It turns out the Apple Watch has been playing a crucial role in helping hockey referees manage NHL games. That’s thanks to a purpose-built app called NHL Watch Comms for on-ice NHL Officials. The app will be used for the first time in an outdoor setting for tomorrow’s Stadium Series in Ohio.
The NHL shared the news in a blog post this week:
For the first time ever in an outdoor game, League officials will be using the NHL Watch Comms App, developed by Presidio for Apple Watch, to get real-time, in-game situational notifications throughout all the action.
Officials will get haptic notifications during the game, including game clock countdowns, penalty clock countdowns and jersey numbers of which players are in the penalty box at a given time.
This technology has been in testing and refined for the last few seasons at certain indoor venues, but Saturday will mark the debut of the NHL Watch Comms App in an outdoor setting when the Columbus Blue Jackets host the Detroit Red Wings at Ohio Stadium, the famed football stadium of The Ohio State University.
The normal in-game environment – with roaring crowds and lightning-fast speeds – has certain challenges when it comes to communication between officials, and an outdoor environment can be even more challenging.
The use of haptic feedback timed with the game clock for NHL Officials is sort of like following a sporting event with a Live Activity on Apple Watch, except it’s actually for your work. Pretty cool.
Here’s a look at the NHL Watch Comms app, developed for the NHL by Presidio:
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