Wearable technology startup ActionStreamer, which is co-founded by former NFL player Dhani Jones, offers television viewers an on-field perspective of sports action and received $1.88 million in an oversubscribed seed financing round.
The camera weighs less than two-tenths of a pound and is fully self-contained — with no exposed cords, wires or belt packs — and can be affixed to a referee’s hat or player’s helmet and then transmit high-definition video. ActionStreamer has made its broadcast debut earlier this summer in Arena Football League games featuring the Baltimore Brigade and Washington Valor, with referees and coaches attaching the cameras to their hats.
“It’s a relatively simple thing to mount a camera to a helmet,” ActionStreamer co-founder and chief technology officer Chris McLennan said in a statement. “The primary technical hurdle lies in transmitting data in real-time, in a crowded setting, with hardware that is virtually unnoticeable, even to the person wearing it.”
The AFL debut is a product of a partnership with Monumental Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Brigade and Valor in addition to the NBA’s Washington Wizards, NHL’s Washington Capitals and WNBA’s Washington Mystics. ActionStreamer has said expansion plans include implementations in baseball, hockey and golf.
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“While playing college and professional football, I always wanted fans to experience the exhilaration and intensity of the game from my perspective, to share in my biggest moments with me,” Jones, who is also ActionStreamer’s chief strategy officer, said in a release. “At ActionStreamer, we’re doing just that — bringing fans closer to the action than ever before.”
The seed round was led by CincyTech.