The Game Operations Dashboard is a browser based tool created initially for the NFL Football Operations team to monitor live video, add metadata to clips of the footage in real time and afterward, review footage on a play-by-play basis, create collections of plays, share collections with each other and create commentary threads on each collection. This is enabled for every game of the pre, regular and post seasons, and from every available camera angle in the stadium, not just the production for TV (a.k.a. the Program Feed). Since launch with the Football Ops team, it has expanded its user base to the Officiating, Player Health and Safety, and Social Media departments. Additionally, it was expanded to the Pac-12, and on a pilot program for individual NFL teams, starting with the 49ers and Falcons.
The first step was to present the Football Operations team with straw man visuals highlighting a range of features we could realistically deliver for the current NFL season, and conduct a live test proving the concept. From these initial mocks, tests and subsequent conversations with the head of the department, we landed on a feature set that defined the first version of the dashboard.
After a few rounds of internal iteration, we matured the initial vision into a more acceptable launch candidate with a focus on live video synced to data, video review (VOD), real-time metadata editing and collection creation and sharing. We quickly followed on with a beta test for FusionCam integration, another interesting project.
With our first successful launch and adoption of the product within the target team, we both expanded the userbase to other departments and refined the UX to address feature requests while retaining its usability. The latest version included a polished, streamlined UX based on our design system, and extended feature set including manual clipping and a multi-view video player.