Selex ES’s Camera Helps England On The Cricket Green As Well As Outside The Green Zone

BY Editor

Selex ES’s camera helps England on the cricket green as well as outside the green zone – Jul 31, 2013– London, UK  (Techreleased) – The Hot Spot camera, designed and manufactured by Selex ES, a Finmeccanica company, played a key role in deciding the fate of the England cricket side in the first of its test matches against Australia in this year’s Ashes series. After five days of drama in the first test, a call to the third umpire by England saw the infrared Hot Spot camera catch a touch by Australia’s Brad Haddin that was not even apparent on the regular replay, ultimately giving England the win.

Selex ES camera

But what not all sports fans realise is that the same camera that caused umpire Aleem Dar to reverse his decision was originally designed to help troops on dangerous operations abroad and is fitted to Chinook helicopters flown by British Forces in Afghanistan. In fact the cameras are so powerful they can detect enemy forces when they’re still kilometres away – even in pitch darkness.

“It’s great to see the cameras that were originally designed to help our troops on operations are now helping our cricketers to success back home as well” said Stewart Miller, Vice President of Infrared at Selex ES, adding; “The clarity of thermal picture that our cameras produce, used in Afghanistan to identify enemy combatants during the night, allowed the decision review system to spot the ball glancing off Haddin’s bat.”

The cameras are manufactured in Southampton and Basildon by Selex ES, which has signed an exclusive contract with Hot Spot provider BBG Sports to supply the SLX-Hawk InfraRed (thermal imaging) cameras for this type of application. They use thermal imaging to detect contact between the cricket ball, bat and batsman during the game. The short stare time of the SLX-Hawk allows umpires to track the ball in flight and visually identify the heat from the ball’s impact on the bat mid-swing.

country to begin its assessment and development of a national Electronic Warfare capability. A Selex ES EW expert has also recently been dispatched to Kuwait for a year to continue the close working relationship and support to the Kuwait Air Force.