Suunto announces cooperation with FIS to provide data to cross-country TV viewers

Suunto announces cooperation with FIS to provide data to cross-country TV viewers{mosimage}Suunto, one of the world’s leading sports manufacturers, and FIS, the International Ski Federation, today announced their co-operation that aims to provide new performance measurement data to TV audiences. Soon TV viewers will see precise information on cross-country skiers with the help of Suunto t6 wristop computers and wireless sensors from Suunto.

In the first phase, the wristop computer will transmit the competitors’ heart rates onto TV screens. In the future, the viewer will also be able to follow the athletes’ skiing speed, and the distance in meters between competitors, beyond the normal intermediate time points, for more connection to the action.

“Suunto brings the backstage of competitions into everyone’s living room, providing the TV-audience with a deeper experience of the competition, as they can compare physiological parameters of selected top athletes,” says Dan Colliander, CEO of Suunto Oy. The TV graphics and processing of the Suunto performance data is being produced in cooperation with WIGE DATA. The new service will be available for international TV broadcast of the Ski World Championships in Oberstdorf in February, 2005.

The first competition where the new technology will be applied is the world cup in Kuusamo, Finland, at the end of November 2004. The top eight skiers in the world-ranking list will be equipped with Suunto t6 wristop computers that transmit their performance measurement data onto the TV display.

Suunto is the leading manufacturer of sports instruments for a variety of activities, including training, golf, skiing, hiking, diving and sailing. The company’s focus is on sports activities where advanced measurement technology and data processing can generate significant performance benefits for active people. Suunto, headquartered in Vantaa, Finland, is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Helsinki-based Amer Group.