Terrie Smith, DIGISEQ

TERRIE SMITH, CO-FOUNDER & CEO, DIGISEQ

How Wearable Tech is Revolutionising Mass Spectator Sports

Images: DIGISEQ

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ollowing the chaotic scenes witnessed at the Champions League Final earlier this year, Terrie Smith, Co-Founder and Global Ambassador of wearable tech pioneer, DIGISEQ, discusses how contactless payment tech and secure ID verification is improving operational efficiencies and fan safety in mass spectator sport. Despite an ever-increasing volume of TV and digital streaming choices, there is no doubt that when experiencing the memorable moments that fans crave, nothing can beat attending games in-person. For many, the matchday atmosphere generated at a sports stadium cannot be topped, yet for others, the drawbacks of attending sporting events in the flesh is deterring even the most passionate of spectators. Fan disorder at Euro 2020, coupled with reports of chaotic and dangerous scenes outside the Stade de France ahead of the Champions League Final in May, only serve to remind us why secure and speedy venue access remains a priority. In Paris, huge queues at entry points led to thousands of fans with genuine tickets being denied access to the stadium, while others without attempted to force entry. While the finger of blame pointed to police mismanagement, some reports state that as many as seven out of ten tickets checked at the first venue perimeter were counterfeit. Incidents like this are some of the biggest operational headaches for sports or entertainment venues. Access to venues and cash-handling procedures typically involve lots of manual processes and operational demands. There is the need to ensure that ticketholders are quickly and correctly identified. Eliminating the possibility of counterfeit tickets being used is another.

Wearable tech – the convergence of contactless payment and digital ID

Wearable tech – like a key fob, ring, wristband or even clothing – solves all these problems by offering contactless payment and digital ID verification through one convenient item that goes wherever the user goes. It drastically speeds up entry and transaction times with all transactions encrypted and secured through tokenisation. Ground-breaking mobile personalisation technology brings the convenience of wearable tech right into the hands of the customer, wherever they are, through their iPhone or Android device. It allows consumers to link their payment card to their wearable item, which can be instantly and remotely configured over-the-air with their ID and ticket data. The wearable object is read digitally at the venue entrance to grant access in a fraction of the time it would take to manually verify ticketholders. Fans don’t need to carry cash with them, or reach for their bank card or phone, because they can use their wearable item to make quick contactless payments. This massively reduces queuing times both outside and inside the venue. Furthermore, because the fan wears the item, it’s far less likely to be lost or misplaced compared to cards or phones which can easily fall out of pockets or bags. Spanish LaLiga football club Real Betis is using wearable tech to enable paperless ticket entry, allowing season ticket holders to access the stadium by simply scanning a branded key fob that also doubles as a contactless payment device inside or outside the venue.

Forming part of the club’s digital transformation, Real Betis has enjoyed a 50% rise in average stadium attendance, and now currently boasts an average attendance of 48,000 – the fourth-highest in Spain. This is a prime example of how wearable tech is creating limitless opportunities for the future of stadium access, payment options, and drawing fans closer while also boosting revenues. Unlike active wearable tech such as smartwatches with limited battery lives, with passive (battery free) wearable tech, virtually any form factor can be inserted with a chip and turned into a contactless payment or digital ID token. What’s more, wearable items can be branded with the sports club’s logo and visual identity, creating a memorable impression on the user and a talking point for fans.

More sports venues are realising the benefits and convenience of wearable tech Wearable tech is not only helping forwardthinking sports clubs and venues to achieve astonishing uplifts in attendance, speed up venue access and reduce transaction times, it’s giving them powerful marketing insights through real-time data. Being able to see where and when users are making transactions gives a clear overview of consumer behaviour,

helping to give clubs intuitive experiences to fans. A huge bonus created by the tech is that wearable items can be provisioned over-theair with special promotional offers that can be used in real time. For instance, a fan watching a live game at a venue can be instantly alerted via their device of any rewards that can be redeemed while they’re at the game – and even vote for man-of-the-match using their device while the game is on. Wearable tech also allows clubs and item issuers to fulfil environmental efforts by reducing the need for plastic cards or paper tickets, because all data is sent digitally to the user’s item.

The time is right for wearable tech to go mainstream about high costs and complexities. Previously, any chip-enabled item, like a plastic card or other form factor, requiring personalisation or provisioning with user data, would need to go through the costly, time-consuming process of being personalised by the manufacturer before being delivered to the business or club, and then delivered to the user. But who wants to wait 7 to 10 days to receive a card in the mail? New innovations in wearable technologies mean providers can handle the personalisation of the NFC chip from end to end, without the need for the manufacturer or sports club to do anything. This saves vast amounts of money for the brand, and gets items into the hands of fans in a fraction of the time, remotely and instantly. Data can now be provisioned into a wide range of items, like collectible sports merchandise, to stop counterfeit fraud. The wearable payment devices market is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 29% between 2022-2032, with an estimated market valuation of US$13.43 billion just in 2022 alone. This is being driven by the rapidly growing Internet of Things network connecting payment applications, access control and brand consumer engagement across an expected 41 billion devices by 2027. Use cases for wearable tech in sports clubs and venues are set to be a huge part of this growth. The huge business benefits for sports venues looking to streamline costs and the opportunities created by wearable tech to forge even deeper, real-time interactive bonds between fans and their clubs, will transform live game attendance and provide a healthy boost to clubs’ future fortunes.

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DEJERO REMOTE PRODUCTION - DELIVERING MORE WITH LESS

The broadcast industry has experienced some seismic shifts over the last few years and sports is where we’ve seen the biggest impact. In fact, live sports has always been the biggest driver of revenue and new technology in broadcasting. In recent years, OTT service providers have started flexing their muscles by wrestling more live sports broadcasting from the traditional OTA space. At the same time, clubs are developing their own streaming channels with prerecorded and live programming from a variety of sporting venues. Sports fans have never had so much choice. In the competition for eyeballs the industry’s growing confidence in IP connectivity has encouraged more flexibility, and the ability to geographically separate the production of live events has given broadcasters the confidence to adopt remote production model from stadiums all over the world. But this particular game is not new. Spanish content specialist Quality Media Producciones has been taking advantage of remote broadcasting efficiencies since 2017, and Dejero has been with them from the very start. In fact, Dejero’s EnGo mobile video transmitters were central to Quality’s first ever remote IP production in August 2017. Dejero’s EnGo transmitters combine multiple IP networks, including cellular and/or satellite, to achieve reliable connectivity for real-time collaboration from virtually anywhere, such as a stadium in the middle of a congested city or a remote venue on the side of a mountain. This stable and reliable connectivity has guaranteed Dejero’s inclusion in Quality’s remote workflows ever since. The company now deploys around 120 Dejero EnGo transmitters all over the world and equips central hubs and OB units with Dejero receivers, so that they can receive camera feeds from any location. And business is booming; over the last year Quality has been responsible for some of the world’s most prominent OTT sports productions, including the FIFA World Cup, the Rugby Europe Super Cup tournament, the FIBA BCLA 2022 basketball tournament and the South American Rugby Federation’s Pan American 7s tournament at the National Stadium in Costa Rica. Its live coverage of the World Cup Qualifiers in Africa for FIFA’s 12 million YouTube subscribers is a perfect example of how remote workflows can benefit live production. With limited OB resources and large distances to cover, Africa is a challenging territory for live sports.

Quality’s remote production model meant they could cover games with just six on-site camera crew at football stadiums in multiple locations like Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon and the Republic of Congo. Around 200,000 people watched the live stream on FIFA’s YouTube channel as Senegal beat Egypt on penalties at the 50,000 capacity Diamniadio Olympic Stadium in Dakar, and with minimal personnel on site. “Everyone else involved in a production like this stays at home or in the office,” said Pablo Reyes, Chief Production Officer & Partner at Quality. “The EnGo is able to transmit high-quality live camera feeds in real-time, without interruption, back to the hub for packaging and distribution. 60-75 percent of the production team now remain at the hub, saving thousands on hotel bills, airfares, logistics and expenses, let alone the time it takes for a full production crew to travel there and back. “The EnGo is incredibly simple to use – you just turn it on and go. The EnGo transmits over multiple IP networks to reliably deliver exceptional picture quality with extremely low latency — even in challenging network conditions. We simply don’t have to worry.” Because EnGo blends cellular networks from multiple carriers, Quality no longer rely on bulky cabling or satellite trucks at a stadium to guarantee reliable connectivity. Dejero’s Smart Blending Technology aggregates all available IP networks and dynamically manages bandwidth, packet loss, and latency differences in real-time. This creates a virtual ‘network of networks’ to provide access to a greater coverage area than any single provider can deliver. “We’re currently working with a customer to plan the live coverage of a major US sports league,” added Pablo. “With a traditional OB truck, the cost per game would average $35,000, but with our remote production model, which includes multiple EnGo transmitters, we can reduce that cost to $20,000. With 80 games in a season they could be looking at a saving of around $1.2m.” As consumers seek out more content on their favourite teams, and connectivity opens more doors for individual clubs and stadium venues to develop their own channels as revenue streams, remote production will continue to provide companies like Quality the opportunity to deliver more for less. And Dejero is proud to be part of the team. www.dejero.com