AWS Becomes Official Cloud Provider for the PGA Tour
The PGA Tour has selected Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its official cloud provider, using AWS machine learning, storage, computing, analytics, database and media services to process and distribute video footage from each golf tournament quickly while also trying to create new ways to engage with fans.
Every Shot Live, the Tour’s streaming platform powered by AWS, will give viewers live access to every shot from every player in the field. For example, during a tournament such as The Players Championship, fans will have access to 32,000 shots from 144 golfers. AWS plans to create a data lake, where the Tour will house more than 100 years of media content dating back to the 1928 Los Angeles Open.
“We need to continue to grow, diversify and develop our fan base,” Brian Oliver, executive vice presient of corporate sponsorships at the PGA Tour, said in an interview. “One of the ways we do that Is by giving them the best action in our sport with these great athletes, and that’s what our technology will help us do. If you’re a fan of the PGA Tour, you’re now going to be able to access everything that we’re doing very quickly. That level of personalization that you’ll see across our platforms is a key component to this.”
Matt Hurst, the head of global sports marketing and communications at AWS, said: “We’re really working together to bring a greater experience to both the Tour and its fans by bringing them closer to the action on the course. We’re giving fans video game-like control of the viewing experience and allowing them to change their viewing perspective with alternative camera angles [and] navigate around the course.”
Off the course, AWS will become a trustee of First Tee, a youth development organization supported by the Tour that reaches more than 3.7 million young people across the U.S. AWS will assist the organization in developing an online community for coaches, parents and participants, where they can access the First Tee curriculum and resources.
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