Player-Tracking Chips In NFL Shoulder Pads Win Technology Award


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Zebra Technologies, was recently selected for exhibiting the best new radio frequency identification (RFID) product or service at RFID Journal LIVE!. Their tracking system, known as the Zebra Sports Solution, identified the location, motion, and direction of NFL players in real-time last season. It does this by leveraging the same real-time tracking and location technology that Zebra utilizes in solutions it has developed for retail, manufacturing, health care, and transportation and logistics.

Mark Roberti, founder and editor of the RFID Journal said the Zebra Sports Solution, ” is the most advanced sports tracking solution we’ve seen. The editors at RFID Journal were impressed with the accuracy of the solution, and its ability to provide the data (to the NFL in real-time). Clearly, the solution has implications in other sports and other businesses.”

During the 2014 NFL season, Zebra’s Sports Solution tracked over 2,000 players while measuring and storing over 1.6 billion sets of X,Y,Z coordinates. With solutions like these, Zebra, the official on-field player-tracking provider of the NFL, is revolutionizing the way sports is played, watched, analyzed and coached.

On top of its work in the sports industry, Zebra Technologies is in a unique position to deliver end-to-end solutions that unlock the value of the Internet of Things by leveraging its RFID-based visibility and locationing technology with its breadth of data capture, mobility, networking, and analytics capabilities. They have created a tracking and visibility solution that transform the physical to digital, creating the data streams enterprises need to simplify operations and we are interested to see what next solutions they will come up with to track athletes.