What is a multi-sport simulator bay, exactly?
One screen, more than thirty sports. How an HD SportSuite bay works, what it tracks and why a group of eight can play all night without moving.
Most people have seen a golf simulator: a big screen, a hitting mat, a launch monitor reading the ball. A multi-sport bay starts there and keeps going. The same screen that shows the eighteenth at a championship course will, a tap later, show a hockey goalie, a set of uprights or a bowling lane, and the same cameras that read a golf ball read a puck, a football or a soccer ball.
Our bays run HD SportSuite, the multi-sport platform from the makers of HD Golf. The headline number is thirty-plus sports and games in one room, and the useful number for a night out is one: one bay, one screen, one place to sit, and the group decides what is on it.
What the bay reads
The tracking is computer vision. In golf it reads how fast the ball leaves, how it spins and how the clubface met it, down to the face angle. In the other sports it reads the ball or puck you actually struck, so a penalty kick lands where you kicked it and a slap shot goes where you aimed. Nothing is a video game controller. You swing, kick, throw or shoot a real thing at the screen.
Why one bay beats six rooms
The old way to offer six sports was six rooms, and a group that wanted to try everything spent the night walking between them and waiting. In a multi-sport bay the switch is a tap on the screen. A birthday party of ten can bowl a frame, take ten penalty kicks, run a hockey shootout and finish with closest-to-the-pin without anybody leaving the couch, and the food lands at the bay while they play.
Built for mixed groups
The part that matters most for a venue is the player settings. HD SportSuite adjusts for different ages and athletic abilities, so an eight-year-old and a scratch golfer can share a bay and both have a game. The same setting carries a corporate night, where half the room has never held a lacrosse stick.
What is on ours
Golf, soccer, hockey, football, basketball and baseball have their own pages on this site. Then there is the rest of the lineup, from bowling, cornhole and dodgeball to lacrosse, archery and a large game hunt. The More Games page carries the whole list, and your host will tell you what is loaded the night you come in.
