Movea Is Selected As Technology Partner for Next Generation Tennis Racquet “Babolat Play & Connect”

Babolat and Movea team up to provide tennis players with motion sensing enabled racquet to analyse game play, improve performance

May 24, 2012 01:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time

GRENOBLE, France--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--Movea (www.movea.com), the leader in motion processing and data fusion technologies, has been selected as technology partner by Babolat, the leading tennis equipment manufacturer, in a groundbreaking effort to develop the racquet of the future.

“The racquet of the future will be the first instance where sensor integration has ever occurred in commercially available tennis equipment”
The “Babolat Play & Connect” racquet will be the first-ever MEMS (Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems) technology enabled racquet with the built-in ability to gather and analyse game data and provide information that could only be manually estimated until now. The “Babolat Play & Connect” racquet will leverage Movea’s integrated SmartMotion® data fusion technology to measure specific elements of a player’s technique, enabling new opportunities for performance analysis, improvement and social results sharing.

“The racquet of the future will be the first instance where sensor integration has ever occurred in commercially available tennis equipment,” said Sam Guilaumé, CEO of Movea. “With Movea’s unique SmartMotion data fusion technology, this innovation will enhance the player’s experience by providing a new and fun way to interact with the game through new tools that analyse and help improve performance. We are extremely excited to be working with such a visionary partner to bring market leading innovation to the world of tennis.”

“For more than 135 years, our goal has been to constantly develop and provide our customers with cutting edge equipment that will enhance their tennis performance whether they are at the professional or enthusiast level,” said Eric Babolat, Babolat Chairman & CEO. “Together, Babolat and Movea will provide tennis players with a dramatically enhanced playing experience, enabling them to better understand and improve their performance like never before.”

Babolat unveiled and demonstrated the first “Babolat Play & Connect” racquet prototype today at the Roland-Garros French Open in Paris and is expected to launch the exciting new product in 2013.

About Movea

Movea is a leading provider of motion processing software, firmware, and IP for the consumer electronics and sports and fitness industries. Movea's unique motion processing capabilities enable customers and partners to quickly add motion intelligence to their products, enabling reduced risk, cost, and time-to-market for delivering compelling new motion-based features that create more value for the user. Movea has a global presence with headquarters in Grenoble, France, a U.S. subsidiary in Silicon Valley, California, as well as technology partners, manufacturing partners and distributors around the world. The company was recently named a “Cool Vendor for 2012” by leading analyst firm Gartner Inc. For more information visit www.movea.com or follow us on Twitter at @MoveaDataFusion.

About Babolat

Created in 1875, in Lyon, France, Babolat is the longest-running international company specialized in tennis. Babolat is today number 1 in tennis racquet sales in the United States, France, Spain, Italy and in Japan. Family-run for five generations, Babolat is an innovative brand in the tennis sector providing complete technical equipment for tennis players: racquets, strings, shoes, bags, apparel, accessories and balls. The brand provides strings and racquets for numerous tennis players including Rafael Nadal (SPA), Kim Clijsters (BEL), Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA), Li Na (CHN), Andy Roddick (USA) and Julien Benneteau (FRA) (these last two also play with Babolat shoes). Website: www.babolat.com / www.Facebook.com/Babolat

Contacts

Racepoint Group for Movea
Andrea MacLean, 415-694-6710
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or
Agence Ketchum Pleon for Babolat
Shirley Ribeiro, +33 (0)6 38 38 49 51
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