The FoxTrax Hockey Puck Tracking System

News Corporation I tall started when Stan Honey (vice president of technology for News Corporation) was taking with David Hill (then-president of Fox Sports, a NewsCorp company). Stan was describing an exciting, emerging technology-virtual electronic billboards-that he felt could benefit Fox Sports. Though impressed with this prospect, David had just acquired the rights to produce National Hockey League games. He knew the sport had tremendous potential, currently not realized. Aware that the viewers' most common complaint was not being able to follow the puck on TV, he said to Stan, "What I'd really like is a system that can track and highlight the hockey puck-but I'm sure that's not possible." Stan, who had worked on similar problems in an earlier career at SRI International, replied that it was possible but that David couldn't afford it. When David asked what Stan meant by unaffordable, Stan took a stab at the cost. This was his first mistake-David immediately asked him to build the system. Stan proceeded to pull together a development team. He needed a group bright enough to ensure a reasonable chance of success, but not so bright that they would know what they were up against. He initially approached Silicon Graphics' software division with the idea that they could be contracted to develop the necessary software. After careful consideration, SGI declined. However, one of their developers did express interest in the project. Tim Heidmann, who developed SailTrack software (the system for enhancing ESPN's TV coverage of the America's Cup races), began to talk to Stan about forming a company to develop the necessary software. Stan felt the project management and part of the development should remain within NewsCorp. So he went fishing at Etak, a company acquired by NewsCorp that he had founded 12 years earlier to produce invehicle moving map navigators and digital map databases. Here I entered the picture. My boss at Etak suggested me as a candidate to manage and contribute to the development. After talking with Stan and thinking long and hard about it (I knew his propensity for tackling only difficult problems), I jumped aboard. Stan also enlisted the services of Jud Heinzmann, an acquaintance from his past life at SRI, where they did advanced radar research. Jud would develop the prototype radars to track the "electronic" puck. Finally, we approachedvista Research, an outfit made up of ex-SRI