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Stadium Wi-Fi Stories

Glenn Fleishman reports the Rivercats, an AAA baseball team, may be first ballpark with Wi-Fi. “I can’t seem to recall a similar story“, says the WiFi Netnews author.

Stadium Wi-Fi has been around for years. Now, with cheap Wi-Fi on handhelds, it may be practical.

Consider these implementation stories:

3Com Park, home of the San Francisco 49ers, created a wireless network to enhance the spectator experience. They gave out “Web pads” to the media and fans in sky boxes beginning in September, 2000. “Fans will be able to access stats from the 49ers game they are watching, as well as scores and stats from other NFL games. In addition, they will be able to send e-mail and instant messages to friends who are at the game or on the Internet”. An IR beaming station, developed by WideRay was also used to deliver information on games.
The Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, the largest soccer arena in the world, has had WiFi since April, 2001. Enterasys RoamAbout provides wireless connectivity between the stadiums 160 ticket offices scattered throughout the arena. It also connects to the central administration department, delivering real-time information about ticket sales.
NHL hockey fans got video highlights at the 2001 Stanley Cup playoffs using Virage video content on IEEE 802.11b allowing users to search and stream video clips in real-time using handheld PDAs.
The Seattle Times describes how computer tablets are being tested in luxury suites at Seattle’s Safeco Field (right) to watch replays, buy food or merchandise. Cursivecode hopes to sell their tablet-based system to other stadiums.
At the 9th World Championships in Athletics in Paris, 500,000 spectators were able to send text messages of encouragement to their favorite athletes, which were alternately displayed on two giants screen in the stadium.
A sports stadium with 802.11b is just one of the projects billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban is currently pursuing.
Wheat’s Emergency Response Team has provided wireless services for the Super Bowl, 9/11 World Trade Center, and FEMA at Salt Lake City during the 2002 Winter Olympics
College sports subscription services like GoDucks.com and GoFrogstv ($6.95 per month) are providing multimedia to a variety of platforms. GoFrogstv uses Affinity Online Media for “high quality, full-screen video and audio to any Internet-connected device regardless of connection speed.”
Intel and Avid Sports are developing solutions to automate the generation of interactive sports content and deliver live play-by-play cybercasts along with personalized, searchable video highlights.
Verizon’s Get It Now service lets fans play their own version of the-game-before-the-game by downloading games from JAMDAT or FOXSports directly onto their wireless handset. FOXSports.com uses iVAST’s MPEG-4 encoding. Cellular operators like AT&T Wireless, Sprint and others are cutting deals for (live) sports packages, too. One billion served.