As the world's best squash players do battle in the Bermuda Masters, a team of eight technicians have been toiling away in front of a huge bank of computers and screens, in full public view on the left side of the court.

They are working for the tournament's title sponsors Virtual Spectator and their objective is to take fans to whole new level when following sport on the Internet.

Above the computers are high-definition screens, showing the live pictures taken by three cameras positioned around the court.

There is also an infra-red image which shows the players glowing yellow and red as they scramble around the court. Heat shows up as red and the image illustrates not only who is working harder, but where in the body he is hurting.

The technicians are using the pictures from the high-definition cameras as the basis for new Internet technology they are creating as the games progress.

"They are writing code as we speak," said Curtis Worthy, who is overseeing the team.

"What we are developing here is something that will be of tremendous value not only to sports fans, but also players and coaches."

The system Virtual Spectator is developing will show browsers all they could want to know about the game they are watching ? and some things they never expected to be able to know.

Under live pictures of the action is a "shot clock" which indicates the pace at which each player is hitting the ball. There is also an indication of work rate.

"There was a great breakthrough in Internet streaming technology about five months ago and we are building on that," Mr. Worthy said.

"We aim to produce a system that will show pictures that are about a quarter of a second behind real time. And we are close to developing something that will allow viewers to get a three-dimensional view of the game."

Viewers will also be able to choose from different camera angles and select replays. They will even be able to play the action from the start, if they had logged on in the middle of the match.

Virtual Spectator started out in New Zealand, producing graphics allowing spectators to follow sailing action in the Americas Cup.

A monitor showing such sailing graphics, replays of action the company monitored during the Bermuda King Edward VII Gold Cup last year, is on display at BHS.

The viewer can find out wind speed and direction, boat speed, get a bird's eye view, a skipper's eye view or look at the boats from any angle. The system is based on global positioning satellite (GPS) technology.

Virtual Spectator has produced technology for covering motor sports and has also worked with the British Broadcasting Corporation on cricket, as well as with Cricket Australia.

The company also has a division that works on live production television, based in Melbourne, Australia, and has branched out from Australasia into Europe.

Members of the technical team working in Bermuda are based in Oklahoma City.

The tournament's semi-finals will take place at BHS today, with the final on Saturday evening.