The University of Waterloo Warriors hockey team has partnered with HockeyTech to help launch and perfect their revolutionary technology for obtaining hockey analytics.  The groundbreaking in-arena system allows for location tracking data of all players, on-ice officials, and the puck in real time.

The company has made the decision to relocate from Guelph to Waterloo, recognizing the University of Waterloo as a place where innovation comes to life and surrounding themselves with the resources available was a no brainer. 
 

"When we thought about how you mix hockey and technology, I can't think of any better academic institution in the world than the University of Waterloo," mentioned CEO of HockeyTech, Stu Siegel.  "When we were looking at our growth objectives, we saw a great opportunity to be here in Waterloo.  We've had nothing but great co-operation from the university."

"We are excited about the partnership with HockeyTech. On a campus where we are recognized internationally for our research, while making innovation a priority, it is fitting that we can contribute to a partnership like this," commented Director of Athletics, Roly Webster.  "Having this revolutionary technology in our facility, along with the support and involvement of our hockey programs, coaches and athletes allows us to provide a living lab for HockeyTech to test and perfect their technology."

Throughout the CIF Arena, there are 24 locators (hung in the rafters) that have been installed and the players each wear a virtually weightless radio-frequency identifier (RFID) chip about the size of a coin.  There is also a chip embedded into the puck and the locators track every move of the players/puck instantaneously.  The installed locators calculate in real time the precise 3D position (X/Y/Z coordinate) of each chip up to 50 times per second. These coordinates run through proprietary advanced algorithms to produce real-time statistics on each player and the puck, such as time-on-ice, skating speed, distance travelled, shot/pass speed and location, zone play, puck possession, and much more. Further development is planned for the areas of player safety, media, fan engagement, and a series of visualization tools.

 "It's been a tremendous partnership from the start and for our student-athletes to be able to test out the technology and see the results first-hand has been a truly unique experience," mentioned head coach of the men's program Brian Bourque.  "I am a firm believer that hockey analytics is moving towards this type of data and the more advanced stats we can receive about our players, the better they will be."

The capabilities of the analytics produced are endless and are well beyond what is currently available to hockey world.  "What truly excites us even more is the idea of arming team statisticians with this data to analyze positioning during such game events as goals for and goals against, said HockeyTech CTO Cary Moretti.  "We believe that HockeyTech analytics will lead to significant changes in how the game is coached and how teams evaluate player performance."
 
About HockeyTech
HockeyTech is the worldwide leader in providing hockey-related technologies, analytics and information services. HockeyTech was founded in 2013 by Stu Siegel, serial technology entrepreneur and former Florida Panthers Managing Partner/CEO, to address the lack of technology tools available to the hockey world. The company has grown rapidly, and has made five company acquisitions to date. While HockeyTech is a new corporate identity, it has been providing cutting-edge solutions to the hockey world since 1998.

HockeyTech Website: HockeyTech.com

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