Making

|

sports

sports

broadcasts

accessible to people living with blindness or low vision

[Audio Description] Mikey Todorovik is sitting on his leather chair.

MIKEY: When you have a vision impairment, you're frustrated a lot in your life without even realizing that you're frustrated because you've got to focus on things extra, but when you have something to help it, that's when you feel the frustration go down and you're like... oh, wow, I was actually frustrated watching TV.

[Screen Text] Today, almost 600,000 Australians are living with blindness or low vision.

[Screen Text] They face challenges participating in many of the things we take for granted.

[Screen Text] Like watching live sports.

[Audio Description] Maurice Gleeson is sitting in front of a large window of greenery

MAURICE: Tennis, sadly, hasn't been anywhere near as accessible as I would like.

[Audio Description] Sandra Knight is sitting on a yellow couch

SANDRA: I’m not a great watcher of sport because I can't see where the balls are.

[Audio Description] Kala Petronijevic is wearing her junior tennis shirt and plays with a tennis ball. She is sitting with her mother Jelena

KALA: So my dad has to commentate for me and he finds it tiring sometimes because I can't see who's serving or the ball or the points.

[Audio Description] Adam Fayad is sitting at home on his grey couch

ADAM: It's a struggle, I must say. Uh, but you know, I've got to tolerate it and live with it at the moment until something else comes out.

[Screen Text] In 2021, Tennis Australia, Monash University and AKQA came together...

[Screen Text] To develop a new way to improve access to the Australian Open for people with visual impairments.

[Audio Description] Melanie Huang, Lead Designer, AKQA is sitting outside.

MELANIE: We found a way using ball tracking technology to create a new experience of sport that's accessible for everyone.

[Audio Description] Chatai Goncu, Research Fellow, Monash University is standing outside.

CHATAI: We use Hawkeye data for our system. And what we get from Hawkeye is the 3D position of the ball and the players during the game play.

[Audio Description] Examples of Hawkeye technology determining the ball being 'In'

[Audio Description] Tim Devine, Executive Creative Director AKQA stands in front of a maroon wall

TIM: And we take that data and we turn it into 3D audio. What we call Action Audio.

[Audio Description] Action Audio logo animates in

TIM: Action Audio contains a wealth of information for blind and low vision sports fans to understand what's going on on the court from ball position, how close it is to the line, the type of shot they're playing.

[Screen Text] Forehand

[Screen Text] Backhand

[Screen Text] Forehand

TIM: We're using sound in a way that could impact the experience of live broadcast sport for millions of sports fans around the world.

[Audio Description] Sandra, Maurice, Adam and Kala all put on their headphones to listen to Action Audio for the first time.

KALA: What? Oh

[Audio Description] Maurice smiles

MAURICE: Fantastic.

[Audio Description] Adam is smiling upwards.

ADAM: Forehand, backhand, backhand, backhand, backhand, forehand.

MAURICE: What a rally.

KALA: I don't know why, but I can suddenly see the ball. I can actually hear everything and I can actually see the ball. For some reason, I can see the ball now better than I could see the ball before.

[Audio Description] Mikey stops to look to the camera.

MIKEY: Oh, I wouldn't watch it any other way. You can just, you can just enjoy the games so much better.

KALA: I don't have to ask my dad, like can you commentate? I can't see where the ball's going.

MIKEY: Oh like the sooner we can get this the better. Do you reckon we can get it for this Australian Open? Would it work? For the one, for this year?

[Audio Description] Craig Tiley, CEO Tennis Australia is in the stands at Rod Laver.

CRAIG: At Tennis Australia, we're very proud to be launching an opportunity for everyone to enjoy the game. We are launching Action Audio at the Australian open finals.

[Screen Text] Experience it at action-audio.com