Richard Humphreys |
The PGA TOUR is working with Microsoft on an artificial intelligence (AI) enabled Content Relevancy Engine (CRE), which it says will give golf fans real-time statistical trends and storylines relevant to the current action.
The application, which is built on Microsoft’s Azure cloud, can sift through nearly 20 years of statistical data collected by the TOUR’s proprietary scoring system, ShotLink powered by CDW, as well as 80,000-plus hours of video in the TOUR’s digital library. The CRE provides contextual content for television broadcasts and digital properties to enhance fan understanding of competitive situations as they occur.
“The PGA TOUR strives to be a leader in sports innovation with a goal of reaching new fans globally,” said Steve Evans, senior vice president for Information Systems at the PGA TOUR. “In the broadcast truck, decisions on what content airs on television are made in real time as the story is unfolding in front of everyone. Having compelling and relevant content at our fingertips allows us to instantly provide the broadcast team with supporting information surrounding the action as it happens. Through AI, we can build systems that continue to learn and develop on their own, allowing the TOUR’s platforms to evolve with the fan.”
“The PGA TOUR has been passionate about finding patterns and presenting its massive amounts of content in a more structured way for broadcast producers so they can spend more time doing what they do best: telling amazing stories,” said Mike Downey, a principal engineer at Microsoft. “Through the CRE, we’ve helped the TOUR make content more accessible. Now instead of requesting manually-created, custom data feeds from the TOUR, broadcasters can build their own. This solution will continue to learn patterns and get smarter over time.”