Optimizing athlete and team performance through IoT solutions, securing a competitive advantage for sports teams
Developing new wearable technology in collaboration with Microsoft and Hexoskin

Analog Devices (www.analog.com) announced that it is collaborating with Microsoft and Hexoskin to develop a proprietary wearable IoT (Internet of Things) solution capable of managing athlete and team performance.

Through the IoT solutions developed via this collaboration, coaches and team staff will be able to monitor player information—such as motion, heart rate, and other useful health and performance metrics—from sensor-embedded smart vests worn by athletes. This collected information will be combined with player location and environmental data and transmitted to a secure cloud-based analytics platform, which will then provide critical insights to team staff via a dashboard.


This IoT solution provides information for better player intervention and enables enhanced tactical decision-making during the game, helping teams secure a significant competitive advantage. In addition, this solution goes far beyond simply aiding individual matches to provide much greater benefits, as it is designed to improve overall management such as athlete health, recovery, and injury prevention.

Martin Cotter, Vice President of IoT, Healthcare, and Consumer Business at Analog Devices, stated, “Analog Devices is pleased to lead this collaborative project consisting of special challenges related to measurement and analytics that can only be solved through our unrivaled technological capabilities.” He added, “Some of the performance metrics we are interested in are not yet fully understood and cannot be directly measured. Therefore, we are striving to develop proprietary solutions by leveraging precision sensing and algorithmic capabilities, in addition to ADI’s deep expertise in biomedical applications, to view these problems from a different perspective.”

In addition, they stated, “We are very pleased to be working together with Microsoft and Hexoskin to solve these challenges,” adding, “We would not have been able to complete a fully usable solution without Microsoft and Hexoskin.”

This solution utilizes Analog Devices' sensing and measurement expertise, along with Hexoskin's innovative e-textile platform, which has received tremendous acclaim and recognition from the sports industry and medical community. Pierre-Alexandre Fournier, CEO of Hexoskin, said, “Sports associations are looking for integrated data analysis solutions,” and added, “Hexoskin has always pursued compatibility and integration, and in that sense, this project in collaboration with Analog Devices and Microsoft is a good example of our open philosophy.”

Microsoft’s Azure IoT technology helps solve analytics and user experience challenges through a cloud-based analytics engine, in addition to user dashboard applications. Jerry Lee, Product Marketing Manager for Microsoft Azure IoT, stated, “Supporting customers to innovate quickly and easily through IoT is the core of Microsoft Azure IoT services,” and added, “The newly launched wearable smart athletic wear is a prime example of how Azure IoT can derive advanced analytics and real-time actionable insights based on input data at the individual athlete and team levels.”

This IoT solution has been implemented and is currently being tested in collaboration with one of Ireland's top hurling clubs. Martin Cotter, Vice President of the IoT, Healthcare, and Consumer business at Analog Devices, said, “Hurling is a very rough and tough team sport involving top-tier athletes,” adding, “That is why we determined that hurling is one of the most challenging environments to test this IoT solution.”

Although the initial prototype was developed for athlete management, the technology can be used in environments composed of various teams, such as emergency services first-responders, where performance, health and safety, and tactical decision-making play a critical role in driving successful outcomes.