreement, AWS will provide its cloud technology to the NHL, becoming a foundational partner in delivering NHL performance analytics, and collaborating to enhance the way people experience hockey by providing more engaging content and greater insights to fans.

This deal will enable NHL to automate video processing and content delivery in the cloud and leverage its Puck and Player Tracking (PPT) System, which runs on AWS cloud infrastructure, to better capture the details of game play for its fans, teams, and media partners.

The NHL will also build an enterprise video platform on AWS to aggregate video, data, and related applications into one central repository that will enable easier search and retrieval of archival video footage.

This will give broadcasters instant access to NHL content for syndication and licensing, and facilitate the creation and delivery of new in-game analyses, predictions, and video highlights to enhance mobile, online, and broadcast experiences.

Further, NHL will be able to develop and share advanced game analytics and metrics to drive deeper fan engagement with the help of Amazon Machine Learning Solutions Lab by analyzing game video and official NHL data.

NHL also intends to use AWS Elemental Media Services to develop and manage a cloud-based HD and 4K video content delivery system that will provide a complete view of the game to NHL officials, coaches, players, and fans.

Powered by AWS, the system will encode, process, store, and transmit game footage from a series of new camera angles to provide continuous video feeds that capture plays and events outside the field of view of traditional broadcast cameras.

NHL will also be able to audit its feeds to broadcast partners in real time by leveraging AWS analytics services including Amazon Kinesis and machine learning services such as Amazon SageMaker. It will create a smart monitoring system that detects and automatically fixes potential feed issues, offering fans a seamless in-game experience across viewing platforms.

AWS is already working with the world’s most renowned sports leagues such as Bundesliga, Formula 1, National Football League and Six Nations Rugby as well as analysis website Pro Football Focus.

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