Emmy Award win celebrated

Millions of baseball fans had a better look at America’s national pastime this year thanks to a Dunedin software firm.

Celebrating their role in the Sports Emmy Awards George Wensel Technical Achievement Award for...
Celebrating their role in the Sports Emmy Awards George Wensel Technical Achievement Award for MLB Network’s Statcast 3D are (from left) Animation Research Ltd head of baseball Simon Chattington, head of innovation John Rendall and senior developer Craig McNaughton at their Dowling St office yesterday. PHOTO: PETER MCINTOSH
Animation Research Ltd was behind Major League Baseball (MLB) graphics that showed how far home runs went or where all the strikes were thrown on MLB Network broadcasts this year.

Yesterday, the Dunedin company shut its doors to celebrate its part in winning one of television’s most coveted prizes for their work.

Animation Research Ltd managing director Sir Ian Taylor called yesterday’s celebrations "The Dowling St Emmys".

The good thing about hosting their own Emmy awards after the awards were handed out in June, Sir Ian said, was yesterday there was just one finalist.

The Dunedin sports graphics entrepreneur attended the awards party by videolink while trialling his own "self-managed isolation" in Auckland after returning from the United States this week.

Animation Research Ltd staff broke open the bubbles without him as they celebrated the company’s third Emmy award, this time adding the George Wensel Technical Achievement Award to the awards cabinet for Animation Research’s role in the MLB Network’s Statcast 3D television graphics.

It was the company’s third Emmy after collecting one for the America’s Cup, one for golf, and now baseball, Animation Research Ltd senior developer Craig McNaughton said.

He wrote the programme that generated the 3D graphics that went to air.

"MLB has been collecting data for years of every pitch, every movement of everybody on the field, and hasn’t really had a way to show it," he said.

Animation Research Ltd head of baseball Simon Chattington said

the aim of the graphics was to visualise what a fan could not see with the naked eye.

"We got about 8000 clips on TV across the whole baseball season, which is pretty good production," he said.

 

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