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“Virtual and mixed reality is on the way at the Australian Open” – interview with Machar Reid, Australia’s innovator

January 25: Machar Reid head of innovation at the Broadcast Compound at the Australian Open at Melbourne Park on Saturday, January 25, 2025. Photo by TENNIS AUSTRALIA/ MADI LEO
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MELBOURNE – The 2025 Australian Open surprised with innovations, from the in-stadium coaching sector to a reversion of Wii Sports as an alternative for watching matches that were only available on pay channels. And Machar Reid, Head of Innovation at Tennis Australia, promises that in a few years virtual, augmented and mixed reality will take centre stage.

‘A second screen or using your phone to present some augmentation that doesn’t exist on the courts (…) will become part of our mainstream viewing or consumption experience in five or seven years’, said Reid during an interview with CLAYin Melbourne.

Reid, a Scotsman, is a machine of new ideas to ensure that the Australian Open never ceases to amaze.

-You’ve been the Head of Innovation at the Australian Open for seven years, what are your responsibilities and what do Tennis Australia expect from you?

– I work across our business, and the most high profile part of our business is the event, the Australian Open and all of the leading events. But I also work in our community sport arm as well as our high performance arm. And across all of those areas, I’m able to work with different stakeholders and identify opportunities to do things differently, whether that is within the physical space or in the digital world online.

 – Enough to do! Do you know whether the other Grand Slams or any other big tournament has a Head of Innovation?

– I don’t know if they have that title, but I’m sure they’ve got individuals or teams that do.

– You don’t exchange experiences with other parts at Wimbledon or the US Open, Roland Garros? People doing something like you do? Or is this really unique from Australia?

– I think maybe the way we have it structured is different to some of the other Grand Slams where we have internal teams that try and develop new products and experiences but then we also connect with the external world through our AO Startups program and then we have an investment arm called AO Ventures. I think that is unique to the world of tennis and in terms of innovation. 

– Innovation does mean necessarily and basically technology?

– Not necessarily. It can be any change that adds value to the event experience from a fan point of view or playe, so you can think of even the coaching pods that’s an example of innovation.

– I wanted to ask you about it. This is also part of your portfolio? It came from you. 

– No, no. Whilst my title carries the word innovation, everyone in the business can innovate. Part of my team had input into the coaching pod because they supply the technology or the coach’s box solution into the coaching pod. But that is something that Craig Tiley himself prides himself and the business on, doing things differently. He has a working philosophy of trying to do at least 50 of things differently each year so that is aspirational for us as a business so everyone innovates.

– That is a good help for you. if you’re the head of innovation you have a head wanting to innovate every year. 

– That’s right! That desire to continue to enhance the player experience and the fan experience is important for the Australian Open and ourselves as a business.

– And there’s another innovation that is technological, the Wii Sports one. How did this happen?

– So, the animated feed, that’s part of our AO Labs program. Some developers that work in that program, Mark Reedy is the lead developer. So this is the third year we do it. So the first year we were just tracking the ball. It was very much a proof of concept, stitched together with commentary. Last year, we ran it on Rod Laver Arena, and this year we’ve run it across three courts. But it’s taking the electronic line calling data and then creating the avatars or the characters on top, but it is the player’s actual movements, it’s the actual trajectory of the ball.

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I was talking to Alcaraz about this. He finds it cute, nice. In his first match at the Australian Open, when you had at the same time Alcaraz, Kyrgios and Djokovic playing, the animated feed was the only chance for some people to see the match live, because otherwise they would have to pay. So, is this like an alternative for free tennis? How would you describe it?

– No, as much as anything it is another way in which we can bring some tools to the broadcasters to engage a different demographic to allow them to grow the total tennis viewing audience. And it’s presenting the sport in a different and engaging way that maybe it is not for me or you but there is an audience out there that like this type of consumption.

– Maybe to get an audience that you didn’t have yet?

– Yeah, or engage an existing audience in a different way. But I think it is more likely to reach into a new audience.

– You might have every now and then, you and your team, some crazy ideas about innovation. Is there any big idea that you couldn’t fulfill yet or that even Craig Tiley said, ‘hey, this is too much’?

– No, I think one thing that we are always searching for are new ways to present the sport. So the idea of virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, I think we will see more options to consume the sport in that way in years to come.

– Is there any plan to engage the spectators at the Rod Laver Arena in a different way that we are used to seeing now?

– I think we are always open for suggestions, so anything that comes our way we will take a look at, especially if it adds to the fan experience.

– This innovation with the coaching, did you have any feedback already from other tournaments or from the players itself?

– I think at a general level the feedback is largely positive, because obviously the sport unlocked the opportunity to coach some years ago sport in a new way with new content and so on.

– But this is quite unique. Tennis has been trying to introduce coaching but it was always more an American way of seeing it, like if it was the NBA or the NFL. This is quite different. 

– I think it has been discussed within our teams and within the business for a little bit of time. And you obviously need the right court for it because you need enough space in the stadium courts. And this year was the year that we decided to, yeah, let’s go for it. And we think it is a positive step for the sport.

 

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– Tennis is always discussing itself. Maybe we should abolish the second serve, maybe we should play a shorter set. Do you have any of these ideas in analysis like changing something?

– I think again if you bring it back to both player experience and fan experience it is always about presenting the sport as engaging a way as you can. So optimizing for be it rally length or downtime within the match I think these are all the things that everyone in the sport, be it the tours, the Grand Slams, the players themselves, are constantly thinking about.

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– Any innovation you couldn’t still develop but you would like to start to think about?

– Yes. I touched on in the mixed reality space, where you’re beginning to think about analyzing or viewing the sport in different ways that is interesting to me from a fan point of view, but also from a playing perspective. So I think we’ll see more of those options come our way in the next.

– That will be more in the stadium or more for the spectator at home? 

– I think definitely the spectator at home and I think ultimately it will get to the stadium as well.

– Like mixing in the stadium? 

– Yeah, that idea of the second screen or using your phone to present some augmentation that doesn’t exist on the courts. So I think there are a few different options there that will be really innovative when they are first launched, that will become part of our mainstream viewing or consumption experience in five or seven years.

– The Hawkeye was 20, 25 years ago, a big innovation. Now, do you see any room to do something further, something better with the Hawkeye?

– I think the most amazing thing, and it is probably a little bit understated at the moment, that electronic line calling technologies have done is track the players. Historically they just tracked the ball one data point a centroid. Then they evolved to tracking like the center of mass of the player or a blob and now they track the skeleton of a player. That is amazing, because it allows you to do what we did with the animation and also opens the door for coaches and players to analyze their technique like they’ve never done before. Previously you would have to go into a lab with a three-dimensional motion capture system and perform that type of analysis which would be very costly and take a lot of time. We are now moving closer to a world where you can track your biomechanics in real time. I think that is incredible.

– Is the information already available to coaches and players during the Australian Open?

– It’s already, yes.

– Are we seeing the future right now?

– Some of those models or the precision of that tracking needs to be validated, which is an important scientific step. But that unlocks questions to be answered that coaches have been posing for for 30 years. So it’s amazing. It could be kinematics or the mechanics that relate to certain injuries or how players are so good at changing direction or what are the most significant factors that relate to serving speed or why is this player so effective at disguising his serve. The list is countless. You could come up with a hundred.

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