We mentioned yesterday that the Super Bowl will be available to stream on NBC for freesies. However, if you were to watch via NBCs web stream, you wouldn’t get to see all those commercials everyone would be talking about the next day at work. Social suicide, to be certain! But fear not, cord cutters. Tumblr has you covered.

According to Reuters, NBC will be posting the highly-anticipated (and highly-priced) ads on Tumblr shortly after they air. This will allow people watching via stream, people not watching at all, or fans looking to re-watch their favorites an opportunity to catch all the spots that run during one of advertising’s biggest days.

While many companies post their commercials to sites like YouTube and Vimeo, NBC will curate their own one-stop shop for the ads. For some, the commercials are just as (or perhaps more) important as the game. NBC is smart to offer those taking advantage of their new streaming service to also catch the ads online — not to mention a repository for repeat viewings. It will take a little multi-tab navigation, but at least game streamers will now know what the hell everyone is talking about on Twitter.

(Image via The Inspiration Room)

These days, if a stadium wants to boast about its amenities, it better be sporting a high-capacity WiFi network. Fans are not only there to watch the game, but to keep up on other games, post pictures of themselves on social media, and even watch highlights captured at a much better vantage point. All this can be done over cellular networks, certainly, but for maximum speed and reliability, fans are looking to connect their mobile devices to WiFi. And fans at the NCAA Football National Championship were certainly sucking some bandwidth at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.

According to a report by Mobile Sports Report, the in-stadium WiFi at AT&T Stadium carried 4.93 TB of data over its network during the game on Monday night. AT&T also saw 1.41 TB travel over its cellular network. This totals over six terabytes of data from computers and mobile devices, and that’s not even counting data transmitted on Verizon, T-Mobile, or Sprint Networks. Even so, that number is higher than any data total posted at a sporting event, including last year’s Super Bowl and the home opener of the San Francisco 49ers’ new stadium.

While this number won’t be repeated on your typical NFL or MLB game day, it’s proof that more and more fans want the reliability (and free-ness) of WiFi when using their devices at sporting events. Though these types of things are rarely publicized, I imagine many teams in slightly older stadiums are working on or planning to work on upgrading their current infrastructure. This spike in data usage isn’t something that is going away any time soon. Teams would be smart to be on the front end of this trend.

(Image via Ron Kikuchi)

CES has come and gone, and I’m looking over my pages and pages of notes trying to figure out how I took it all in. There was a lot of ground to cover, and I’m not embarrassed to say that we didn’t see everything. It was a question of numbers really, and there were simply too many booths spread over too much real estate to catch it all. While we couldn’t see all of the prototype TVs or every piece of home automation tech that’s been put out there, we worked hard to focus in on our “beat,” what we cover at this site. And CES has shown me two distinct things about the sports tech world — everybody is getting into it, and very few have any idea what they’re doing.

The sports tech/wearable tech exhibitors at CES took up much of the second floor of the Sands Expo. Big hitters like FitBit were there showing off their latest tracking wrist wear, but so were many other smaller companies trying desperately to show their new or conceptual product to anyone who would listen. We went around talking to people and looking at literature, and to be honest, after a while everything just sort of blended together into some sort of silicon pastiche. Seemingly every new fitness product did the same six or seven things — tracked heart rate, steps taken, distance travelled, calories burned, etc. They were all slight variations of each other.

In this rapidly-expanding arena of fitness tracking, nobody is doing anything truly new. Much of the industry seems stuck in neutral. They are all just doing a lot of the same. Sure, some companies had better-looking apps or more stylish hardware, but these minor differences are the only ways manufacturers can set themselves apart. Until someone can break through that next technological barrier — and I’m not sure what that is yet — this trend is just going to continue.

I’m not saying that this type of product is a fad because I think devices like these will be around for some time. But the market is clearly oversaturated. Far too many companies are jumping into this pool either looking to gain a presence for their already-established brand in this new space, or to try and be the next big Kickstarter phenom. Did you know that there is a fitness tracker for dogs? Because there is a fitness tracker for dogs. Many of the booths we passed reeked of desperation.

The products that jumped out at us were those that were hyper-focused on something, and usually something the other guys didn’t do. I think VERT is a good example. Is everyone going to want a device to track their jumping? Of course not. But VERT is attempting to find their niche rather than being one of a thousand faces in a crowd. They have a specific market, a market they are growing, and focusing their time and resources on that is their best chance at success.

This is not to say that everything we encountered at CES was dreck. We found many interesting products on the showroom floor. Some we have already profiled here, others will be featured in the near future. There is great innovation out there to be found, you just have to separate a little wheat from a little chaff.

Over my four days at CES I logged over 80,000 steps, cultivated one grape-sized blister on my foot, had to recharge my phone about 100 times, and ended up learning a lot about where to world of sports technology is, but less about where it’s going. There were some clear cut trends in other markets — virtual reality, 4K, home/life automation, and even consumer drones were the talk of the conference. But the sports/fitness world didn’t have that. There was no next big thing. And that’s OK. It’s a young world that needs some time to grow. But until that thing is found I fear many companies will still be pushing all their chips into the rapidly-growing pot of wearable tech and smart watches. I’m just not sure who will have the winning hand.

If you’re wondering what a reporter might bring to a show like this, below is a picture I snapped quick of what I brought to the show every day in my bag.

The gear includes but is not limited to:

• A MacBook Air donning a custom NotGraphs (RIP) skin
• An iPad Air with stylus (I used Penultimate for all my note taking)
• A mirror-less camera on loan from my boss, David Appelman
• A Grid-It organizer packed with essentials such as
  • USB wall chargers and cables
  • Two USB battery packs
  • Bluetooth mouse
  • Lightning to USB adapter for iPad
  • Earbuds w/ Bluetooth adapter
  • Pens

I have no doubt that the overall feel of this showroom section will be much different at CES 2016. A year is a long time for things to shake out in such a new market. Hopefully more companies will be looking to innovate rather than imitate. Some are already trying to do so, and it’s leading to some really interesting products. I hope that trend continues in 2015, and the sports tech section of CES 2016 will be stage for some big-time changes in this space.

(Header image via Michael Koukoullis)

Though the golf swing is a highly-technical movement, it actually lends itself well to analysis with technology. The problem is, in order to analyze a swing comprehensively, an expensive and complicated radar-based system like Trackman is needed. Epson, with their release of the M-Tracer, is looking to bring a similar kind of analysis in a much smaller and more convenient system.

The M-Tracer is a small device weighing only 15 grams that attaches to the shaft of a golf club. The sensor tracks things like clubhead speed, face angle, swing path, and tempo. Renowned golf instructor David Leadbetter was involved in the design of the device, and was at Epson’s CES booth to discuss it with members of the media.

One of the biggest advantages of a system like M-Tracer is its flexibility. It can be used both on the course and at the driving range, or even in an indoor facility during the offseason. There are no special mats or cameras to be set up, just strap the device on the shaft of any club and start tracking your swings. The device can both stream live data to a Bluetooth-enabled device in real time, or can be stored locally for later uploading. Epson says M-Tracer can store 399 swings locally before needing to upload the data. Once uploaded, golfers can see the raw numbers as well as a 3D model of their swing to find what parts still need to be addressed.

One of the nicest things about the M-Tracer system is the ability to use it in conjunction with a golf instructor. Data can be sent from the student’s device to the coaches app so that the coach can keep tabs on how the student is progressing and if new issues have arisen. They can also easily communicate which facets of the game need work, so that the student know which data that the device captured is most important to their specific game improvement.

As someone who has relied on the indoor radar systems as part of his instruction, I can say that the idea of a portable swing analyzer is very intriguing. The ability to both work independently and with an instructor in a structured, data-driven way seems like the next logical step in tech-based game improvement. Nothing will completely replace the need for a good instructor, but the M-Tracer seems like a perfectly fine tool to use in the never-ending quest for the perfect golf swing.

The M-Tracer by Epson will be released in March 2015, and is expected to sell for $300.

The wearable tech space is saturated with devices that track steps taken, heart rate, distance travelled, etc. But there’s one company that is focused on one very specific part of athletics; jumping.

VERT is the maker of a small device that clips to the waistband and measures many facets of jumping such as hang time, acceleration, and total reach. The statistics can be beamed onto a big screen, or synced with a Bluetooth-enabled device. Players can look at their individual stats, or coaches can collect team-wide information.

According to Rick Friedman from VERT — who I spoke to in their CES booth — the training tool is being used in over 750 universities, including Penn State, the 2014 women’s volleyball national champions. Friedman mentioned that volleyball teams were one of their biggest customer bases.

Beyond general training and game-improvement implications, the device can also be used to help with injury prevention. When using VERT, coaches and trainers can have an accurate look at just how much their players are jumping. This can be used to avoid overworking and soft tissue injuries, as well as closely monitor players working to rehab injuries.

With seemingly everybody is getting into the fitness tracking game, it can become easy to get lost in the crowd. Working in a specific market like VERT is is a good way to separate themselves in a very noisy market. And if it helps keep young athletes healthy, all the better.

We’ve known for some time that Sony was releasing a sensor that attaches to tennis rackets, but we were able to learn more about the device at Sony’s CES booth.

The device is fairly straight forward and looks easy to attach. A clip mechanism is attached the butt end of the racket, and the sensor snaps into that clip. Sony representatives were able to confirm that users would be able to buy multiple clips to attach to multiple rackets. That way, a sensor could be easily switched from one racket to the other. The clips are compatible with select Wilson, Head, Prince, and Yonex rackets — all in all, over 100 rackets are compatible according to Sony.

The sensor tracks a myriad of things like swing type, swing speed and ball spin. It even senses vibrations to locate where on the racket the ball was struck. The data can be streamed directly to a Sony smartwatch or a tablet/smartphone using Bluetooth, or the sensor can store the data locally to be dumped later. According to Sony, when streaming data, the sensor can last about 90 minutes on a charge while it can go three hours while in memory mode.

Sony says the sensor is set to be released in the U.S. and Canada in the early part of this year for $200.

GoPro cameras certainly revolutionized the way we capture sports footage — offering a new, first-person perspective with their mountable waterproof cameras. But with mounted and handheld camera footage comes quite a bit of shakiness. Tiffen, a company that specializes in counterweighted camera mounts, has released a product specifically designed for GoPro cameras to offer smooth handheld footage.

The Steadicam uses hinges and weights to reduce the vibration and quick jolts in GoPro footage. It’s a technology that have been available to professional photographers for a while, and now anyone with a GoPro can make those silky smooth Hollywood-like roving shots to spice up their YouTube channels.

Steadicam Curve from The Tiffen Company on Vimeo.

The Consumer Electronics Show is the world’s biggest technology expo, and TechGraphs will be there to catch all the latest news and deliver it to you. The big hitters like Samsung and Sony are always expected to make some big announcements, but we are also expecting to learn a lot about what’s coming in the world of wearable tech, fitness apps and accessories, and the next line of connected sports equipment.

There will be plenty of news and company profiles here on the site, but for the fullest of coverages, make sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Vine. We’ll be posting pictures and videos of all the cool stuff we see. If there’s something you want to see, make sure to mention it on the comments, or tweet at us. If you’re going to be at the convention yourself, let us know as well. It would be great to meet our readers.

Most of the happenings start on Tuesday, so make sure to check back here and on social media to catch the latest.

(image via Alan Light)

Welcome back to TechGraphs’ series on building your own Retrosheet database. If you haven’t already, go back and read part one. If you are interested in actually following along on your own system, you must do some work up front, which all mentioned in that article. If you’ve made it past that point, you’re ready to actually load some baseball data.

Before I get too far into things, I should mention that much of what I will be presenting is an updated version of Colin Wyers’ article at our sister site The Hardball Times. That article is how I first learned to do this install, so many thanks are owed to him for laying down the groundwork.

(Note: a lot of these processes will take a good deal of computing resources and time. Be prepared to wait a good deal for these to complete. I would recommend doing this during a time you won’t need to do much else on your computer.)

The first step is to download the .zip file that will contain all the batch files and folder structure you will need. There are two options; one for 32-bit machines and one for 64-bit machines. The files are essentially the same, but the file paths in the scripts vary slightly. Check back with part one if you don’t know if you have a 32- or 64-bit machine. There are instructions on finding out toward the bottom of the article.

Download the proper file and extract it into a new folder on the C:\ drive called Retrosheet, so the result looks like C:\Retrosheet. Open the folder \data\zipped, and run the file get_zip_files batch file. (Note: if you don’t know, batch files are basically strings of code that tell your computer to run multiple processes all at once, saving you a whole lot of clicking.) When you run the get_zip_files file, you’ll notice a lot of scrolling text in the Command Prompt. This is a good thing. Basically, your computer is downloading all the game files from Retrosheet and unzipping them into usable files. If you back up to the \data\unzipped folder, you’ll notice all the .EVA and .EVN files that were just downloaded. This is the format Retrosheet used for their files. We’ll be using a program called Chadwick to turn these files into MySQL data. Also in that folder are three batch files — $cevent, $cwgame, and $cwsub. Running these files will parse the data through Chadwick and place the resulting .csv files in the \data\parsed directory. Run each script one time. Be patient, these processes can take some time. You can minimize the Command Prompt window, but DO NOT CLOSE IT. Closing the window ends the process, and you’ll have to clear out the parsed directory and start over again. When the window closes, the process is done and you can run the other two processes.

Now, it’s time to get our hands a little dirty with MySQL. Open the MySQL Workbench that we installed in part one. There should only be one connection to choose from at this time.

Double-click and enter the root password you created to open the workbench. The first thing we need to do is create the proper schema. A SQL schema is basically the bones of the database. It creates the tables and the fields that go into those tables. It doesn’t load the actual data, but it gets everything set up to load the data in. To create the schema, click File > Open SQL Script. Navigate out to the Retrosheet directory and open the “retrosheet table schema.sql” file. It will load the SQL commands into the workbench. In the toolbar right above all the new text, you’ll see a lightning bolt. This button runs whatever is in the editor window — in this case, our schema creation. Click the lightning bolt and let the SQL commands do their magic. When it’s all done, you’ll have to refresh your schema list to see the new Retrosheet tables. One the left-hand window, next to the word Schema, you’ll see a little refresh button. Click it, and the Retrosheet schema should now be visible.

Now, it’s time to fill those schemas. Go to File > Open SQL Script again. This time, navigate to Retrosheet\loaders. These files tell MySQL to fill those tables with the data we extracted in the previous steps. Choose events.sql, and you’ll see the SQL statement load into the workbench. Click the executing lightning bolt again and wait. Then, wait some more. You’ll have to wait for a while.

See that little circle in the tab above your SQL statement? That means a process is running. Wait until that disappears before you run the games.sql and subs.sql files.

Once the other .sql files are run, you’re all done. You’ve done it, you’ve created your very own Retrosheet database.

What exactly can you do with it? Well, I think we’ll save that for the next installment. I’ll go over some basic queries and show you just what your shiney new database can do. Until then, take your time, be confident, and don’t be afraid to sound off in the comments if you have any questions.

WatchESPN — ESPN’s online streaming site — has been providing access to all kinds of sporting events for some time now, but the ability to use the site has always been contingent on which cable/satellite package one subscribed to. Many of the big players like Comcast, AT&T U-Verse, and DISH already have agreements with ESPN/Disney to offer said streaming content. But anyone who had DirecTV as their television provider was left out in the cold. According to a press release from ESPN, those days will soon be over.

Thanks to a new agreement between the provider and Disney, some 39 million DirecTV customers will soon have access to WatchESPN as well as many other Disney streaming services. The deal is set to kick in sometime in early 2015. While this might be too late for this go-round of college bowl season, DirecTV customers will soon have access to a large swath of sports streaming content including NCAA basketball, NBA, the SEC and Longhorn Networks, and original ESPN programming like SportsCenter and Around the Horn on their computers and mobile devices.

It’s a little surprising that it took this long for ESPN to strike a deal with such a large television provider, but better late than never, I suppose. Download those apps, DirecTV customers. Soon you will have the span of nearly every ESPN offering in the palms of your hands. It’s a Festivus miracle!