Being at home in the stadium

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BEING AT HOME IN THE STADIUM

Cisco’s Chris White talks to Ayswarya Murthy about how Internet of Things (IoT) concepts can transform the venue experience for sports fans.

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t Cisco Connect UAE, we sat in on the keynote speech by Chris White, Senior Vice President Global for IoT/IoE Solutions Sales. We’d later discovered that he is also the General Manager for IoT in Sports and Entertainment and Emerging Technologies and Home Solutions, but the MC omitted to mention these to keep his job title more manageable. In his talk, he touched on the world of IoT and how change was happening right now, before our very eyes. A particular statistic he threw out about the media attention

around this exciting new technology hit home. “In 2014, 44,000 news reports were published around the Internet of Things,” he said. It was barely 4,000 a year ago. As I reflected on the stories I worked on last year, I figured I was probably responsible for half of these reports. At least it felt like it. Yes, we have regularly featured IoT in these pages but only because it’s a tree that will just not stop giving. Every week we discover exciting new applications that promise to make life 10 years down the line virtually unrecognisable. And they are worth talking about.

This time around we had a conversa-

CHRIS WHITE

Senior Vice President, Global IoT/IoE Solutions Sales Cisco

tion with White about the impact of IoT in sports; he calls sports the “most horizontal of all verticals”. They had a record quarter last year and enhancing the fan experience in the stadium is proving to be big business.

Watching games at the stadium has become a novelty rather than the norm because the experience of viewing the game surrounded by the creature comforts of your home has progressively become better over the years. You can order in pizza, monopolise the Lazyboy, don’t have to queue for the bathroom or search for parking, watch replays and close-up shots and, perhaps most importantly, live tweet your frustration at a missed goal. White says technology can help venues deliver many of these advantages to the fans present there.

We start with one of Cisco’s more talked about projects - the technological overhaul of the iconic Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).

Looking at the changing demographics of fans, who were increasingly inseparable from their devices and, above all, craved connectivity, the local government, entrepreneurs and the telecom operator Telstra wanted to refresh the environment, he says.

“They realised they had to put in a strong Wi-Fi infrastructure and then they wanted to do much more when they started to see the applications.” They digitised the whole experience, from digital signage and mobile apps. “The SCG was unique in the sense that Telstra also owned the TV rights and so was one of the few vendors who could deliver solutions from home to the venue; experiences that typically compete with each other,” he says. “So Telstra wanted to

These solutions are not limited to just sporting venues. White says famous bands like Metallica and the Rolling Stones are making venue decisions based on connectivity. “They know they can fill a venue but they want to make sure their millions of Twitter or Facebook fans can be part of the concert too. It’s a whole new ecosystem.” encourage fans to start their journey at home with the pre-game programmes and then transfer it to their mobile device which helped them to get to the venue more efficiently. This might mean helping them find a faster route to the stadium, pointing out empty parking spots, maybe offering them last-minute tickets or upgrades and then helping them find their seats, or the nearest vending machine, in case they wanted to grab a quick drink.” All this complements the primary venue experience; the sheer thrill of being in the midst of thousands of screaming fans, most of whom are uploading countless selfies, celebratory tweets and videos. That’s why it starts and ends with the Wi-Fi. QATAR TODAY > MARCH 2015 > 51

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Chris White at Cisco Connect UAE in Dubai talking about the immediate possibilities of IoT. (left) Cisco did significant work in bringing the Sydney Cricket Ground to the 21st Century

“It’s not just about throwing a couple of access points around like some people naively think,” White says. These deployments are tailored to support a very high density of devices in a relatively small area, a “harsh environment” in which to provide good Wi-Fi service. “They call for micro-cell design using highly directional antennas and finely tuned system-wide management of the RF power levels and channel assignments across hundreds of access points. And this is even before taking into consideration the stadium structure and surface area, and interference from different reflective surfaces and other devices. Designing a network for that environment is tricky.”

Then comes the fan’s interaction with his or her device. “There is an argument in the sports world that watching a game is essentially a head up experience and not a head down one. But we are seeing an interesting combination of both. The Dallas Cowboys Stadium did an analysis of when and how the crowd uses the network. Obviously, before the event, during time-outs and breaks but there were also significant spikes in the usage after a big moment in 52 > QATAR TODAY >MARCH 2015

the game when the crowd wanted to share a photo of a touchdown instantaneously.

We constantly work with focus groups and customers to come up with innovative new ideas and experiment with the fan experience,” White says. “For example, you don’t want your phone to be constantly vibrating, pushing you updates and notifications.

So how can we customise that so that when you do get interrupted, it’s for something that’s truly worthwhile.” Maybe it is to replay a recent goal or to tell you about a promotion on your favourite snacks.

This brings us to the next layer in this experience – the marketing. “Sponsorship is a huge part of the sports world and making sure they get the most value for their money is key. For example, imagine if Coca -Cola can understand how many of the 20,000 people are existing customers, or potential customers, or customers who are never going to touch their brand and adjust their marketing experience based on this profile; they can be so more impactful. ,” he says. “Because it’s not pure brand marketing anymore. You are sent promotion notifications based on your profile as it’d be something you want. All these help

the business impact of running these venues,” he says. That’s why digital signage is not as simple as it sounds because now it’s just as much about being relevant as it is about improving the overall experience for the fan. SGC, for example, not only has a 273 square metre video screen but also 900 plasma TV screens at the new stands.

White is aware that with the advent of wearables, the whole experience has to be revamped. “There is a huge new wave of technology coming into the sports arena,” he points out, and not just during the game, but for post-game analysis, pregame strategising, monitoring the health of players, etc. “There is definitely nervousness about some of these aspects but this is where the experimentation and testing comes in. To see if it works and if the players, coaches, fans and venue owners are comfortable with it.” For White, it’s important that his clients are able to get the maximum advantage out of their networks. But most of all, it is plain fun, he says, to roll up his sleeves and work with the Mets or Real Madrid or the New York Yankees to transform the experience for them and their fans