Sybase tech powers wireless golf scoring

Sybase Inc. announced that its industry-leading mobile database and synchronization technology, SQL Anywhere Studio, has been selected by Symbol Technologies to power the on-course golf scoring application for the European Tour.

According to Delfin Hallare Jr., president and general manager of Sybase Phils., Symbol, the official wireless data capture sponsor for the 2000 European Tour, chose Sybase technology for its ability to store and collect information on PalmOS-powered handheld devices and enable bi-directional wireless synchronization over Symbol's Spectrum 24 Wireless local area network to a central server.

"Sybase and Symbol have been working closely to address the wireless mobile market and we were pleased to select Sybase to team with us on the European Tour project," said Sven Oernfeldt, vice president of Symbol Technologies, EMEA.

"Sybase's SQL Anywhere technology dramatically sped up the development of the project, as its synchronization technology works out of the box and integrates easily with our application. In addition, the database functionality leverages industry standards, again saving us valuable development time," he added.

The new wireless scoring solution was first tested at the Volvo Masters, held in Spain, using Sybase SQ1 Anywhere Studio running on 25 Symbol SPT 1700 ruggedized handheld computers.

The solution enables scorers on the course to record information on every aspect of the game, such as the score, lie of the ball, club choice, drive distances, distance to the pin, how often players hit the fairway and the individual players' statistics.

The information, stored in SQL Anywhere, can then be relayed continuously over Symbol's Spectrum 24 Wireless local area network to the central server, from which sports commentators derive information for their live commentary.

The information is then passed to the main TV and Web server, which can be accessed by TV presenters, golf websites or TV-based text information systems, such as Cefas and phone-based subscription services.

The application's potential includes the ability to provide handheld units to fans who would then have access to real-time information on the tournament.