San Jose Sharks, Comcast SportsNet Plan ButtKicker Pilot

The San Jose Sharks hockey team, Comcast SportsNet California and The Guitammer Company have announced a partnership to pilot technologies that would allow TV viewers to feel the bone jarring hockey action of players crashing into the boards.

The pilot will use Guitammer’s “4D Sports” technology.

As part of that system, sensors attached to boards capture the impact of players crashing into the boards. Those impacts are then transmitted into the home to viewers who have purchased a wireless ButtKicker Kit, which shakes the couch or seating in synch with the action on the TV.

The official debut for Guitammer’s “4D Sports” technology at SAP Center is slated for the Sharks-Florida Panthers home game on Nov. 20.

"Our goal is always to bring fans closer to the action, and what better way than to allow them to actually feel what's happening on the ice,” explained David Koppett, senior executive producer of Live Events at Comcast SportsNet California, in a statement. “Guitammer's 4D technology helps us transmit the electric energy of a Sharks hockey game right into your living room."