Fitogether, the South Korean developer of OhCoach wearable sports tracking, is using technology from Swiss firm U-Blox.

Relied on by more than 350 football clubs in 44 countries, OhCoach has since 2019 been delivering positioning accuracy using GNSS in the Electronic Performance & Tracking Systems (EPTS) quality test report conducted by Fifa, the international football organisation.

Around the world, individual and team sports are in an analytics revolution. Football is no exception. Reliable quantitative data on athletic performance help coaches optimise the training of individual players, monitor their physical performance, and analyse their playing style and tactics. They also have the potential to transform the match viewing experience of fans with real-time insights into the performance of each player on the field.

OhCoach uses tracking devices that players wear on their upper backs to sense location data and transmit it to an interactive platform that can be accessed by a laptop or a tablet. Comfortable design and high data quality are vital. Size and weight need to be kept down to avoid interfering with the players’ movements. And, despite design constraints, the positioning technology needs to deliver accurate data consistently in real time.

“As data analytics continues to gain importance in professional and amateur sports, we are committed to staying ahead of the game in terms of positioning accuracy and expanding our business through innovation, with U-Blox as a partner,” said Jinsung Yoon, CEO at Fitogether.

To balance comfort and performance, Fitogether’s Cell line of sports trackers, which feed the location data of tracked athletes into the OhCoach service, uses one of two U-Blox GNSS receivers to meet application-specific accuracy requirements:

The Neo-M9N single-band standard precision GNSS module offers robust metre-level positioning, and the Zed-F9P multi-band high-precision GNSS module delivers centimetre-level accuracy in seconds.

“Fitogether’s clients have high expectations when it comes to the data accuracy and user experience,” said Alex Ngi, product manager at U-Blox. “We look forward to supporting them as they continue to develop new products and technologies for the growing market of real-time athletic monitoring.”

Chulwoo Park, chief product officer at Fitogether, added: “In addition to its versatile portfolio and the high positioning accuracy of its products, U-Blox has impressed us with its active support and stable supply despite the strong headwinds the industry has been seeing.”

With headquarters in Thalwil, Switzerland, U-Blox has offices in Europe, Asia and the USA.