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Patriots Coach Bill Belichick on Microsoft Surface: 'I Just Can't Take It Anymore' (techcrunch.com)
New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is not happy with the Surface tablet provided to him via a deal between Microsoft and the NFL. Not only has he physically thrown the tablets at things, but he has verbally expressed his negative opinions of them. TechCrunch reports: When asked about the Patriots' headsets malfunctioning during last weeks game, Belichick instead took the time to let everyone know he's "done with the tablets." While he didn't go into too much detail on the tablets, Belichick essentially said that Microsoft's surface tablets are too "undependable," and there "isn't enough consistency in their performance." In terms of the rest of the sideline technology like headsets, Belichick is essentially fed up with the fact that everything always malfunctions and is impossible to fix during games. So why is the sideline technology so hard to get right? The tablets (as well as the headphones and all other sideline technology) are owned and maintained by the NFL. That means it gets delivered to teams literally hours before the game and taken away when it ends. This makes it hard for teams to test for issues before a game and to troubleshoot when something goes wrong. Belichick's full rant can be read here, which reads in part: "As you probably noticed, I'm done with the tablets. They're just too undependable for me. I'm going to stick with (paper) pictures, which several of our other coaches do, as well, because there just isn't enough consistency in the performance of the tablets. I just can't take it anymore..."
From the summary, the league owns the equipment and provides it to the team only during the game! So the users don't really get to learn to use the freaking things before the games!!! Make no wonder the users hate the things. They have to try and figure out how to use the tools at the very time that they are at their busiest. That's a planning fail on the part of both MS and the NFL.
linquendum tondere
If you have good connectivity and the right software. Also if you're used to using a computer with a touchscreen. The latter is probably a bit of an issue for many coaches. Given a concerted effort, I'm sure they'd get it but they are supposed to be paying attention to the game, not the technology.
For the most part, they're a solution looking for a problem as far as the coaches are concerned. What they were using before was working for them.
http://www.patriots.com/news/2...
When you have a tablet, you can do things like punch in what defense the other team just used to provide statistical analysis of what the next best play is, or what kind of defense to run if your opponent is doing X often...
You could, but not in the NFL. These tablets are locked down to a single app provided by the NFL to show still photos of earlier plays in the game. The photos are sent to the tablets during the game, thus the need for connectivity.
The tablets, the app, the connectivity, and the photo feeds are all provided by the NFL. Probably hard to fault the tablet hardware itself for any complaints Belichick may have.
The connectivity is needed so the images of the previous play(s) can be streamed to the device. (Currently they print this on copier papers and clip them together.) This way the coaches can teach the players what just happened and make adjustments to their game plan. You can usually see the Offensive Coordinator sit down with the QB in the sidelines going over these papers with a sketch pen.
When you have a tablet, you can do things like punch in what defense the other team just used to provide statistical analysis of what the next best play is, or what kind of defense to run if your opponent is doing X often.
None of this should be done on the sidelines. This should be done in the team's viewing booth where weather is kept outside. A good connection can be provided for the team's cadre of wonky strategists to use up in the booth, and they can confer without the distractions on the sidelines. Much of this can also be done half a continent away at the team's headquarters. The sidelines are not the place for a data entry team and a data analysis team to do their work.
Weather is also a complication. For much of the American football season, the weather will be a major factor in trying to use touch screen based technology.
One of Belichick's complaints, in particular, was that they could not get the series of overhead photographs of the previous play down to the sidelines quick enough via the tablets. A few years ago someone would print them up in the viewing booth and a runner would take copies of the photographs and deliver them to the sidelines. Sometimes a printer would be set up near the sidelines. The older methods were faster than the tablets, probably due to poor connectivity on the field.
Besides the speed of delivery, the tablets introduced a slew of usability issues that physical photographs did not have. The photographs would be viewable in bright sun, rain and in snow. It was also easier for multiple people on the sideline to view the same set of photos at once (no darkness when looking from acute angles). It was also easier to view multiple photographs at once, as opposed to one at a time using the tablet.
The tablets are a solution to a problem that did not exist and are acting like an anchor instead of a sail.