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Enhancing The In-Stadium
Sports Experience
Sports stadiums and audiences around the world are becoming more ‘connected’…
Stadium ambiance,
but fans expect more
The amount of technology that’s
installed within a modern sporting
arena ensures that a television
broadcast of any event is captivating
and immersive for the viewers at home.
However, if you look at the way that we
use technology to consume content –
on a smartphone or tablet – and how
we like to remain connected through
social media, you’d be forgiven for
not asking ‘why don’t we do more for
crowds inside the stadium?’
Whether watching from the comfort
of their own home or in a public place
showing the coverage, audiences
outside the stadium are the ones who
benefit from the broadcast technology
within the stadium. Today’s sports and
entertainment broadcasts are packed
with live replays, game statistics and
immersive analysis but only a limited
proportion of this is available to those
inside the arena on a ‘jumbotron’ or instadium
screens.
The ‘single seat experience’ inside
a stadium can leave something to
be desired – 32% of the crowd have
limited opportunities to watch replays,
15% aren’t able to see the statistics
and 9% miss live action because
they’re elsewhere in the stadium.
As an audience, we want to ensure
we’re connected at all times –
especially during important sporting
events. Not only do we want to be
connected, we want to share our
experience. Last year’s Super Bowl
between the Seattle Seahawks and
the Denver Broncos saw a huge 24.9
million tweets during the event. It’s
because of this that some young fans
are less tempted to attend a sports
game in person if there isn’t Wi-Fi
available inside the stadium. It’s so
important in fact, that during college
matches some students opt to leave at
half-time if they aren’t able to connect
to the internet and upload images in
order to share their experience at the
game.
By failing to extensively connect
stadiums and provide a more
broadcast-like experience to instadium
fans, arenas are putting
themselves in conflict with consumer
demand.
Raising The Game
What can sports clubs and content
owners add to their crowd’s in-stadium
experience? The FanCast solution
from EVS, the leading provider of live
video production systems, creates
a completely connected stadium.
Attendees of the game can now benefit
from the same immersive experience
that has, up until now, only been
provided through broadcasting. Now
this capability is available with the
added bonus of being right in the
middle of the action.
FanCast is a live video and
multimedia solution, which enables
the production and delivery of live
and near-live content. It allows fans
to gain access to more in-depth and
exclusive content through their smart
devices. The content can also be made
available on in-stadium screens and
jumbotrons.
Multiple in-stadium broadcast
cameras capture the live action from
the event while viewers at home only
benefit from one feed the director
chooses to use. What FanCast does
is take the unused feeds and utilise
them for exclusive content generation.
Clubs and content owners can take this
media, add their own branding and
distribute it straight to the app.
Adding this connectivity and
providing access to exclusive content
within the stadium not only creates
a richer experience for the butts-inseats
and helps retain and grow a fan
base, it also opens up new revenue
streams for arena and club owners. It
allows for the collection of important
customer data and as a result, clubs
are able to customise their offering
and improve merchandising revenues.
Providing access to exclusive content
gives rights-holders the opportunity to
monetise content that would otherwise
be wasted. Match-day revenues can
also be improved through up-sales
of tickets and concessions via in-app
ordering. This is before they even start
to benefit from the increased publicity
they will see through social media on
game day.
Stadium owners and sports clubs are
recognising the need to build on fan
loyalty and turn it into fan retention,
to take their emotion and generate
a return on it – what EVS calls the
‘Return on Emotion.’
Immersive Experience
EVS has a 20-year history providing
its customers with reliable and
innovative technology, enabling the
production of enriched, live video
programming. Used by everyone
from broadcasters and studios to
post-production facilities and content
owners, EVS’s solutions create more
efficient ways to produce content.
The FanCast stadium package
is comprised of the following
solutions and services under a single
comprehensive yet cost-effective
offering:
XT3 production server, with builtin
proxies and 4K zooming,
enables multiple channel input/
output and extended format range
selection;
IPDirector asset management
suite for instant management
and production of video clips and
highlights during live productions;
C-Cast cloud-based multimedia
distribution platform enabling
the aggregation of multi-angle
video, live streams and statistics
for instant delivery to multiple
connected screens within the
venue;
Advanced customer service
including training, installation and
extended technical support.
Game Moves
Stadiums and arenas can now make
sure all the excitement inside the
stadium is matched by the slow-motion
replays, tight close-ups and nearinstant
analysis that fans enjoy when
watching a broadcast at home.
With this new technology, club and
stadium owners – not to mention
sports broadcasters – can provide a
more immersive experience in sports
broadcasting. Going to watch a game
at the stadium should no longer be at
the expense of seeing the action from
a better angle or seeing analysis of a
replay or sharing the experience with
other fans and friends. Now having
been upgraded to a multimedia event
– the in-stadium experience just got
better.
- EVS FanCast adds game feeds to personal screens.