If you’re a Bruins fan, chances are you’re familiar with Jack Edwards’ colorful commentary on NESN during Boston’s games. You probably know him for his one-liners, enthusiastic goal calls or strong opinions toward a controversial call on the ice.
But what you’re probably not familiar with is how exactly he operates in the booth — particularly the technology behind it. Edwards knew he needed something that would provide instant updates during the game, mainly to be on the same page as B’s color analyst Andy Brickley.
“I work with a man who has a brilliant mind and can explain things in extraordinary fashion,” Edwards told The Athletic’s Joe McDonald, “It often sparks a little thought like, ‘Wow. I can put a bow on this thought with that if I only had it.’ So, I needed to design a system.”
The system? A four-panel touchscreen computer Edwards and his 13-year-old son Elijah built. The computer allows the play-by-play announcer to have “up-to-the second data” and he also “stockpiles info on every player in the NHL” on it constantly, per McDonald.
What’s most incredible is that Edwards is able to find any stat or piece of information on the computer in the matter of seconds thanks in part to NESN’s statistician Scott Shore, who updates information regularly during the game.
“Yet the program enables Edwards to link categories of information and then access specifics within those categories,” McDonald writes, “all the way down to recalling an individual fact. He can retrieve anything in the database in three touches or fewer.”
Edwards has been calling Bruins games for 14 seasons, so his ability to quickly adapt to the ever-changing world of technology and how to collect data is nothing short of incredible.
