FoxTrax (U.S. Patent No. 5,564,698) – Glowing, Glowing … Gone! BY JONATHON WESTERN

Ever since sporting events were first televised, and eventually intertwined with advertising and advertisement money, television networks have competed for your eyeballs. Major networks, at this very moment, are engaging in an ongoing battle to develop new technology that enhances a sports broadcast in order to hold the attention of you, the viewer, in the cozy confines of your living room recliner. The debut of instant replay, nearly 60 years ago, was groundbreaking (and risky) at the time. We’ve seen countless innovations since then, many of which with snazzy titles like SkyCam, HawkEye, and PITCHf/x.

While many of these advancements have become staples in sports television (think the yellow-colored virtual first-down line), not all are as successful.

Back in 1995, Fox Sports won the broadcasting rights to professional hockey. While considered a victory for the network, hockey viewership in the United States at the time was dwarfed by its major-sport counterparts – football, baseball, and basketball. Part of the problem, according to Fox, was that the sport of hockey was simply not television-friendly. The central object of any game – the puck – is small yet travels at extremely fast speeds, making it difficult for the average fan to follow. Executives at Fox reasonably believed that if it were easier to keep track of the puck on TV, watching a televised game of hockey would become more appealing.

Fox Sports unveiled its grand solution to make the puck more visible on television during the 1995 NHL All-Star Game and assigned it a flashy name: FoxTrax. FoxTrax added a colored glow to the puck that changed from blue to red based on the puck’s velocity. It even added a “tail” to the puck for dramatic effect when the velocity surpassed a certain threshold, making a slap-shot appear like a comet coming off a player’s stick.

The technology underlying FoxTrax is described in U.S. Patent No. 5,564,698 (“Electromagnetic transmitting hockey puck”). The visual effects were enabled by a specially designed hockey puck with an embedded electromagnetic transmitter. According to the patent, the transmitter emits electromagnetic signals “that can be detected by appropriate sensors in order to make the hockey puck more visible to the television viewer.” (see column 2, lines 37-42)

The sensors – infrared receivers, primarily – may be disposed at various locations throughout the arena to receive the transmitted signals and “use the signals to determine the location of the hockey puck in the arena.” (see column 2, lines 56-58) Using this knowledge, in conjunction with the pan, tilt, and zoom of the television camera, the FoxTrax system is capable of “determin[ing] the puck's location in the television frame,” and then visually enhancing that specific portion of the TV frame “by making the puck bigger, brighter, or using another symbol to call attention to the puck for the television viewer.” (see column 2, lines 58-65) The patent explains that the electromagnetic signals being transmitted are “outside of the visible spectrum,” that is, non-visible to the human eye, which is important for preventing brightly colored lights that would distract players and fans in attendance. (see column 2, lines 40-42)

Fox Sports heavily marketed FoxTrax as a revolutionary technological breakthrough. The system performed just as the network had intended. By all accounts, FoxTrax was, in fact, a technical achievement. Even the TV ratings increased. And Fox, smartly, secured exclusive control over its puck-tracking technology through patent protection.

And yet, FoxTrax would all but vanish shortly after its debut.

While some hockey purists viewed the visual enhancements as sacrilegious, the primary reason for FoxTrax’s disappearance seems to be more straight-forward. Fox lost its contract to televise hockey a few years after that 1995 NHL season. Apparently unwilling to license its patented technology to other networks (or perhaps due to lack of outside interest), Fox left FoxTrax to collect dust the closet. Though it would re-emerge sporadically – Fox introduced similar visual effects during an All-Star Game for Major League Baseball – the patented FoxTrax system is now a mere relic in sports broadcasting technology history. The patent ultimately expired in 2015.