A pair of announcements today signal a new era of event photography and tracking – live photography is being implemented at triathlon and running events around the world.
Marathon-Photos, the company that took photos at the recent Challenge Miami event, has developed new technology that “saw images uploaded and identified within seconds of being taken at Christchurch Marathon last weekend.” That meant people could follow a runner through the event by tracking their photos. The company had tested the concept out six years ago, but the bulky technology, including satellite dishes, made the process unwieldy. Thanks to the pandemic putting a halt on so many races last year, the company was able to spend time developing the hardware and software to be able to run the production through portable devices.
According to Marathon-Photos founder and managing director Francis Kay, the new technology will be used at major events around the world as racing returns after the COVID-19 pandemic – athletes will be able to see the new technology in action at MarathonPhotos.live.
AWOL offers facial recognition technology at Outlaw events
Today we also learned that Great Britain’s Outlaw Triathlon Series had teamed up with AWOL, a digital services company also based in the UK, to utilize facial-recognition, timing chips and race numbers to sort through and provide pictures to friends and family live during an event, and photos of competitors as soon as they finish.
According to AWOL COO Richard Burnett the company has been developing the technology “in conjunction with the UK and European Space Agencies.”
