By SVG Staff
Friday, July 18, 2025 – 11:12 am
SMT returns to Royal Portrush to partner with NTT DATA and ENP Media in the delivery of the newly reimagined NTT DATA Wall at The Open Championship 2025. This collaboration reflects NTT DATA’s ongoing commitment to delivering data-driven experiences that enhance fan engagement through innovative design, technology and storytelling.
Now in its 11th year, the NTT DATA Wall is a partnership between NTT DATA and The R&A, organizers of The Open. Since its inception, the NTT DATA Wall has become a fan-favorite destination at The Open, offering spectators immersive, data-driven insights into the action on the course on a 20-meter-wide digital board.
“It was great to have the team from SMT involved in creating this year’s fan’s experience on the NTT DATA Wall at The Open,” says Gregor McQuattie, Head of Media, NTT DATA (UK&I). “They have decades of experience managing sports data for broadcasters and sports events around the world. Their expertise made it possible to deliver, for golf fans, what we deliver to our clients all over the world – deep and useful insights, driven by data and delivered in impactful ways.”
Working closely with ENP Media, SMT helped bring the NTT DATA Wall to life, leveraging a platform that collects, parses and distributes live data, transforming hundreds of thousands of live data points into fast, fluid and cinematic visual storytelling. Optimizing Unreal Engine, SMT created a 3D recreation of the Royal Portrush course through high-resolution terrain and lidar scans, developing an immersive virtual environment with stunning, high-fidelity visuals rendered in real time.
The NTT DATA Wall experience includes:
- Real-time visualizations such as ShotView (featuring player stroke trails and distance data)
- Flyovers with game locators, hole stats, drive distance scatter charts and live player updates
- Dynamic leaderboard display with projected cut line information, weather integration and player tracking
“The NTT DATA Wall is all about turning data into insight and is a brilliant example of how data and design can come together to tell the story of the game in real time,” says Jon Kaczmarski, Vice President, Creative & Strategy at SMT. “We’re honored to play a role in helping NTT DATA realize their vision of providing deeper context and understanding of the game for fans at The Open.”