Eight years ago, our founder Hayden Ball and Roy Hotrabhvanon found themselves in Mexico City for the Homeless World Cup. They went over to deploy a product they had been working on, a portable Local Positioning System (LPS) to track games and stream data live for spectators. It was the ultimate solution, a small portable tracking system that lets you track performance data anywhere -- indoors and/or outdoors. 

It did not work.

Roy and Hayden ultimately pivoted to focusing on outdoors only as that was where 95% of the market was in the UK. 

But it remained something our team obsessed over. Again, we were repeatedly told this product was practically impossible to create. Or, maybe possible, but would be extortionately expensive to produce. Fortunately, that just drove our team further down the rabbit hole to figure out how to make it happen. 

And (spoiler alert) we’ve done it.

That’s right, we’ve successfully built a FIFA Quality certified portable Local Positioning System (LPS). This is revolutionary for indoor sports performance tracking. 

Let’s start with an oversimplified lesson on what LPS is… 

In outdoor sports, you have access to a GPS satellite signal. Our GPS tracking technology leverages that signal to track metrics like distance, speed, accelerations, decelerations, and more. When you’re indoors, you don’t have access to that GPS signal. Even so, our Edge Air is still able to track some metrics indoors as an inertial measurement unit (IMU). IMU metrics includes things like acceleration load and jumps. These alone can give you a pretty solid idea of how ‘hard’ your athletes are working. But IMU does not give you the precise speed or distance for an athlete. This is where LPS comes into play.

By setting up the LPS beacons inside, teams can accurately track essential metrics, including distance, top speed, accelerations, and decelerations — all without needing access to an outdoor GPS satellite signal.

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While other LPS systems on the market require fixed installations, significant financial investment (around $100,000), a specific computer to operate, and track limited amounts of athletes, the PlayerData LPS system is rechargeable, portable, and user-friendly — the data is easily accessible wirelessly straight from a phone, tablet, or computer. It can also track an unlimited number of athletes. 

Additionally, the entire system fits in the water bottle pouch of a backpack and can be set up quickly. Set ups for recent events at SoFi Stadium and AT&T Stadium took roughly an hour.

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This system firmly brings PlayerData into basketball, and the response has already been incredible. Our first basketball customers include the likes of Steph Curry’s alma mater Davidson College, Vanderbilt University, Winthrop University, and IMG Academy – one of the top prep basketball programs in the world producing over 20 NBA draft picks since 2005.

Our goal has always been to give the same top-flight tracking technology from the highest level in sports to the local level — without stripping down the product. Getting this product out is a significant step toward expanding our impact across the entire sports ecosystem.

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To learn more, get in contact HERE.

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