Sports Performance Technologies Sports technology companies
compare sports tracking timing_gates GPS VIDEO LPS Catapult Airtls Statsports Wimu Kinexon Sportable Gpexe Zebra Inmotio Chyronhego Xsens Gengee Shottracker
single use case
2.5% accurate
low cost		 versatile
medium cost
outdoor only		 medium accuracy
single POV
in&outdoor		 high accuracy
3D ball tracking
in&outdoor		 info performance info performance info performance info performance info performance info performance info performance info performance info performance info performance info performance info performance info performance


LPS performance and price comparison

LPS:local positioning system & GPS based sports tracking Sports technology companies
Catapult https://www.airtls.com/sport.html Statsports Wimu Kinexon Sportable Sportable Sportable Inmotio ChyronHego Xsens Gengee Shottracker
AUS NL IE ES DE UK IT USA NL USA NL CN USA
Metric Description unit Vector S7 Clearsky T6 AT02 Apex Realtrack ATO1 S01 T01 UWT1320 TPV23 ZXY arena VIPS Tracker S6P1
2024 SALES PRICES Product: Athlete Tag€ 2351 2100 30020001500 2803 10503000430
Match sportsball: sensors + LPS€ xx
xx
v
x
Zebra NFL ball
xxx
215
v
Mobile system   6 anchors, 2 balls, 2 player tags€ 3900 12040
Field-System price (initial cost) 10 anchors, 20 tags + software€ 54000 62000 10000 58000 34612 39000 48000 24000 NFL 15M/yr 72000 29000 750002193043000
Annual fee 20 players, 1 system€ 10700 16200 720 17300 22000 27000 32000 1200 140000 10500 19000 8500 2150
DimensionsDIMENSIONS, WEIGHT and display technology
Dimensions of the TAG Length x Widthmm 81 x 4348 x 4065 x 3584 x 4481 x 4549 x 3391 x 45 61 x 45 D=27 89 x 6050 x 36124 x 7463 x 4041 x 29
TAG Thickness / Weightmm / g 16 / 536 / 53 11 / 25 20 / 63 15 / 70 9,3 / 16 15 / 57 14 / 38 22 / 12 15 / 61 11 / 21 124 / 350 19 / 58 15 / 22
Display Pixels / Technology xx 128x128 /MIP 96x16 / OLED 96x16 / OLEDxx xx 96x16 / OLEDxx 64x128 /OLEDx
Display energy use / Always-on micro-Watt (< is better) / Always-onµW / . 4 / v 20000 / x 20000 / x 20000 / x 26000 / x
Mobile system, 6 tripods 6 tripods with anchors, weight (< is better)kg 7.8 19.8
Mobile system Tripod, min / max heightcm 60 / 305 70 / 226
energyBATTERY capacity. HOURS of operation: The figure is based on realworld chipset energy consumption and onboard battery capacity as found in FCC documentation linked below, and, or end user reports.
Battery capacity (LiPo) Capacity   (higher is better)mAh/Wh 455 / 1.60350 / 1.25500 / 1.8 400 / 1.501300 / 4.5250 / 0.88 400 / 1.5 1500 / 5.25 360 / 1.33 200 / 0.74
Energy consumption, < is better UWB / GPS / IMU (on / 10Hz / 100+Hz)mW 5504001904001125 290400 900 2000 880 200
Operational hrs, max update rate active IMU+BT+LPS   (higher is better)hrs 3394 4 33.8 5 5.8 1.51
PerformanceACCURACY and LATENCY  (lantency = the delay in forwarding data)
Accuracy UWB static position 3th party verified, static [rmse]cm ≤35 FiFa 2020 ≤35 FiFa 2020 ≤4 ABB, IOC ≤20 22, 7 ≤25 FiFa 2021 ≤10 ≥30 ≥50 ≤210 10
Accuracy UWB, speed > 20m/s 3th party verified, dynamic [rmse]cm >40 >40 <10 <20 ≤22 FiFa ≤25 10 >30 >50≤21010
Measurement technolgy 1 way TDoA, 2way TWR (more accuracte) TDoA TDoA TWR TDoA TDoA TDoA TWR TDoA TDoA TDoA TWRTWR
Position latency (delay) Time: Event to PC/mobile   (< is better)ms 200200 40 1350 FiFa '21 250 FiFa '21 150 200 2200
LPS LPS PERFORMANCE (range, capacity. update rate, 2D/3D) Catapult airtls-sport.eu Statsports Wimu Kinexon Sportable Sportable Sportable Inmotio ChyronHego Xsens Gengee Shottracker
LPS max range UWB 6.8Mbps, Lign Of Sight (LOS)m 250 300 300 100 150 200200 200 100 WiFi:25mWWiFi 50 150 100
LNA on anchor Low Noise Amplifier, increases range vvv xx vv x x x x x
LNA on tags Low Noise Amplifier, increases range vvv xx xx x x x v x
LPS tag antenna type Ceramics < lower efficiency & range ceramic full stripline full stripline ceramic ceramic ceramic full stripline ceramic 3D ceramic ceramic ceramic
Capacity per LPS channel Locates/sec (amount of tags @ 1Hz)-/s 1000 1000 2800 1000 1260 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1600 250 1000 1000
Updates (position + IMU) Update rate [Hz] for: [# athlete tags]Hz 20 : 50 20 : 50 25 : 112 20 : 50 18: 70 20 : 49 20 : 50 20 : 50 20 : 50 20 : 49 20 : 80 20 : 50
Updates, multi players, 2D/3D Locates per second per player /2D.3D-/s 10 / 2D 10 / 2D 25 / 3D 10 / 2D 10 / 2D 20 / 2D 10 / 2D 20 / 2D 25 / 2D 10 / 2D 20 / 2D 10 / 3D 10 / 2D
Realtime 3D position interval Milli seconds   (lower is better)ms 100 100 5 100 100 20 100 100 20 200
UWB frequency or WiFi Single or multi-channel, for higher capacityGHz 444.5   6.5444.5   6.54.5   6.5 6.57.6 5.7GHz WiFi5GHz WiFi4   6.544
LPS bandwidth Higher is betterMHz 500500500500500500500 500500 135 10 500500 500
Sport Balls REALTIME PERFORMANCE FEEDBACK
Outdoor RGB LED panel Realtime performance feedback x x 12 Watt x x x x x x x x x x x
Sport Balls SPORTS BALLS Tracked + sensors
Sportball impact detection Impact detection, checks/secHz 1000 500 200 x x
Update rate for sportballs Locates per second  (50 or higher) -/s 150 50 20 10 3
BALL: Sensor Weight (lower is better)g 2 14 31 2112
Sensor Placement / mass balance Centered Y/N = Dzhanibekov effect. Y Y N N N
Motion Capture MOTION CAPTURE IMU (inertial measurement unit) in the (tag) Catapult airtls-sport.eu Statsports Wimu Kinexon Sportable Sportable Sportable Inmotio ChyronHego Xsens Gengee Shottracker
IMU sensor (Motion Capture) IMU sensor update rate (output)Hz 100 100 200 100 100 200 100 100 x x 100 60 100 100
IMU samples/s:Accelerometer, Gyro Internal sample rate  (higher is better)Hz 100, 100 100, 100 8000, 8000 953, 953 1000, 1000 9000, 4500 1000, 1000 1000, 1000 x x 1000, 1000 800, 800 1000, 1000 1000, 1000
IMU Gyro,Accelerometer,Magneto Effective bit resolution   (higher is better)bits 16:16:14 16:16:14 19:18:16 16:16:14 16:16:14 16:16:14 16:16:14 16:16:14 x x 16:16:14 16:16:14 16:16:14 16:16:14
IMU range:Accelerometer, Gyro G    :  dps (degree/sec)  (higher is better) 16 : 2000 16 : 2000 32 : 4000 16 : 2000 32 : 2000 30 : 4000 32 : 2000 32 : 2000 x x 32 : 2000 32 : 2000 16 : 2000 32 : 2000
Motion capture data offloading UWB realtime wireless IMU offload VV V V
Motion capture data offloading WiFi based (shared w.o. WiFi users) V VV V V V
Motion capture data offloading Stored on board/tag for post analysis V
SensorsIntegrated systems or sensors in the (tag)
Blood oxygen sensor integrated Sensor values in realtime via UWBSpO2 V V
Haptic (motor) Tactile feedback V V V V
GPS (GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou) GPS V V V V V
Bluetooth BT V V V V V V V
USB USB data exchange portUSB V V V
WiFi BT V V
BTExternal sensor integration
Heartratebelt Bluetooth, ANT pair V V V V
Heart rate belt 5.3kHz V V
Motion Capture Technology used (tag) Catapult airtls-sport.eu Statsports Wimu Kinexon Sportable Sportable Sportable Inmotio ChyronHego Xsens Gengee Shottracker
Chipset, main controller (tag) STM32H753AII6STM32nRF5340 core1 nRF52840Atom E640ATSAM4SATSAM4S Xc2s200 nRF52832 nRF52832
Wireless BT 5.0 & USB controller nRF52832-CIA nRF5340 core2 integratedIntel Edison x x x x x
LPS Transceiver Chipset or '-M' for module DW1000DW1000DW1000DW1000 DW1000-M DW1000 DW1000 DW1000 discretediscrete DW1000DW1000DW1000
LPS Timebase TCXO (temp. compensated == more stable) TCXOTCXOTCXOX-talX-talX-talTCXO X-talX-tal TCXO TCXO X-tal X-tal
GPS chipset All OEM use swiss U-blox for GPS EVA M8Q-010xZoe-M8B Max-M8QM8Wx x x x x x Max-M8Q x x
GPS Sensitivity higher is better|-dBm| 166 167 164 164 164
GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou V v V V V
Inside view   (FCC) Vector S7 Clearsky T6 AT2 Apex Realtrack ATO1 S01 T01 UWT1301 TPV23 ZXY arena VIPS Tracker S6P1
More info   : Catapult Airtls statsports Wimu Hudl Kinexon sportable gpexe zebra inmotio Chyronhego xsens gengee shottracker
Boards   Wimu






Tracking chipsets
Radio based sports tracking comparison

Explantion of the graphics The graphic is based on radar tracking physics.

At the top of the graphic:  
The frequency spectrum shows how wide the bandwidth (BW) is relative to WiFi.
WiFi typically has 20 MHz of bandwidth (max 80 MHz). UWB (ultra wideband) 500 MHz in green.
5G Phone networks can operate at 3500 MHz. UWB channels 3 and 5 are most used.

For accurate distance measurements a 500+MHz bandwidth works best.
For sports tracking UWB (ultra wideband) is most accurate.

Accuracy
    cm		 BW
MHz		 chip
  		chip-oem
  		LPS sport OEM
 
+/- 300  20WiFi..   x
+/- 180  80nanoLOCnanotron   x
+/- 170  80RF233microchip   x
+/-   90135analogabatec INMOTIO
+/-   36400ZebraMS Inc Zebra
+/-   12500DW1000, SR100T Qorvo, NXP In use by 'all' LPS OEM
BW=Bandwidth in MHz (higher is better)

Improvements in accuracy are possible by:
- better electronics timing (TCXO)
- better signal quality, Low Noise Amplifier
- use more than 1 antenna
- using more measurements per second. Higher update rates
- using more anchors (reference points)
- software algorithms and filtering


Tracking methods
3D sport pefromance tracking


Most technologies have lower accuracy at longer distances.
Sustainable accuracy at a distance is provided by:
- Laser ranging
- UWB
- Motion capture
- Infrared optical cameras are accurate. Range up to 30 meter.



OUTDOOR
Optical (camera) systems have issues with outdoor conditions like direct sunlight, snow, blocking of direct view by field players and loss of tracking in low light conditions.


3D tracking
Multiple reference points for observations are required for any technology
Single point of view, stereo scopic cameras with AI also need multiple vantage point to solve oclusion and degrading accuracy over distance, low update rate and massive data processing and installation cost (cabling).