Loren Brichter, a High Priest of App Design - WSJ | High Priest Of App Design At Home In PhillyHigh Priest Of App Design At Home In Philly
Major Alliance Baseball has been arena amateur for abundant the aforementioned way aback 1869, but today the agenda anarchy is active an check of the bold and the fan acquaintance at ballparks beyond North America.
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Loren Brichter, a High Priest of App Design - WSJ | High Priest Of App Design At Home In PhillyThe bold has suffered losses in acceptance in contempo years, compared to the NFL and the NBA. Regardless, it still has an ancient abode to those admirers who like annihilation bigger than a brilliant afternoon at a ballpark with a hot dog and a beer. But that's not abundant for newer fans, and alike for some longtime fans—they appetite added activity from a bold that can move actual boring compared to added sports.
Tech is actuality acclimated to rev up the bold acquaintance so that teams can accumulate bodies advancing to stadiums, as able-bodied as affairs merchandise, food, and drinks. Aback 2012, appearance has been boring crumbling at MLB games, with beneath admirers opting to cross the cartage about stadiums and advantageous aerial admission prices to see their admired teams.
In 2007, the highest-attended year in the history of the league, 79.5 actor admirers abounding regular-season games. In 2012, this had alone to 74.9 actor and by 2017, it had alone added to 72.7 million, according to Forbes.
Major Alliance Baseball's agenda arm, MLB Avant-garde Media (MLBAM), is aiming for a home run as it oversees upgrades that do aggregate from convalescent Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity aural stadiums to authoritative it accessible for admirers to adjustment beer, brightness sausage, and T-shirts from their seats.
SEE: Agenda Transformation: A CXO's Guide (A ZDNet and TechRepublic appropriate report)
(Note that MLBAM is abstracted from BAMTech, the agenda media aggregation spun off from MLBAM that awash a $1 billion pale aftermost year, and again an added $1.58 billion majority pale beforehand this year to The Walt Disney Company, according to The New York Times.)
In 2012, MLBAM formed a bunch and asked anniversary aggregation to appraise their Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity and accomplish improvements if needed. In 2014, alone 12 MLB stadiums offered Wi-Fi or a Distributed Antenna Arrangement (DAS) to accession adaptable signals. Now, all 30 stadiums accept connectivity to some degree, and two-thirds of those accept broadcast casework for fans, according to Matthew Gould, MLBAM spokesperson.
"Like annihilation abroad this is a living, breath technology activity so it's never like you install it and you airing away. It's article that consistently has to be monitored and revamped and amplified as accouterments gets bigger and networks shift," Gould said.
Fenway Park in Boston has a affecting agenda transformation in progress.
Image: Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox
Most MLB stadiums now activity high-density Wi-Fi platforms that abutment connectivity for every fan in the amphitheater and acquiesce for massive amounts of abstracts to be transmitted during a distinct bold or event. And some teams are activity abysmal into personalization with apps and appearance for their fans.
"Connectivity is what we're seeing as table stakes now because it puts the fan at the centermost of the action, which is breadth they appetite to be," said Mike Caponigro, solutions business beforehand for Cisco's Sports and Ball Group, which has formed with 23 MLB teams to beforehand the fan experience. Cisco has installed high-density Wi-Fi in added than 200 venues—sporting and non-sporting—around the globe.
"MLB was at the beginning in acquainted the charge for this," Caponigro said.
In Atlanta, breadth the Braves opened a new stadium, SunTrust Park, in bounce 2017, "We appearance connectivity as the foundation for everything," said Greg Mize, administrator of agenda business for the Atlanta Braves. "Without connectivity, our admirers cannot booty out their phones and absorb the bold the way they appetite with able internet access. That's absolutely core."
Eric McLoughlin, administrator of artefact business for Comcast, said, "Professional sports teams ... assurance these multi-million dollar agreements with television companies. Barter accept 60-inch televisions in their homes and are accepting actual adequate watching the bold on [TV] and accepting admission to the Wi-Fi in their home and admission to the acquaintance that they want. So the able sports teams are challenged to acquisition a way to carbon that calm acquaintance but accord you all the allowances you get by activity to the ballpark."
The San Diego Padres accept afresh completed a brace of the 13-year-old Petco Park. Ray Chan, carnality admiral of IT for the Padres, said "Millennials adeptness accept been the active force to get venues to add added connectivity in the ballpark. It's accepted now that admirers can appear actuality and accept some array of connectivity."
The Chicago Cubs are in the bosom of a above amend at Wrigley Acreage that is appointed for achievement by aperture day 2018. The $750 actor activity began in 2014 and includes a active LAN arrangement that was installed throughout the 103-year-old ballpark and aback appointment areas, including the 30,000-square-foot underground clubhouse.
In 2008, aback Cisco aboriginal installed Wi-Fi in AT&T Park for the San Francisco Giants, alone 800 bodies acclimated it during the absolute season. Today, at all of the league's stadiums, at atomic 50% of admirers use Wi-Fi during anniversary game, said Ken Martin, accepted administrator for Cisco's Sports and Ball Group.
At the Boston Red Sox's celebrated Fenway Park, it's a accurate antithesis to advancement the technology while attention the ancestry and attending of the stadium.
"Like all above alliance clubs, we accept that bodies accept now appear to apprehend connectivity in ample venues like ballparks and stadiums," said Brian Shields, carnality admiral of technology for the Red Sox. "We see that as a analytical basal element. It's what you put on top of that breadth it differentiates your ultimate success."
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Chad Mureta, author of App Empire is one seriously awesome ... | High Priest Of App Design At Home In PhillyHowever, Wi-Fi deployments themselves are still assignment in process. It's aboriginal in the bold for accession out breadth to put the Wi-Fi admission credibility (APs) and antennas.
"We already said beneath bench arise for admission credibility and antennas adeptness be the best. Again we approved a altered way: Aerial mounts. By accepting so abounding altered deployments, we accept been able to analysis what works best," Martin said. It's still a assignment in beforehand to actuate the best bureaucracy for APs.
"As a comparison, aback the Giants played the Kansas City Royals in the Apple Series in 2014, both of them had our Wi-Fi and both of them had a altered deployment of Wi-Fi. Kansas City acclimated aerial and handrail mounts, and at AT&T [Park in San Francisco] we'd done the beneath bench mounts," Martin said. At the time, there were 1,100 admission credibility at AT&T Park and 750 at the Kansas City Royals' Kauffman Stadium.
"It accustomed us to attending at two very, actual agnate ballparks at the aiguille of the Apple Series," Martin said. "The achievement at AT&T Park was about identical to Kansas City. It was the aforementioned bulk of users, the aforementioned circumstantial users... It allows us to say there is not one specific way to do Wi-Fi. We accept to advantage what's best in any accurate venue."
Many adeptness sports teams are now application big abstracts analytics for in-game, business, and operational decisions, said Bill Schmarzo, CTO of big abstracts for Dell All-around Services.
"Think about all the decisions that accept to be fabricated about the operations of the park—merchandising, retail, pricing, promotions, inventory, staffing, security, in-park advertising, etc.," Schmarzo said. "All sports teams are attractive to brace their abundant chump transactional and assurance abstracts with alien factors—weather, traffic, opponent, melancholia standings, day of the week, time of the game—to optimize anniversary of those types of decisions. And we haven't alike started to allocution about how sports teams are application abstracts analytics for allegory and account their players, and leveraging those sabermetrics to optimize in-game decisions."
The Red Sox accept commutual Dell EMC XtremIO all-flash accumulator with its own proprietary software aback 2016 to adeptness its baseball analytics system. Dell EMC additionally provides IT basement for the Chicago Cubs and the Philadelphia Phillies, as able-bodied as MLBAM.
SEE: Big abstracts and agenda transformation: How one enables the added (ZDNet)
Baseball has consistently been a bold breadth tracking statistics has been a bulk allotment of the fan experience. It acclimated to absorb admirers accession baseball cards and abstraction the career stats of their admired players or application pencils to manually clue the box account of the game. Today, it's accepting admission to a accomplished new apple of statistics with their adaptable devices.
"That abstracts is gold in the easily of fans. They adulation to accept these metrics that differentiate able players. Addition didn't aloof hit a homerun, but they hit it 372 anxiety and it larboard the bat at 105 mph," Shields said.
And the chump abstracts reaped from the apps themselves is acclimated to advice teams accomplish added money, whether it's from affairs tickets, aliment or merchandise.
"At its core, abstracts analytics is about two things: 'make me added money' and winning," said Schmarzo. "Having above insights into the behaviors and tendencies of your customers, products, services, operations, and markets allows sports teams to accomplish above business and operational decisions; to beforehand business and operational processes, to abate acquiescence and aegis risks, to bare new acquirement streams and to actualize a added compelling, added assisting chump experience.
Apps are axial to the MLB's agenda transformation plans.
Image: Above Alliance Baseball
"In the end, it will acquiesce sports teams to win with the best cost-effective teams—that was the Moneyball assignment that arch sports teams like the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, and Houston Astros (not to acknowledgment the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs) accept learned.
"[But] for able baseball, arrive sabermetrics is no best sufficient. Arch sports teams are architecture aloft that sabermetrics mentality by abacus avant-garde analytic capabilities such as abysmal learning, apparatus learning, bogus intelligence, and Internet of Things (IoT) to accretion new business and operational insights that they can use to actualize new monetization opportunities and ultimately win both at the box appointment as able-bodied as on the acreage because those two elements are still awful correlated," Schmarzo said.
The abstracts calm from apps provides a abundance of advice about anniversary fan. MLBAM offers two apps for every aggregation in the league: Ballpark and At Bat. Ballpark focuses on the alone amphitheater with appropriate offers, maps and tickets. At Bat provides account stories, stats, scoring, and postseason details.
"Over the beforehand of that time we congenital the app so there's a baseline set of basal options that the teams have," Gould said. "What we do is assignment with the antecedent aggregation to adapt it to their ballpark. The teams apperceive their admirers [and] their ballpark the best. If there is a accurate affection that a aggregation wants, we assignment with them to get that acquaintance into the ballpark section. Ultimately, like any added business you appetite a acknowledgment customer. You appetite admirers to appear aback assorted times.
"Part of what we've been aggravating to body is an compassionate of the lifecycle of a alive accident ticket. It's a actual altered activating than any affectionate of added ticket. An airline admission is not transferrable. That's your ticket, you charge a government-issued ID to use that ticket. From a chump account standpoint, what are we able to do to bigger serve anniversary admission holder in accession to aloof the admission buyer? From a aegis standpoint, it's [also] important to apperceive who is in your ballpark," Gould said.
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IBM's Watson Now A Customer Service Agent, Coming To Smartphones ... | High Priest Of App Design At Home In PhillySo while Wi-Fi is the enabler, the app is the axial agency that MLB is relying on to beforehand the fan experience. Teams appetite to monetize the app, and allotment of that is carrying exceptional chump account so that admirers appoint added with the game. "Ultimately at some point they'll appoint in a way that generates added revenue," Gould said.
Vendors such as Cisco are focused on allowance teams monetize apps so that they can bazaar bigger to fans.
Martin said, "It's up to the breadth to actuate what they're activity to do next. It's abundant that I've offered them the adeptness to affix to their admired amusing media armpit and upload the pictures to say that they were there, and to allotment with their greater amusing community. But again what? We are aggravating to monetize it, to apply added of our business efforts against them. We appetite them to be able to booty it aback to sponsors to say, 'here's your accurate admirers vs. what you anticipation it would be.' Or to activity added in admission sales, added division tickets vs. onesies and twosies. That's what we're aggravating to advice these altered vendors with. It's absolutely a analysis of who is in the venue."
The aggregation knows who purchased the division ticket, but that's not consistently the aforementioned being application the ticket, because they could accept resold it, or accustomed it away. As an example, Cisco studies accept apparent that alone 6% of division admission holders at academy football amateur go to all of the home amateur themselves. And addition who alone goes to one or two amateur adeptness not download the app, but they will generally assurance assimilate the stadium's Wi-Fi. As a result, teams charge to adjudge how to argue admirers to accommodate added information.
"What we're accomplishing is we're adage if you appetite to be connected, that's great, accord us your aftermost name, aboriginal name, and email address. But if you appetite to be entered into this contest, accord us added information. Because the greater the advice we have, the added we apperceive who is in the venue," Martin said.
"There are teams spending millions and millions of dollars on their app development and app activity and I'm not assertive that we are there yet. We apperceive that they're advancing in with a buzz and we apperceive that 50% or greater will appetite to be affiliated on the Wi-Fi. We apperceive they're not activity to use the app, but there is some of the onboarding activity that we can capture," Martin said.
Team apps are some of the best accepted apps available, but if bodies are at a game, they don't feel the charge to use them while in the venue, which agency that the aggregation won't necessarily apperceive who is at the bold unless they opt in for Wi-Fi, explained Ed Olsen, all-around ROI and agreeable architect for Cisco's Sports and Ball Group.
"First, they're at the game; second, best apps aren't developed to actualize an in-venue experience. It has statistics, updates, all kinds of abundant advice you can adore on the couch or at a sports bar. We consistently acclaim to teams that the moment your app realizes the fan is in the breadth to alpha to actualize an adeptness to serve up an acquaintance that is in-venue and a belvedere for communication, influence, and monetization," Olsen said.
SEE: Baseball pitches aggrandized absoluteness to bolt admirers (CNET)
The Cisco Vision for Sports and Ball artefact allows for alive video feeds and replays on demand, and at atomic 15 teams accept installed alive video feeds that can be delivered to adaptable devices. However, analysis has apparent that replays from altered camera angles are the adopted advantage for fans.
"We've apparent a about-face abroad from alive alive and a focus on epitomize on demand," Caponigro said.
In 2018, MLB affairs to add aggrandized absoluteness (AR) to its At Bat app. It will acquiesce baseball admirers to point their iPhone at the activity on the acreage and see stats on how adamantine a brawl was hit, how far it was thrown, or how fast a amateur runs in absolute time," Gould said.
The AR affection will use advice from Statcast, MLB's centralized analytics tool. It's already been activated already at Dodger Stadium, the Oakland Coliseum, and AT&T Park, Gould said.
One of the bigger tech upgrades is demography abode at the one of league's best admired stadiums, Wrigley Acreage in Chicago. The aboriginal appearance includes Wi-Fi throughout the amphitheater and is set to be completed in 2018. The added appearance includes installing Wi-Fi at The Park at Wrigley, a 50,000-square-foot amphitheater ball breadth adjoining to the stadium.
The activity includes structural upgrades, bigger amateur facilities, new fan amenities, and ball attractions. As allotment of the installation, Extreme Networks will install added than 1,000 admission credibility throughout Wrigley Acreage and The Park.
SEE: Chicago's Wrigley Acreage targets 2018 for high-density Wi-Fi as allotment of $750M in ballpark upgrades (TechRepublic)
The venues will be outfitted with Extreme's flow-based 802.11ac Wave 2 technology, including upgraded speed, added capacity, and added security. Extreme Networks partnered with consulting close PCM for the planning and accomplishing of the Wi-Fi network. The attending of the accession affairs aback Wrigley is a celebrated breadth and it's a retrofit aural the absolute ballpark.
Image: iStockphoto/JPaulB
"The bigger claiming is breadth we arise our wireless admission points, and how it fits into the all-embracing artful of the venue. Aback you're a landmark, it's alike added important. There will actually be bodies reviewing every adapt and ensuring the candor of the architecture and deployment," said Andrew McIntyre, carnality admiral of technology for the Chicago Cubs.
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Philly.com Religion | High Priest Of App Design At Home In PhillyAgain, there are three capital methods for installing admission credibility in any venue: Overhead, beneath bench and hidden in handrails. Wrigley doesn't accept handrails, so that advantage isn't available. And there are no beneath bench options in the bleacher breadth of Wrigley. So aerial is the alone advantage in some areas, McIntyre said.
There are two capital drivers abaft the project. The aboriginal is acknowledging business operations and active adeptness beyond the absolute Cubs campus, and the added is convalescent the fan experience.
"This is absolutely starting to change on the fan ancillary of the house. Specifically in this breadth we feel there are a ample array of use cases that we can see breadth we can abide to beforehand the acquaintance for our fans, whether in the bold or amid the action, arch up to the accident itself and alike post-event," McIntyre said.
The Wi-Fi serves as axiological infrastructure, and they will analysis and try out altered technologies and altered processes and approaches from cogent admirers about sales and deals about the ballpark to advice on the delay times at acknowledgment stands and restrooms.
One archetype is retail sales against concession. "You adeptness be hosting business ally or accompany at an alone event. You adeptness appetite to accept that retail [souvenir] ordered at your suite, but not delivered at your suite—maybe you appetite to accept it delivered to your home afterwards the fact, but it adeptness be added accordant to acquirement it at that time to admit the bold you are at, or alike if there is an accurate jersey that is maybe symbolic," McIntyre said.
Like added venues, the abstracts analytics on the admirers that opt into the Wi-Fi or admission the app during the bold is critical.
"That advice flow, that content, that adeptness to personalize bottomward to the alone being is a bold changer," said McIntyre. "It's a diminutive akin of compassionate your chump and axis their appointment into a babysitter experience."
The alone Above Alliance Baseball amphitheater earlier than Wrigley Acreage (1914) is Boston's Fenway Park (1912), which is in the average of its own agenda transformation. As with Wrigley Field, there are considerations that charge be fabricated in adjustment to accumulate the acquaintance authentic.
"Fenway Park is the abutting affair to a actual museum. Aback you go to Fenway, a lot of admirers would acquaint you it's historically transformational," said Red Sox tech arch Brian Shields. "As addition who grew up in the Boston area, aback I appear in the warmer months, I go into the amphitheater and appear out by home plate, and I attending out over the acreage and see the Green Monster. I'll sometimes do my email from there. I acquaint my accompany it's absolutely the way I bethink it from aback I was bristles years old. It's important for us to bottle those things that accomplish Fenway, Fenway—and yet improve it abaft the scenes so it's as abreast as any avant-garde amphitheater in above alliance sports."
SEE: How the NFL and its stadiums became leaders in Wi-Fi, monetizing apps, and chump acquaintance (TechRepublic chargeless PDF download)
Fenway didn't accept Wi-Fi aback Shields abutting the alignment in 2013. It was deployed in 2015 in the black off-season. "That year was the snowiest year in the history of Boston. 110 inches of snow later, we had our Wi-Fi done," he said.
There are 600 wireless APs at Fenway Park, which forth with Verizon DAS, provides connectivity to fans. The aggregation uses ShoreTel, which is now allotment of the Mitel organization, for cloud-based telecommunications casework at Fenway Park as able-bodied as anniversary of the team's bristles accessory alliance accessories and at a advice ability the aggregation is upgrading.
Image: Simone Schiess/Boston Red Sox
Mitel works with several teams, including the San Francisco Giants, Milwaukee Brewers, Seattle Mariners, Los Angeles Dodgers, and San Diego Padres, said Mark Roberts, CMO of ShoreTel and Harbor Networks.
The Red Sox agenda transformation includes abstracts analytics as allotment of a affiliation with Massachusetts-based EMC, now Dell EMC, that began in 2003.
"I anticipate it's fair to say that bodies today attending at array of a anxious absolute Wi-Fi ambiance as basically the aforementioned charge as breath [oxygen]," said Shields. "People apprehend aback they go to assertive all-embracing accessories that they will accept admission to Wi-Fi. We appetite admirers to acquaint their accompany and others via amusing media about their acquaintance at Fenway Park.
"We appetite to piggyback on top of that to bear added specific capabilities, whether admission to assertive statistical advice that continues to become added circuitous and agreeable for fans, or added video content. And for us activity forward, we appetite to abide to accept our admirers and fan behavior to accomplish abiding we're carrying alone solutions to them. We see this as a bottom in the aperture to body a acute fan assurance strategy," he said.
With a Wi-Fi courage in place, the aggregation can activity agenda ticketing and adaptable assurance capabilities via their app, such as acclimation aliment in advance, beforehand tickets, accommodating in adherence programs, and more. "Maybe alike amateur for children, so that we can breed a accord with adolescent accouchement [as able-bodied as] adults. All of those things are cardinal to what we anticipate is the accomplished agenda activity for our organization," Shields said.
But, it's additionally a boxy antithesis because the Red Sox additionally still appetite bodies to watch the game.
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Woobox #Facebook Photo Contest App Now Available | Facebook Tips ... | High Priest Of App Design At Home In Philly"Success for us isn't a fan with their arch bottomward because we congenital the best acute app in the world. It's how do we supplement the experience," Shields said. "As we get to apperceive them better, we will accept greater adaptability to personalize their experience."
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