Autodesk and FOX Sports are teaming up to give viewers the opportunity to actually see what impact the wind may have on the first Super Bowl ever held outdoors in a cold-weather locale. The technology, dubbed FOX WEATHER TRAX for the game, clearly illustrates, for the first time ever on live television, dynamic in-stadium airflow patterns. FOX Sports called upon Autodesk to illustrate the challenges players may face due to potentially unprecedented Super Bowl wind conditions.

Using Autodesk simulation technology to calculate the specific weather conditions inside MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ, the software provider and FOX plan to superimpose visual representations of wind direction directly over game play. Prior to this joint effort, coaches, players, commentators and fans relied on field goal flags to determine how the wind influenced a pass or field goal. It was a guessing game at best, and one that typically left viewers scratching their heads as to why a kick or touchdown pass was missed.

The collaboration between FOX Sports and Autodesk eliminates the guesswork. Simulation technology is regularly used by designers, architects and engineers to investigate 'what-if' scenarios, explore new ideas and gain deeper insight into how an everyday product, a building or stadium behaves during day-to-day use. This new and easy-to-use technology has radically improved the design process by allowing Autodesk customers to test and analyze designs digitally before physical production and perhaps best of all, the digital computation takes place unobtrusively behind the scenes - similar to spell-check in a word processing application.