NBC Sports has launched a new AI-powered player tracking system that lets viewers on mobile devices zoom in on their favorite athletes. This marks the first time the viztrick AiDi technology, created by Japan’s Nippon Television Network, will be utilized by another broadcaster. According to Nikkei Asia, NBC Sports plans to roll out this feature for its live event coverage starting this year.
The viztrick AiDi system employs facial recognition to identify and follow individual players, featuring a straightforward interface that allows operators to simply tap on the player they wish to track. In Japan, Nippon TV has used this system to add overlays displaying a player’s name and stats. However, NBC Sports intends to leverage it for delivering tailored content on mobile devices in a vertical format.
Fans will have the option to watch the original horizontal broadcast of a game or event via the NBC Sports app or choose to focus on a popular player using the viztrick AiDi technology. This technology can “automatically extract footage of athletes in real time and crop them from horizontal broadcasts into a vertical orientation for mobile viewing.” It’s currently unclear which events or broadcasts will feature this capability this year, but NBC Sports is set to cover the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano and Cortina.
