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Updated PGA Tour 14 app greets new season

January 14, 2014 by

pga

The PGA Tour has revamped its existing PGA Tour ’14 app from the ground up to offer an enhanced experience for fans that are both attending its events as well as ones that are following tournaments from remote locations.

Using apps at events is very popular because a fan might be following one group but is interested in a host of players and how they are doing not just hole by hole but shot by shot and the app addresses this and much more with enhanced existing features as well as additional ones.

Starting off it gives you a live, up to the second leaderboard. As a leaderboard feature there are players’ listings that can provide a thumbnail profile of the player, current scorecards and video of select shots. From there the fan, if they so desire, can follow an individual players’ live scorecard that now features play by play with shot trails and live up to date stats. The tee shot trails feature is only available at courses that support ShotLink laser technology.

Moving from the individual to the group there is the ability to check on groupings with both time and location of tee times. There is video on demand that provides a wide variety of features including player features, recaps of every round and tournament highlights. Of course the entire season schedule is also available.

The PGA Tour ’14 app covers approximately 130 tournaments featuring the PGA Tour, Champions Tour, Web.com Tour, NEC Series-PGA TOUR Latinoamérica, PGA TOUR Canada and PGA TOUR China. The app is available for both Android and iOS devices.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Athlete to Follow, British Open, Golf, iOS, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, PGA Tagged With: , , ,

Sony adds HD POV action cam

January 13, 2014 by

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Sony has used the largest stage in consumer electronics, last week’s 2014 International CES show in Las Vegas to bring out a high-end action cam that combine high quality images with a portability that will enable users to capture and display their feats and those of others, athletic of otherwise.

The Sony HDR-AS100V Action Cam is a POV (point-of-view) device that is designed for high-end users who want the best in video quality with a simple interface that is easy to use, important features if you are say, hanging on the side of a mountain filming your climb.

Basic Features
At the very start the HDR-AS100V comes in a splashproof case so when using around water, or snow as the season and situation dictate, it does not have to be encased in a waterproof housing, although that is needed for underwater work. It has a media/battery indicator that informs users of how much capacity and recordable time is available. Its on-screen indicators inform users of both recording and shooting mode as well as GPS Tracking States and image stabilization. It has a display panel that enables users to view settings and images. A waterproof casing is also included.

Advanced Image quality
However the camera offers much more including the ability to record high quality, 1080/24p video and high-speed 720/120p or 720/240p shooting. It has a built-in stereo microphone for use with the images. For still images it functions as a 13.5 megapixel camera and has multiple functions including the ability to do time-lapse photography.

The key to the image quality starts with the camera’s support of XAVC 5, a version of the codec that was developed for the emerging 4K/HD video space. This enables very high speed bit transfer that in turn allows the camera to capture live video in quality HD. The next step is its ultra-wide Carl Zeiss Tessar lens that provides a 170-degree viewing angle. To augment that there is Sony’s SteadyShot Image Stabilization, a huge enhancement over Sony’s previous stabilization offering, providing double the camera’s stability over the older technology. When on it limits the lens’s viewing angle to 120 degrees.

The Action Cam AS100V features a lens that is ideal for panoramic shots that is not all the camera is capable of, it features an enhanced 18 megapixel sensor for use in low light and night conditions, perfect for everything from spelunking to night skiing.

Connectivity
Currently the camera cannot do live video streaming but Sony is promising that an update this summer with provide that capability. However despite that there are a number of very nice futures including both Wi-Fi and Near Field Communications (NFC) support that enable to share content on smartphones and tablets using the free PlayMemories Mobile app that supports both Android and iOS devices.

For the technically minded there is the ability to control up to five Action Cam AS100V devices using the optional Live View Remote model RM-LVR1, a wristwatch sized controlling device that features an LCD that is waterproof and synchs automatically with the cameras. The HDR-AS100V with the RM-LVR1 as a bundle that is being called the HDR-AS100VR.

Mount Options
While users of portable cams often find new and unusual mounting issues for the device, Sony Electronics has worked hard to head off issues in this area. It ships with a tripod adapter that can be used with the cameras when they are out of the waterproof housing. That however is just the start as it also has at least 26 different mounting attachments with a number of new ones joining the already established mounts that the company had made available for earlier models. He newest mounts include an Action Monopod (VCT-AMP1), Hard Lens Protector (AKA-HLP1), Camera Leash Pack (AKA-LSP1), Arm Kit (VCT-AMK1) and the aforementioned Live-View Remote Kit (HDR-AS100VR).

The $299.99 HDR-AS100V is currently only available as a pre-order from Sony but the company said that it expects it to hit the market in March.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Cycling, GoPro, iOS, Live sports via mobile, Skiing, Sony Tagged With: , , , ,

Fox Sports Go will live-stream Seahawks-Saints and Niners-Panthers this weekend; CBS will live-stream Patriots-Colts, Broncos-Chargers

January 11, 2014 by

Screen shot 2014-01-11 at 9.52.57 AMIf you’re a customer of a participating provider for Fox Sports Go, you can watch this weekend’s NFC playoff games either on the Web or on an Apple iPad using the Fox Sports Go website or mobile app. Here at Mobile Sports Report we love this kind of flexibility, since it lets us watch games on the big desktop PC screen if and when other family members want to use the main TV to watch Harry Potter movies. The Fox Sports Go website address is foxsportsgo.com, and the list of participating providers includes AT&T U-Verse, Comcast Xfinity, Suddenlink, Optimum, Midcontinent Communications, and Wow!.

CBS will also live-stream its coverage of the AFC divisional games this weekend, starting with the Colts-Patriots game at 8:15 p.m. ET on Saturday followed by the Broncos-Chargers game Sunday at about 4:40 p.m. Sunday. The games can be watched online at CBSSports.com’s NFL page, or via the CBSSports app, which I believe gets around the Verizon phone-ban by just showing the games via a web page. I did see a little disclaimer that says live streaming is only available via iOS devices. Someone out there give it a shot (I have an Android phone) and let us know if it works on an iPhone. You do not need to subscribe to any TV service to see the CBS live streams.

For Fox, Saturday’s Seattle Seahawks vs. New Orleans Saints game (4:30 p.m. ET start) and Sunday’s San Francisco 49ers vs. Carolina Panthers tilt (1 p.m. ET start) will both be live streamed, according to a Fox news release. To see the stream you need to validate your pay-TV subscription, and once that’s done you can watch all the other Fox games. The Super Bowl, which Fox is broadcasting this year, will not require a cable subscription.

Though the Fox Sports Go app is available for both the iPad and the iPhone, the Fox news release very specifically notes that the game is available only for the tablet version of the app. We are guessing here but we suspect that Verizon’s deal with the league for its NFL Mobile app — the only app for smartphone live NFL action — precludes Fox’s ability to offer live streaming to a phone-type device. All playoff games this weekend, including the AFC games on CBS (according to my phone), will also be available to NFL Mobile subscribers. NFL Mobile requires a Verizon 4G LTE phone and a $5 per month NFL Mobile subscription.

Someday, the league will get all these rights simplified. But not this weekend.

Filed Under: Apple, Apps, Fox Sports, iOS, NFL, NFL Mobile, Seattle Seahwaks, Tablets, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Friday Grab Bag: 3D tablet, Dodgers ruled social media in 2013

January 10, 2014 by

It just would not feel like a week has gone by unless there was another iPhone or iPad rumor, and it looks like we will meet that goal once again. While we have already mentioned the possibility of a hybrid iPad this week now comes the possibility of a iPhone phablet.

According to Yahoo there may be one as soon as May, in a line that will be differentiated from the iPhone family. That family should get its next member, now called the iPhone 6, sometime later in the year, it reported.

Google Glass rival coming into focus
Once Google made huge headlines with its Google Glass concept rivals have been shooting at the company touting alternative offerings, and among that pack has been Taiwanese manufacturer ChipSiP that this week showed a prototype effort called Smart Glass.

The Smart Glass looks much like Google Glass, runs a full Android 4.2 operating system and features a 1.2Ghz dual core processor with 1GB of RAM as well as 4GB of storage. ChipSiP, which is an original device manufacture (ODM), expects one or more of its partners to start shipping glasses this year priced in the sub $1,000 range.

Hampoo tp deliver 3D tablet
The latest version a glasses-free 3D tablet has been shown this week by developer Hampoo that said it will release the unmanned tablet later this month to an as yet unnamed price. The display has a 1920 x 1200 resolution and a built-in software conversion engine can render 2D into 3D images without glasses.

Other features include the Android 4.0 operating system, a 1.5GHz TI OMAP4470 dual core processor with 1GB RAM, 16GB storage that can be doubled via an optional MicroSD card and the ability to run 1080p HD movies.

MLB a money making machine
Have you ever wondered how baseball always manages to give players multimillion dollar contracts that are guaranteed while the NFL, always seeming crying poor, usually only guarantees the first year or so?

Well Forbes does a real nice job breaking down how much money baseball actually rakes in, and how it spreads a good deal of it around so that while it is not an entirely level playing field, it is as close as it will likely ever come.

Dodgers ruled sports social media
While the Los Angeles Dodgers may have failed to reach the World Series last year with the team’s $200 million payroll it did reach several other milestones including having the team’s home park, Chavez Ravine, as the most “checked-in” sports venue.

In led the league in 2013 in growth on Tumblr, Facebook and Instagram, according to MLB, and was the fourth most checked-in site overall in the world. And as a minor thing it lead MLB in attendance with 3,743,527 fans.

An interesting year in review of ESPN
Ever wonder why some stories that seem relatively inane or trivial gain so much momentum on ESPN? Or wonder what is actually going on at the World Wide Sports Leader? Well Deadspin has put together a pretty interesting year in review for the network.

One of the more interesting pieces is how by having all of its different talking heads repeat something on all of its different channels it can blow something way out of proportion, and the example of that was its big Colin Kaepernick story.

Filed Under: Apple, Apps, ESPN, Facebook, Google, Los Angeles Dodgers, Major League Baseball Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Stadium Tech Report: DAS, Wi-Fi puts end to no-signal problem at Denver’s Sports Authority Field

January 10, 2014 by

PeytonThese days, Denver’s Sports Authority Field at Mile High is the new home of the NFL’s most prolific signal-caller. With a record season for passing yards and passing touchdowns, Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning is recognizable for his animated pointing, shouting and line-of-scrimmage audibles, the ultimate practicioner of last-second communication.

Not too long ago, the fans at Mile High might have had to resort to the same tactics to communicate, using hand waving or shouting, since getting a cell signal was next to impossible. “Forget making a phone call, you couldn’t even send a text,” said Rick Seifert, communications manager for the Broncos’ stadium management company. “And it wasn’t just the fans. We [the staff] couldn’t make calls in the stadium to do our jobs.”

But in 2012, the Broncos changed all that with the installation of a full-featured distributed antenna system (DAS) deployed by TE Connectivity, and a fan-facing Wi-Fi network installed by Verizon Wireless.

Russ Trainor

Russ Trainor

The Broncos also put in a huge new digital scoreboard and robust back-end connectivity provided by Comcast as part of their blitz of networking improvements, and this past fall, AT&T joined in by upgrading its connection to the stadium’s DAS. By next year the Broncos hope to add AT&T and Sprint to its roster of Wi-Fi service providers, reflecting what vice president of information technology Russ Trainor sees as a “never ending growth” of wireless in-stadium consumption.

All carriers on board, slowly

One of the biggest problems with DAS deployments in stadiums is convincing major cellular carriers to work together. Since each carrier wants to deploy systems to do the best job for its customers, there is often a difference in opinion on strategy and operations, which is often followed by similar snags in contract negotiations. Trainor said that the stadium, built in 2001, presented unique RF challenges to wireless with its primarily exposed-steel construction. Verizon and Sprint were the first carriers to sign up for the neutral DAS, followed by AT&T this fall.

DAS equipment at Sports Authority Field. Credit: Denver Broncos

DAS equipment at Sports Authority Field. Credit: Denver Broncos

“It was tough to get them [all the major carriers] to agree on DAS, but we have good engineers on the back end and we came up with a nice solution for everybody,” said Trainor. While the antennas and stadium network are neutral, each carrier provides its own back-end gear, much of which at Mile High had to be placed in a building built outside the facility specifically to house telecom gear. In many stadium DAS deployments, the telecom gear can take up thousands of square feet, which can be challenging to find in facilities built before such needs were known.

“There’s no room inside for all the space they [the carriers] wanted,” Seifert said.

The Wi-Fi network, deployed by Verizon, uses Cisco equipment and is also a neutral host infrastructure, meaning that other carriers could use it to provide Wi-Fi connectivity to their clients if they so choose. According to Seifert, AT&T and Sprint will offer Wi-Fi services to customers next season, in part to answer the consistently growing demand. Like in other stadiums, fans at Sports Authority Field know what to do when they finally find bandwidth: Use more.

Steady growth in wireless use

When Sports Authority Field is at its listed capacity of 76,125 on game days, it becomes the 14th-largest city in Colorado, Trainor said. The team has already seen 525,000 downloads of its mobile application, which provides such in-stadium features as four different video replay angles, a connection to the NFL Network’s RedZone channel, and a direct link to the radio feed from hometown sports station KOA. The application is geo-fenced to ensure that the video rights are only used inside the stadium, and to give fans there a unique game-day experience.

Wi-Fi antennas on stadium overhang. Credit: Denver Broncos

Wi-Fi antennas on stadium overhang. Credit: Denver Broncos

According to Trainor, the team usually sees an average of 4,000 simultaneous connections on the Verizon Wi-Fi network on game days, though on colder days when fans need to wear gloves that number can drop in half. Trainor said the Cisco infrastructure is designed to accomodate 25,000 concurrent connections, a number the team hasn’t yet reached. However, the team did have to double the back-end capacity already for the Wi-Fi network, which is being used more as more fans find it.

“Word of mouth really gets [usage] going,” said Trainor, who noted that at a Kenny Chesney concert last year, the stadium crew saw data uploads outpace data downloads for the first time — a sure sign that fans in attendance were using the network to do things like share pictures and videos with their social-network connections.

“We haven’t seen any true bottlenecks yet, but usage is consistently rising, game after game, for concerts, soccer and football,” Trainor said.

Rick Seifert

Rick Seifert

A good sign from the Wi-Fi networking statistics is a shift in usage from the often crowded 2.4 GHz bands to the 5 GHz bands, which Trainor said is likely due to fans using the latest 5 series iPhones, which support the 5 GHz Wi-Fi frequency. And no matter what happens to the Broncos in the playoffs, Trainor and Seifert know what they will be doing this summer: Upgrading the network components, in the never-ending battle to provide bandwidth.

“Verizon and Sprint have already made significant upgrades to their DAS deployments because of demand and changes in technology, like LTE,” said Seifert. “And next year we’ll probably see AT&T circle back again. It’s very dynamic.”

“As smart phones get smarter it’s a never-ending challenge” to provide connectivity, Trainor said. “It’s a job that’s never finished.”

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Apple, Apps, AT&T, Cisco, Comcast, DAS, Denver Broncos, Denver Broncos, MSR Guides, NFL, NFL Network, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

NBC continues to ratchet up digital access to Winter Olympics

January 9, 2014 by

sochi2

We reported earlier on NBC’s plans to provide online coverage of all 15 sports during the upcoming Winter Olympics that start Feb. 6 but the network has announced additional features that will likely thrill many online viewers.

So on top of the already announced 1,000 hours of coverage that the network will be live streaming also comes a host of digital-only programming that it will also make available to verified cable, satellite and telco customers.

While NBC has live-streamed Olympic events in the past this is a new feature that the network has never tried before. There will be three main features of the new programming. The program, which will generally stream from 7 a.m. – 3 p.m. ET will be available as an exclusive video channel on NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports Live Extra app.

It will focus on the most popular events of the day, and not as a general news service, more on that later. It will be showing events live such as the ice hockey games and various skiing events. There is also a dedicated Twitter handle for fans that enjoy following it from that angle: @NBC_GoldZone.

The second piece of on-line programming is called Olympic Ice. As you can imagine it will cover all of the Olympic Ice Skating events and news, but as a review broadcast. The 30-minute program will also be available on both NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports Live Extra app and will start broadcasting each evening at 5:30 p.m. ET on most days, from Feb. 7-21.

The final program is a general news effort entitled Olympic News Desk Updates that plans to stream update cover the course of each day as well as provide breaking news and highlights after each event.

I believe that the additional streaming programs, as well as the previously announced programming, will be met as a very welcome addition to this and hopefully future Olympic broadcasts. One of the joys of an event, even when you are not present, is to see it as it occurs, or to catch news and analysis of the event after it has just concluded. Most will want to watch events that they enjoy at home on big screen tvs even after they know the final score anyway, I suspect.

If you are wondering how to get verified to watch on-line it is very simple

In order to get verified simply:
1. Go to NBCOlympics.com/LiveExtra
2. Click the “Verify Now” button
3. Select your cable, satellite or telco provider
4. Enter the username and password that corresponds with your account
5. Upon verification of your subscription to an Olympics-eligible package, you will be signed in throughout the Games on that device.
It would make sense to do so early since NBC expects that it will have the most devices verified to view the Sochi Olympics for any sporting event ever, most likely dwarfing the 9.9 million devices that were verified for the recent London Olympic Games. You can verify for multiple devices, but must go through the process for each device.

Filed Under: Apps, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NBC Sports, Olympics, Skiing, Sports Social Media, Twitter Tagged With: , ,
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