Sports venue technology has been deeply incorporated into our live experience and has changed the way sports are being viewed at stadiums. Our passions and technologies have integrated to generate fervor-filled viewership without hindering the overall audience’s involvement.
Latest technologies in sports venues make it unnecessary for the audience to compromise on their comfort or safety just to watch their favourite baseball player score a home run or Neymar hammer a shoot.
Sports stadia managements have been constantly improving and refining sports venue technologies to improve both game play and number of audience. Even the audience in the farthest stands can get a close up and live view, thanks to technology.
The technologies being elicited here are designed not to distance viewers from the game but to bring them closer to the raw action.
Innovative Sports Venue Technology for Stadium Security
Innovations in sports venue technology are helping officials secure the stadium right from the entry of the audience to the end of the game.
One of the biggest challenges for security officials is illegal marketers buying tickets in bulk and selling them to buyers at exorbitant prices. This makes it difficult to regulate who gets into the arena and who doesn’t. It also creates conflict and clutter during seating.
The first innovation in this line to solve the conundrum is cloud-based ticketing system. SecuTix and ThunderTix are two such softwares that are helping reduce the influence of touts drastically.
The solution is the usage of Apps such as Google’s PassWallet or Apple’s Passbook on Smartphones. The management can directly give passes to people without the need for middlemen.
The aim of such technology is to make grounds more accessible and comfortable.
Once you have purchased your tickets, the next stop is getting inside the stadium for the seating. Security technologies such as automatic barriers, blockers, bollards, gates, x-ray or thermal screening, Panomera Cameras, and CCTV cameras are helping secure stadiums by keeping track of every individual present in the arena.
In-Stadium Technologies
The crux of perfect viewer experience lies in the audience being able to watch every ball from every angle while keeping track of the score regardless of their distance from the pitch.
Life size Trivision billboards and on-field LED television screens are taking live action to a whole other level, with passionate viewers getting every miniscule detail of game play without having to use cameras or binoculars.
Seating technologies, too, are adding to visitor’s comfort with its modular arrangement and flexible solutions. Latest innovations and breakthroughs include thermal-control seating with heating and cooling options for seats and cup holders for different weathers.
Other technologies that are revolutionizing sports venues include retractable roofs for weather protection, recyclable and movable turfs for growing fields outside the stadium, super sized scoreboards, sound dampening roofs, and on-stadium Wi-Fi.
Turfs And Roofs
Several football, cricket, baseball and athletics stadia have roofs and stands made of metal-elastomer composites that are estimated to be 80% lighter than concrete stands, yet as durable.
Connectivity, Food & Entertainment
A major issue encountered in sports stadia is lack of cell phone connectivity. Operators are coming together to collaborate with arena managements to provide cell phone and WiFi connectivity through fibre optics and wireless technologies. Companies such as Huawei and Hewlett Packard are supplying fibre cables that can stretch to several hundreds of kilometers to provide all round connectivity. A popular example for the most advanced connectivity systems is the Levi’s Stadium. Through a large in stadium database network, operators can provide round-the-clock, undisrupted network access even during game play.
Food is nowhere behind other services when it comes to accessibility in sports arenas. In fact, several arenas now allow you to download food Apps that will get you your favourite snacks to your seat with a click of the button so that you don’t miss a single gut wrenching moment of the game.
Sports venues are no more just about a team of players and a thirsty, confused and passionate crowd. It is about engaging and indulging the audience in a thrilling yet comfortable package that sells the entire sport as an enterprise. And small clubs are no where behind in the relatively inexpensive venture.