IBM and the US Open: IT Serves Up Enhanced Tennis Tournament Coverage

by Darryl K. Taft

As the USTA welcomes attendees to the US Open, the cloud in the sky portends IBM’s cloud strategy behind the event. A video of Walt Braeger, vice president of cloud computing and Global Technology Services at IBM, talking about the cloud can be found here on YouTube.

A photo of former US Open winner Serena Williams hangs on the wall outside IBM’s media operations at the US Open facility. Williams did not play in the open this year, but attended to root for her sister, Venus Williams.

Kristina Kloberdanz, Worldwide Sponsorship Marketing manager, and (at left) Rick Singer, vice president of sports marketing at IBM, lead a tour of the operations center for IBM’s US Open operations. A video of Kloberdanz and others taking you behind the courts at the US Open can be found on YouTube.

A rack of systems serving as the scoring network in the IBM operations center for the US Open.

This is an image of the systems that drive the outside video boards at the US Open.

Here are the systems powering the US Open court scheduling system.

IBM also drives the US Open’s closed-circuit TV system from its nerve center.

IBM staff manning the operations center at the US Open.

Here’s a look at IBM’s back-office operation at the US Open.

This is the system behind the US Open Match Analysis DVD.

IBM’s international graphics system at the US Open is on display.

This diagram depicts just what IBM does for the US Open.

The operations center houses the hubs for the US Open video display system and the venue’s intranet.

IBM also maintains commentator statistics.

In the on-site headquarters of the USOpen.org Website, John Kent, technical manager for Worldwide Sponsorship Marketing, discusses IBM’s role in powering the USOpen.org site.

IBM’s Kent shows the press corps different views of the USOpen.org site.

The USOpen.org staff is hard at work.

Here, a wall in the USOpen.org operations center displays stats on the 2009 US Open.

A rack of IBM servers, housed behind closed doors, powers the USOpen.org site.

IBM’s John Kent displays the USOpen.org Website on an iPad. Here, tennis fans can see Maria Sharapova playing on one of the stadium’s courts. IBM brought the US Open to the iPad for 2010.

Here is the official display board atop Arthur Ashe stadium.

Here is a view of the court from IBM’s suite in the Arthur Ashe stadium. Maria Sharapova awaits a serve from Jarmila Groth.

Walt Braeger, vice president of cloud computing and Global Technology Services at IBM, poses inside the IBM suite at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

IBM culls data from the radar guns that drive the display showing how fast each serve is delivered.