In keeping with our early-morning Major League Baseball focus (not really, it just seems that way), Ronald Blum reports for The Associated Press, “Baseball’s replay central is an 18-by-24 foot room on the fifth floor of a former baking factory in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District that’s crammed with so many computers and television screens that it looks like NASA’s Mission Control.”
“Five monitors stretch across the top of the wall, and beneath are eight, 46-inch screens split into two rows. Each television can show one picture, or be split into nine, 16, 25 or 100 angles at once,” Blum reports.
“In the third row are two white Macintosh computers with 19-inch screens, each adjacent to a 26-inch TV. And, finally, below that are dozens of buttons on a router panel. Some are blue, some green, some red, some yellow. This is where the technicians and supervisors will sit,” Blum reports.
MacDailyNews Translation/Educated Guess: “Two white Macintosh computers with 19-inch screens” most likely means “two iMacs with 20-inch screens.”
Blum continues, “The room is called the NOC – the Network Operations Center for MLB.com. It’s where video from the 30 major league ballparks is already being collected, and will be made available to umpires starting Thursday to help them with home-run calls. Technicians can zoom in on replays, run them at any speed.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: MLB’s new instant replay relies on Apple Macs. Guess they want it to work. By the way, congrats to MLB Commissioner Bud Selig who, despite being one of the last people on Earth who we’d picture bringing baseball into the 21st century, is not only leading baseball into inventive, inclusive (excellent compatibility with Apple products) and innovative technology areas, but leading all major sports in doing so. Whomever is advising MLB on technology issues is doing an excellent job.
