Photos: Tracking the servers at Wimbledon

By Colin Barker, ZDNet.co.uk, 4 July, 2006 12:15

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Summary

Grab yourself a Pimms and join us on a tour of IBM's facilities at Wimbledon, where the company aims to keep the scores and more

Topics

Wireless, Tennis, IBM

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PHOTO

The basic data-input device is as simple as they come, and is attached to a laptop computer. The data is entered with each swing of the racquet and then passed to the central systems.

Most of the communications are carried over cables with some wireless backup. It seems astonishing in these "wireless-everywhere" days but, as IBM points out, there are good reasons for this.

Firstly, Wimbledon is a very compact site with around 30 courts sitting one next to the other. This means there are a lot of people in a small area, and a lot of mobile devices.

Add to that the fact that Wimbledon is built on quite a steep hill, as anyone who has seen "Henman Hill" on television can confirm, and you could have a mobile communications nightmare.

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