Importing NGS Gameday Data

What is the NGS Importer?

The NFL NGS Importer allows users to import player positional tracking data collected by NGS during NFL games into OpenField.

The NFL NGS Importer will import: 

• Player positional data to generate velocity-based metrics in OpenField (e.g. Total Distance, Meters per Minute, Max Velocity, etc.).
• Activity and Periods related to the game.
• Annotations indicating when athletes were involved in each play.

Athletes will be automatically annotated based on the play data provided by the NGS API.

In OpenField Console version 3.16.0 and above, the latest NFL NGS API is supported meaning the NGS Importer can be used on any network, and requires a new set of NGS API credentials, to be provided by Catapult.

Initial Setup

1. Log in to the OpenField Cloud.
2. Navigate to Settings > Tags.
3. On the left-hand side of the screen, NgsTeamId and playerid should already be a tag group.  If NgsTeamId is not there, you can add it as a group. If the playerid is not there, please contact Support.
   
   
4. Support will provide you with your team id to put in the NgsTeamId.
5. Find the GSIS ID for the players and apply them as PlayerId tags.  The id's can be found at this website: https://ngs.nfl.com/player-id-lookup 
6. Once all players who will need to be imported are tagged, refresh your browser and run a Sync.

Import Process

1. In the Tile Screen on the Console, select Data Importer and NGS from the dropdown.
   
   
   • In OpenField Console versions 3.16.0 and above, the authentication screen will require you to enter your Client ID, Client Key and Client Secret. These credentials will be supplied to you by Catapult. Please reach out to your Customer Success representative for access to your credentials.
     Note: The NGS Importer in OpenField Console versions 3.16.0 and above can be authenticated on any public IP address.
     
     
   • In OpenField Console versions prior to 3.16.0, this will take you to the authentication screen to enter Username, Password, API Token, API Key. This information would be provided to you in PDF from Catapult or Next Gen Stats. 
   • Once you enter all four lines, hit Next.
     Note: The NGS Importer in OpenField Console versions prior to 3.16.0 is only able to be authenticated on a public IP Address allowlisted by the NFL, as it uses the legacy NFL NGS API.
     
     
2. Next, you'll see the game screen, where you'll select what you'd like to import.  By default, typically there are at least a few games selected. Best practice is to hit Select None, and then check the box for the game(s) you'd like to import, and select Next.
   
   
3. Once you select your game(s), the Console will begin calling on the API and scanning for sessions.  When it's finished, it will give you a Complete message.
4. Select the game that you're importing - it will have a breakdown of the periods within it.  It should have a pre-game, Four Quarters, and any Overtime periods.
5. Ensure that all players are mapped.  Anyone who is properly mapped to their GSIS ID on the Cloud should come through automatically, and their name will be highlighted in black. Anyone with an issue will be highlighted in red. Click the drop-down arrow on their name to map them properly to their Athlete in OpenField.
   
   
6. Once all the members you want are mapped, click Next.  If there are still lines in red, Next will be greyed out - if you're sure that your entire list is mapped properly, click Select Resolved and hit Next.

7. Click on the Start button to finalize the process.  If you want the data to sync automatically after it's finished pulling in, tick the box labelled 'Close Window and sync when complete'.  If you want to look at the activity before syncing, leave it unticked.

   

8. Once this is done, the activity will be available to view in the Console and Cloud once synced.