This season, the NFL runs on Microsoft. With the addition of Microsoft Surface tablets (“The Official Tablet of the NFL”), the NFL’s “sideline of the future” is becoming today’s reality. Using special Surface tablets designed for the field, coaches and players are able to interact during gameplay and work on team skills in real time through the Microsoft Surface Sideline Viewing System.
And it was no easy feat.
According to The New York Times,
Microsoft was told the tablets had to be rugged enough to survive drops, easy enough to use in a hurry and big enough for several people to see its screen at once. They had to work in extreme temperatures (hot and cold), resist glare and hold a battery charge for a full game, and they had to work on a secure wireless network without delays.
The NFL uses these Surface tablets to review in-game photos and analyze opponent’s defense plans while annotating the photos. With 15 tablets on the sidelines and 12 in the coaches’ booths, players and coaches have the ability to view up to four images at a time as well as to enlarge the images for better viewing. At the end of each game, the tablets are returned and all images and annotations are erased.
The tablets are part of a long-term Microsoft partnership that includes XBox One, inviting fans to use the Microsoft NFL app for XBox One to keep up with fantasy stats, real-time updates, in-game highlights, news, scores and stats—right next to the live games on their TVs.
For more on the NFL/Microsoft partnership, read the Official Microsoft Blog here.