Has CrowdOptic found its niche with Google Glass and the NBA?

Screen shot of Google Glass footage from Indiana Pacers practice. Credit: Indiana Pacers

Screen shot of Google Glass footage from Indiana Pacers practice. Credit: Indiana Pacers

While we’re still far away from knowing whether or not wearable devices will really take off, the integration of personal-view video into stadium situations seems like a quick win. And San Francisco-based CrowdOptic appears to be ready to benefit from the latter idea, as its technology is being used in a couple announced deployments where Google Glass is being used to bring interesting video looks to big-screen displays in NBA arenas.

Both the Indiana Pacers and the Sacramento Kings have been using Google Glass to bring “personal” video views to the big screens in their arenas recently. Though players haven’t yet worn Google Glass during an actual game, in Indianapolis the wearable technology and its built-in camera was used to provide video feeds from a practice, as well as game-day views from cheerleaders and from a courtside PA announcer’s seat.

CrowdOptic, which had previously developed a unique mobile-device triangulation technology (which it somewhat unsuccessfully tried to market as a security or analytics-gathering tool) has seemingly found a perfect fit with Google Glass. According to a partnership announcement made with Wi-Fi gear and software provider Extreme Networks last week, CrowdOptics’ technology is helping weed out the best views from the devices to produce a watchable video stream.

This paragraph from the CrowdOptic press release with the Pacers actually describes it pretty well:

Another Google Glass view from an Indiana Pacers practice. Credit: Indiana Pacers

Another Google Glass view from an Indiana Pacers practice. Credit: Indiana Pacers

“The experience will be powered by CrowdOptic, a software platform which analyzes the real-time Google Glass feeds and curates them by their subject matter and quality, exporting only the highest quality live footage to the scoreboard. CrowdOptic’s ability to analyze where mobile and wearable devices are aimed allows future opportunities, such as optimizing in-seat arena services or providing fans the option to control their own broadcast.”

According to a recent Fortune Business article, CrowdOptic is charging NBA teams $25,000 per deployment, but some of that arrangement may change with the new Extreme partnership. Some new deals with additional NBA teams are also expected to be announced soon.

What will really be interesting to watch from a stadium technology perspective is how Google Glass use, for both team-approved activities as well as casual fan use, will affect things like in-stadium networks. Though our recent Stadium Tech Report for Q1 2014 found that most NBA stadiums already have fan-facing Wi-Fi, few seem ready for advanced applications, especially high-bandwidth generating ones like streaming Google Glass videos. What’s also unclear is how NBA broadcast rights may or may not affect the ability of teams or fans to record or stream live action via technology like Google Glass. Add another item to the stadium IT department and team legal department to-do lists!

Comments

  1. Add the Orlando Magic to the list… Google Glass demo coming April 9.

Trackbacks

  1. […] news that NBA teams are now partnering with San Francisco’s CrowdOptic to deliver Google Glass views to stadium big screens is a pretty interesting development to contemplate, on the heels of our […]

  2. […] Has CrowdOptic Found Its Niche with Google Glass and the NBA? —Mobile Sports Report “What will really be interesting to watch from a stadium technology perspective is how Google Glass use, for both team-approved activities as well as casual fan use, will affect things like in-stadium networks.” […]

  3. […] when teams like the Indiana Pacers and the Orlando Magic push the envelope to do things like have Google Glass views shown on their arena big screens. But listening to the folks from the new ownership team at the […]

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