The big game: coming to a small screen very near you

It’s been common practice for years for sports stadia to have huge screens, Jumbotrons, showing close-ups of the game, but in an age when almost every spectator arrives with their own high resolution, internet-connected screen, these big screens no longer make much sense.

At the recent ‘All Things Digital’ conference, American football team the San Francisco 49ers and Sony - the inventor of the Jumbotron - outlined an alternative approach that makes use of spectators’ own screens and multiple, smaller stadium screens.

The approach is being implemented at the 49ers new $US1.2 billion Levi’s Stadium (Levi’s will pay $USS220m over 20 years for the naming rights) under construction in Santa Clara and due to open in 2014.

IPTV provider CombitTel provides both signage and IPTV solutions for sports venues with the capability to deliver so called “moments of exclusivity” much desired by sports venue operators and their ad-breaks.

According to a posting about the plan on Ericsson’s Networked Society blog, “The software-enabled stadium will have very different network needs than a classic Jumbotron-based venue. The stadium networks need to be designed to support media streams to users’ own devices, and to do it in very large volumes during events. These new networks can be funded with a reallocation of Jumbotron funds to smartphone/tablet feeder networks.”

It adds: “Without the restrictions of the one-screen Jumbotron concept, it is possible to distribute multiple video feeds in the arena. They can combine the use of standard TV feeds with special camera feeds for arena users only. A bigger share of the experience can be delivered to user devices through apps and media sent to their personal screens. In essence the software-enabled stadium is about delivering a personal experience to 68,500 fans in the same location.”

The stadium will be equipped with a high capacity WiFi network - claimed to be able to be able to provide WiFi connectivity to the devices of every one of the stadium’s almost 70,00 occupants, simultaneously.

With this WiFi network, spectators will be able to use their smartphones and tablets to choose between multiple video streams delivering player statistics on-demand, offering multiple camera angles of the on-field play or a close-up of a single player. For the big screens, Sony will be installing its new ultra high resolution 4K screens.

Jack Hill, the head of construction for the stadium, said that today 20 to 30 percent of spectators brought their own technology to venues and this figure is expected to reach 50 to 60 percent by the time the new stadium opens in 2014.