WIMBLEDON, England — As the world’s oldest and most prestigious tennis tournament grows, a degree of quaintness remains essential.
While Wimbledon keeps up with technological and commercial demands, its commitment to maintaining the atmosphere of “tennis in an English garden” directs all decision making.
That includes not just the meticulous cultivation of the purple and white flowers that line the lanes of the grounds of the All England Lawn Tennis Club, but also how the tournament is wired for the wider world and how its commercial partners advertise themselves.Sam Seddon, the IBM client executive for Wimbledon, said such considerations were at the foundation of all the company’s work at the tournament, where it has been the technology partner since 1990.
“The aesthetic environment here is not an afterthought: It’s right at the start of the design process,” Mr. Seddon said. “That is a sort of an ongoing challenge with many, many things: How do you have tennis in an English garden when you need all this technology around it? How do you go about hiding it all?”
Alexandra Willis, the head of communications, content and digital for the All England Lawn Tennis Club, said even some decisions that affect the competition have been made with aesthetic considerations in mind.
Only six of the tournament’s 19 courts are equipped with Hawkeye review systems for players to challenge line calls, in large part to make sure the mounted cameras needed wouldn’t obstruct pristine sightlines and ruin the garden ambience.
“There’s definitely a blending: What is the technology really going to enable versus what is the negative that you have to get over?” Ms. Willis said.
Methods of concealment vary. The Hawkeye cameras that are on the courts are cloaked in green. Other electronic equipment, including microphones, is also dark green whenever possible.
“We’re very conscious that there is a site walk-around that is done, and if things don’t look right, they will be moved irrespective of what they’re there for,” Mr. Seddon said. “So there is that pressure, that natural tension in the technology department, who knows that if you want all this technology to be enabled, it’s got to be above ground, it’s got to be visible, but no one can see it and it’s got to be green.”
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