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Niners CEO Jed York Tweets: Networking Vendor Brocade is New Stadium ‘Networking Partner’

April 20, 2012 by

No more details than what we know on Twitter, but according to Niners CEO Jed York, networking vendor Brocade is the first “networking sponsor” of the new Niners stadium. The team broke ground for the new facility on Thursday, digging those ceremonial shovelfuls in the shadow of Great America in the Silicon Valley city of Santa Clara.

Here’s York’s tweet:

No word yet whether or not Brocade will be the title sponsor of the stadium but it is a huge loss for networking vendor competitor Cisco Systems, whose main campus is right down the street from the new stadium site. Brocade’s main Silicon Valley office is also close to the new Niners stadium. But this is a potentially big loss for Cisco, which has been trying to find a place at the forefront of Bay Area sports (you may remember Cisco’s failed efforts to help build a new stadium for the Oakland A’s in the East Bay city of Fremont) and has a special business group dedicated to building out in-stadium networks.

More as we hear more. Anyone inside Brocade (or Cisco), please let us know what you are hearing.

UPDATE: We replyed to Jed’s tweet, asking for more details… not much yet apparently. But it sure sounds network-based to us:

Filed Under: Cisco, NFL, Wi-Fi

JockTalk Gets Pub, Plans to Enter Crowded Sports Social Network Field

April 19, 2012 by

Since we haven’t yet talked to the folks behind JockTalk it’s hard to surmise exactly how their proposed sports social media network is going to be better than anything out there today. We read some of the stories, we get the basic idea — create a space for athletes and fans to hang out, and monetize on the traffic — but so far we have seen nothing in any of the stories in the media rounds the company has made that sets JockTalk apart from the crowd.

The idea that athletes should find a better place to monetize their social media presence other than just Twitter or Facebook isn’t exactly new. Here at MSR we have been closely tracking three such efforts, including PlayUp (which regularly hosts pro player “hangout” rooms online), Viva Vision and Gridiron Grunts. The leaders of Viva Vision, ex-NFLers Joe Tafoya and Kerry Carter, have been especially vocal about seeking to help individual players build their own online interaction centers, either for profit, charity or exposure. The Viva team is working on a prototype app for Dallas Mavericks star Jason Terry that is comprehensive, with lots of multimedia hooks and commerce opportunities.

And the Gridiron Grunts team, led by ex-NFLers Jeb Terry and Ryan Nece, already have an extensive crew of “grunters” contributing in a unique fashion, by simply calling in their takes on their phones so that fans can listen in a like fashion.

If JockTalk is able to create some kind of top-athlete commons that attracts a lot of traffic, it might be able to grab some space in the market. But from a fan standpoint when it comes to aggregation we like the approach taken by Bleacher Report, which curates the best content from anywhere on the web and presents it segregated by teams, which is how we think most fans still follow sports. So good luck to JockTalk, which we are excited to see. But do note that this game has already started.

Filed Under: Apps, bleacherreport, Facebook, NFL, PlayUp, Sharing Sports Media, Sports Social Media, Twitter Tagged With: , , , , , ,

What Will Coaches Do? Moto Ends NFL Headphone Sponsorship

April 17, 2012 by

I was crushed to read the news today that Motorola will no longer sponsor the headphones worn so stylishly by NFL coaches on the sidelines. Of course the businessperson in me immediately started thinking: Who would step up to ensure that crucial sidelines communications remain solid? How will coaches cope with the possibility that we might see, on live TV, that they have more than one ear?

With my marketing hat on (no headphones atop it) I started thinking: This is a great chance to bring coaching technology into the year 2012. How about a “coaches helmet” with a flip-down mirror screen when they need to read plays, so that they can finally get rid of that handy clipboard that they now have to hold in front of their mouth?

Or maybe this is Polycom’s moment in the sideline sun — in the business world we all know about how well the company’s triangular speakerphones keep meetings running on and on and on and on. Why not a super sideline version of the conference phone? Coaches could then be headset free, and just keep turning around asking, “who’s on this call?” while the other team runs a naked blitz.

The smartphone-era alternative, of course, is to have all coaches go hands-free with a bluetooth earpiece and an accompanying phone in their pocket. Old schoolers like Tom Coughlin of the New York Giants will probably want a leather belt holster for the phone, just like a Cisco engineer. Since the Niners’ Jim Harbaugh is a bit younger he might go for a classic iPod look, with the distinctive white cords hanging down from his baseball cap. Whichever way they go, it’s a new era in the NFL. One where the trogolodyte ear-cups and boom microphones no longer have a place.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Motorola, NFL

NFL Schedule Released Tonight at 7 p.m. ET

April 17, 2012 by

The National Football League will be unveiling the schedule for the 2012 season in a prime time event tonight at 7:00 p.m. ET in a move that also launches the unofficial start of the annual complaining how your team was treated by the league season.

So far the only game that has been given a firm date is the leagues opening game, which will be played on Wednesday, September 5 with the Cowboys playing divisional rival the Giants and that the game in London will show the Rams vs. the Patriots in London’s Wembley Stadium on October28. The Rams will play a home game in London the following two years as well.

I have to admire the NFL’s ability to raise everything it does to a must see event. The league has already the preseason schedule as well as the regular season match-ups, so it is only the dates that are in question at this point. Still that will be enough to draw a sizable viewing crowd.

Hopefully you get the NFL Network but if not I imagine that ESPN will have its full NFL team primed and ready to discuss the pros and cons of each teams hopeful route to the Super Bowl.

What follows is my actual favorite part. Fans complaining that rivals have a better schedule because of any number of reasons including more home games at the end of the season or having a patsy or two to end the season. Other top complaints are lack of Sunday and Monday night games, or having them to close to each other.

From here it is just a leap to the NFL draft, an event in which we all become experts after reading two paragraphs on a player our team surprisingly drafted in the second round out of Duke.

Filed Under: Monday Night Football, NFL, NFL Draft, NFL Network Tagged With:

Friday Grab Bag: Who gets Hard Knocks and Tablet Sales Soaring

April 13, 2012 by

Nike’s push to establish its FuelBand, a rubber wrist band that it is seeking to establish as a standard piece of wearable sports technology continues to move forward as the APIs for the device have been given to developers, according to an article in PSFK.

The FuelBandAPI will enable developers to create a range of applications that reach from a user’s iPhone out to the FuelBand and back, not only for sports related apps but also ones that could provide access to music and other iPhone features.

Are four cores twice as good as two?
Have you ever wondered what the difference between a dual core processor and a quad core processor, aside from the very obvious in terms of number of cores? Well Cnet’s Jessica Dolcourt has taken the time to break down the issues and lay them out in a piece entitled 7 Myths about quad-core phones.

She looks into issues such as app development, impact on battery life and top down development of the cores, all with interviews with developers to fill in the gaps. After reading this you might not rush out and buy the first quad-core smartphone on the market

“Hard Knocks” heading to Atlanta?
ESPN is reporting that HBO has asked the Atlanta Falcons to be the subject of this year’s “Hard Knocks” a series that follows one NFL team throughout its entire preseason training camp. There have also been stories that the Jets management wanted the program again while the team’s coach did not.

And speaking of pro football don’t forget that it is just a mere two weeks until the annual draft. Get ready now to ridicule either a) your team, b) the sports channel you watch the event, c) one specific draft expert or d) all of the above.


Intel to push tablets in education
Intel has delivered Studybook, a ruggedized tablet for the education market that is part of the company’s Intel Learning Series family and will come with a range of software designed specifically for the education space.

The tablet features a range of education software including the Intel Learning Series software suite for both students and teachers. The tablet can also serve as an ereader and has an estimated 5.5 hour battery life.

It is powered by an Intel Atom Z650 processor and features 1GB DDR memory, a choice of 4GB, 8GB, 16GB or 32GB storage, a 7-inch 1024 x 600 resolution multitouch display, with optional front and rear cameras. Intel will license the reference design to company’s working in the education space and the tablets can run either Android or Windows tablet operating systems.

Tablets sales soaring-Apple leads the way
A recent report from market researcher Gartner Group shows strong growth in tablets from last year to this, from 60 million units to an estimated 118 million, and it shows that Apple’s iPad, not surprising, leads the way.

Gartner estimated that Apple sold roughly 40 million last year and will account for 73 million, or 61.4% of all tablet sales this year. By 2016 Apple is estimated to still be the market leader, but Android is expected to make a strong push into a very solid #2 position.

Microsoft’s forthcoming tablet OS and accompanying hardware partners will see it gain a very distant third by 2016, with estimated sales of 43 million, or slightly better than what Apple did last year. Head over to look at the charts here.

MLB.TV Blackout Rules in need of a revamp?
While we here at MSR are pretty big fans of MLB’s wide variety of tools and apps that allow access at some level to baseball, one that has always been an issue is its blackout rules for MLB.TV, which seem more than a bit arbitrary.

A post by Chad Moriyama recently brought home a major flaw in the program. He was informed that the newly revised blackout rules would not only block Dodgers and Giant games, but all West Coast teams as well as some others for a total of nine teams, including games in Texas.

So you might wonder if he lives in some wonderful central location that enables him to easily drive a wide variety of parks, possible the Springfield that the Simpsons live in. No, he lives in Hawaii, 3,000 miles from a Dodgers game.

If Internet Commentators were around then…
The Sports Pickle has really hit it on the head about Internet commenting, not just on sports but on pretty much anything these days. I always seems that you cannot get 10 posts before one is a troll, and trolls attract more trolls.

Even so this recreation of what comments would look like for four famous events- The Steelers Immaculate Reception, US beats USSR in Olympics hockey, Frazier beats Ali and Lou Gerhig’s farewell at Yankee Stadium are all spot on.

How many smartphones?
Analyst estimates are always to be taken with a grain of salt, at a bare minimum, but no matter which estimation you believe smartphone sales are continuing to grow at a very fast pace. Credit Suisse is predicting that sales will grow 46%, to 687.9 million units this year. It estimates 1 billon sold in 2014.

Gartner has estimates that last year all forms of mobile phones reached a total of 1.8 billion units. Then there is Cisco, which has forecast that by 2016 there will be 1.4 smartphones for every person on the planet. Head over to Mashable to look at all of the numbers. I imagine that half of them will be lost in the back of a cab.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Baseball, Humor, iPad, iPhone, Major League Baseball, Mashable, NFL, Tablets Tagged With: , ,

LiveU’s New Cellular TV Camera Modem Passes Super Bowl Test; LiveEdge Still MIA

April 11, 2012 by

LiveU's belt-sized modem in action at the Super Bowl. Credit: LiveU

Mobile TV camera modem supplier LiveU said Wednesday that its new belt-sized cellular modem was used for live camera shots at the Super Bowl in February, according to a press release issued by the company. We here at Mobile Sports Report expect cellular cameras to be a big thing going forward, to enable more sports content live from where it happens without the expense of a satellite truck.

While LiveU has done the mobile/cellular thing before for sports its previous solutions were backpack-based to house the equipment that included modems and batteries. The newer LU40i unit, the company said, weighs in at around a pound and a half and can combine up to six 3G or 4G cellular connections to support a “professional HD-quality video uplink.” Our big unanswered question (we have a call in to the company and plan a longer look at mobile cameras soon) is how much does it cost to run one of these babies, since we are guessing that a live video stream would chew through a regular cellular data plan after a few plays. Our guess is that LiveU has some kind of deal with the cellular folks but we’ll know more soon.

The debut of the LU40i unit, which LiveU said was also used at the NBA All-Star Weekend, the Grammies and at CES and SXSW, begs the question of where are its competitors, especially the high profile LiveEdge, a company funded in part by Verizon and one of the companies selected to participate in Verizon’s “incubator” program for startups.

LiveEdge proposed modem unit, which snaps on the back of a pro TV camera. Credit: LiveEdge

LiveEdge, which originally launched with the idea of putting a WiMAX modem on the back of TV cameras, morphed toward LTE when it became apparent that the major cellular providers were moving to that technology. Last year, the company was highlighted by Verizon’s CEO at CES as one of the new apps for LTE services and scored the unspecified investment from Verizon as well as the incubator spot.

But since then there’s been nothing but crickets from LiveEdge, whose former CEO, Robert Klingle, has apparently left the building since he’s no longer listed on the company website. In fact the About page looks like it’s recently been truncated; it used to show other execs even after Klingle’s name was taken off earlier this year but now it’s blank. Repeated calls and emails to both Verizon and LiveEdge have gone unanswered, though one LiveEdge spokesperson who asked to remain unidentified did say several weeks ago that an announcement would be forthcoming soon.

Maybe at next week’s NAB show in Vegas? That’s where LiveU will be showing off the LU40i, which looks like the leader in the space for mobile, broadcast-quality TV.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NBA, NFL, Super Bowl, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: ,
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