Partner Article

The evolution of the fan experience in the mobile device era

It’s focus week again on Bdaily. This week, we are looking at the business of sport. Here, Sean Larner, VP International of Xirrus Wireless, analyses connectivity in major sporting venues.

Despite the doubters, the 2012 Olympics were widely considered a triumph, not just by the hosting nation but by the whole world.

In an event of such magnitude, however, there will always be a few glitches, and at London 2012 one thing at least did not go according to plan – wireless connectivity.

Amid the flurry of medals for Team GB, the media found time to cover a serious Wi-Fi problem at the men’s cycling road race. With a million people lining the roads from London to Surrey, the mobile network used by broadcasters crashed under the weight of the mobile traffic, preventing organisers and broadcasters from receiving crucial timing and positional updates.

Thankfully, this “glitch” during the race – the first major event of the Olympics – didn’t become the story for the rest of the Games, but one clear take-away from last year’s spectacle is the growing need for high performance Wi-Fi to handle the increased transfer of mobile data at these sporting events. Of course, wireless connectivity was not just for broadcasters and athletes within the stadium, but for the host of fans, spectators and visitors partying in venues far away from the Olympic Park.

People simply expect to connect wirelessly wherever we are, whether it’s in the velodrome or in Alexandra Palace, which hosted the Holland Heineken House - the meeting place for supporters, athletes and other followers of the Dutch Olympic Team. And what is it we all want to do when we’re watching any kind of sport – whether it be tennis, Formula 1, football or rugby? Share our photos, video and experiences with others from our mobile devices via social media.

While it’s easy enough for those of us at home to engage online, the same can’t always be said for those lucky enough to be at the event itself. Poor mobile coverage in sports stadiums has long been an area of frustration for us all – with so many mobile users all fighting for bandwidth in such close proximity, all at the same time. With an increasing number of us using our mobile devices to access and share content, and connect through social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, a powerful wireless network at sporting venues is simply a must.

Naturally, reliable Wi-Fi is the most obvious solution to this and it’s playing an increasing role in sporting events around the world – providing a way for fans to engage online and spread the buzz beyond the event itself.

Wi-Fi also presents exciting opportunities for the sporting industry as a whole. It’s opening up a wealth of opportunities for venues to deliver a far more interactive and engaging experience for their fans. It provides a way to deliver fast interactive content, such as videos, photography and audio footage, as well as live scores and analysis straight to their mobile device – all adding to the ‘on the day’ live experience.

We’ve already seen sporting venues such as Anfield implementing wireless networks in response to consumer demand for better mobile access, while another massive driver is that they can gain more valuable insight into their fans than ever before. The technology allows the venue to find out what devices fans like to connect with them on so they can invest in digital platforms accordingly, while they can also find out more about how fans use the stadium and its facilities so that they can adapt these to better serve them.

To improve the sporting experience, the venue is able to provide in-match stats, food and drink offers, access to online retail and also the ability to engage with a global audience outside of the stadium through social media platforms. The possibilities really are endless, and range from the prosaic but useful – such as pre-ordering half-time food and drink from your seat – to the wildly imaginative, such as putting wireless trackers in the players’ shirts and linking these through to a mobile app that enables fans to track their match performance and stats. You could also then link these stats through to the in-play betting app to increase revenues for the betting partner.

The club shop could offer instant deals on a player’s replica shirt when he scores, beamed straight to the crowd at the precise moment when they’re most enamoured with him. And just imagine if the crowd at Wembley in ’66 or Bloemfontein 2010 had access to instant replays…well, perhaps every technology has its downsides!

Of course, not all sports take place in stadiums: motorsport, golf, racing, cycling are just some examples of sports that take place on courses several miles in length. As anyone who has been to one of these events knows, spectators can only see a tiny fraction of the action that’s taking place around the course, and the sheer size of the venue means you’re often a long way from nearest big screen.

This is where wireless devices really come into their own, as the successful deployments at the Tour de France and at Wentworth for the BMW PGA Championship has shown. Golf fans were treated to a raft of services and applications that helped to overcome the traditional limitations of watching these events, including real-time player trackers, which enabled fans to follow their favourite player around the course; leaderboards, course guides with hole-by-hole information, as well as on-demand video and digital content.

Connecting with fans and spectators on their own devices enables sports venues to understand users’ preferences, redirect them to chosen content and tailor other promotional services to provide them with a more personal view of the tournament. It also opens up opportunities for sponsors BMW, and other partners, to connect directly with the spectators with special promotions and offers for their products.

Wi-Fi services are playing a fundamental role in helping the venue entice fans away from watching golf on their TV screens at home, to getting out and enjoying the live event itself. The delivery of high-performance Wi-Fi allows the PGA European Tour to provide spectators with a home entertainment experience on the golf course, enabling them to enjoy video and interactive content, visit online communities and share their experiences with friends on social media.

What’s clear is that fast wireless is proving to be a game-changer for sporting venues. Not only is it

a necessity to enable fan engagement and amplification of these events across the globe, but it’s also enabling venues to provide fans with a more engaging and interactive experience, helping to entice them away from the comfort of their home to the live event itself.

Ultimately this will help provide additional revenue streams for these venues and their sponsorship partners, increase global awareness for the events and provide a far better sporting experience for us all.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Xirrus .