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Watching Golf this Week: The British Open, and the Tiger Internet Channel debut

July 17, 2014 by

Screen Shot 2014-07-10 at 11.21.37 PMIn honor of ESPN fulfilling our longtime wish for continuous coverage of Tiger Woods at a golf tournament, we are bringing back our Watching Golf this Week feature. And for this weekend’s third major of the season, the British Open (aka the Open Championship) the viewing guide is easy: Just check ESPN, both on the tube and online, because the worldwide leader will give you wall to wall coverage of the action that starts Thursday morning at Royal Liverpool in Hoylake, England.

So what’s the deal with the Tiger Cam? We haven’t interviewed anyone at ESPN but it’s easy to see how this idea came about: With Eldrick finally returning to the pro golf majors scene for the first time this year after back surgery, there is an incredible amount of pent-up Tiger interest. Still easily the biggest draw in golf — just go to any tourney he’s in and watch where the crowd goes — Woods is an even bigger interest item this week, with everyone wanting to see if he is A) recovered enough to play competitively, and if so, B) if he’s good enough to start the Nicklaus majors-hunt in earnest.

While ESPN will most certainly cut to Woods whenever possible during normal telecast coverage, the idea of putting a camera on Woods only and using ESPN3, one of the company’s “Internet channels” to show streaming coverage is a masterstroke. Not only will you lure in potential “casual” viewers who might not give a hoot who Martin Kaymer is but who will watch Woods, you will also likely get golf nuts doing the two-screen dance, with the TV on the regular coverage and a phone, tablet or laptop following Woods. At the very least it’s a great experiment and one we expect will be copied (at least we hope so) in other sports, soon.

But while you might not want be so fired up to watch something like a “quarterback cam” or a “third baseman cam,” individual player coverage in things like golf tournaments is a perfect idea. In fact, most online golf efforts for the majors over the past few years have had “featured group” channels online, where they follow attractive pairings throughout a round. This is not really much different except for the focus on Woods, which some will no doubt say is unworthy, since Woods is only a single player, he’s not bigger than the game, blah blah blah. Tiger fans get it, and will (I predict) turn out in the millions to watch every shot he takes over the weekend. Here’s hoping for Tiger, ESPN and for golf that the cams stay on through Sunday. Plus you can watch it mobile, via the WatchESPN app. Good on ya, ESPN.

There will, of course, be other stories from Liverpool, including whatever magic defending champ Phil Mickelson can conjure, and whether or not we will see Major-winning Rory McIlroy finally fulfill his Open dreams, or whether he’ll continue to sputter in the big events. If I could I’d bet a few pounds on American Ricky Fowler, who has been steadily doing well in majors this year. Is this his breakthrough event? Are the British ready for an all-orange winner on Sunday? Or will Sergio Garcia finally come through? It all gets underway Thursday, and for once we’ll have a way to watch and see exactly everything that Tiger does.

BONUS: Doug Ferguson penned an excellent, technically correct article about Wi-Fi at Royal Liverpool. Hello Augusta, can you hear me now?

THE OPEN CHAMPIONSIP

ESPN COVERAGE
This is long, but worth it… what follows is the entire ESPN lineup of content from The Open (all times U.S. Eastern):

Screen Shot 2014-07-16 at 9.58.08 AM

FACEBOOK PAGE
Get yourself close to the Claret Jug at The Open’s Facebook page.

TOP TWITTER FEEDS TO FOLLOW
The Open’s own Twitter feed.
Geoff Shackelford — well known golf writer. If you’re not following Geoff you are missing the online boat.
Golf Channel — official Golf Channel feed
@PGATOUR — official PGA Twitter feed
@StephanieWei — great golf writer who is a Twitter fiend.
Doug Ferguson is the lead golf writer for AP. Good Twitter insights that often aren’t part of your wire-service lead.

TOURNAMENT APP
One of the better event apps, the Open’s App has everything you want in a handheld device app. iPad, iPhone and Android, even Windows. You will still need the ESPN contract to view live video, though. Still, well worth the download especially for the Thursday-Friday times when you may be at work.

WHAT’S THE COURSE LIKE?

Everything we’re reading says that Royal Liverpool (aka Hoylake) will play much differently than it did back in 2006, when Tiger did his 1-iron stinger thing, hitting only one driver all weekend en route to victory. According to an AP story today Tiger says the greens are soft, which might mean that American players unused to links golf might have a better chance. To us, it really doesn’t matter which course they use for the Open Championship. We’re so tired of TPC layouts by this time of the year that basically anything links-like is a refreshing slap in the face, like an ocean breeze. Fore, gentlemen.

WHO WON THIS THING LAST YEAR?

C’mon, do you need to ask? HEFTY!

FEDEX CUP LEADERS
1. Jimmy Walker, 2,322 points
2. Bubba Watson, 2,135
3. Matt Kuchar, 1,725
4. Dustin Johnson, 1,701
5. Jordan Spieth, 1,636

WORLD GOLF RANKINGS
1. Adam Scott; 2. Henrik Stenson; 3. Justin Rose; 4. Bubba Watson; 5. Matt Kuchar.

And… for those of you late risers who miss the Open coverage, don’t forget to watch Annika take on Michael Jordan and John Elway in Tahoe at the American Century Classic:

AMERICAN CENTURY CLASSIC TV
Friday, July 18 — NBC, 4 p.m. — 7 p.m.
Saturday, July 19 — NBC, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Sunday, July 20 — NBC, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.

Filed Under: British Open, ESPN, ESPN3, Golf, PGA, Tiger Woods, WatchESPN Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Stadium Tech Report: Minnesota Twins tap InSite and TE Connectivity to get DAS ready for All-Star Game

July 15, 2014 by

Target Field, the downtown home of the Minnesota Twins. Credit: Minnesota Twins

Target Field, the downtown home of the Minnesota Twins. Credit all photos: Minnesota Twins

Even at a new stadium, getting the wireless network right is a constantly changing target. And for 4-year-old Target Field in Minneapolis, that meant an upgrade to the DAS not too long after the facility opened its doors.

“Nobody will ever have the perfect [network] install, and that’s part of the fun of it,” said John Avenson, vice president of infrastructure for the Minnesota Twins baseball club, in a phone interview with MSR. “The problem is not solvable as in, one year and you’re done. You need to be continuously improving.”

For the Twins, improving cellular connectivity was especially important since this year the club and the stadium will host baseball’s midsummer classic, the All-Star game. Thanks to help from InSite Wireless and DAS gear from TE Connectivity, Target Field’s DAS should be able to handle not just the overall growth in Twins fans’ wireless needs, but also the extra demands of a special event and all the selfies that go along with it.

“Fortunately, InSite and the carriers have been able to react quickly, and we should be ready for the test of the All-Star game,” said Dan Starkey, director for ballpark development and planning, in the same interview. “We’ll be ready to fully test the system.”

Wi-Fi and DAS, a perfect double play

Dan Starkey, director for ballpark development and planning

Dan Starkey, director for ballpark development and planning

As a new facility, Target Field was ahead of the curve when it came to Wi-Fi. On opening day the park had free Wi-Fi service for fans, with 225 access points initially available. “Back then that was a big number,” Avenson said. And while some carrier execs have been voicing an opinion that DAS is all that’s needed in a stadium, Avenson isn’t convinced.

“At this point you need both Wi-Fi and DAS,” he said.

Though the Twins do a good job of promoting the Wi-Fi service, most fans in stadiums everywhere usually default first to a cellular connection, either because they don’t know about the Wi-Fi, or don’t want to be bothered with the process or aren’t sure how to connect. Since people still think they should be able to send pictures or watch videos over a cellular connection, even at a crowded ballpark, that means the DAS – the Distributed Antenna System – needs to keep pace with all the smartphones and tablets being used.

“Some fans put their phones away [when they come to the stadium] but the younger crowd does not do that,” Avenson said. “Nothing interrupts their need for a good [wireless] experience.”

AllstarlogoAccording to Avenson, even before the facility opened the IT team new that they wanted a neutral host partner to lead the DAS effort.

“It just made sense to us,” said Avenson of having a neutral host DAS supplier, since as he said, carriers can be like siblings who have to share a bedroom. “InSite really enables the carriers, so they don’t have to fight with each other [over technology deployments].

Verizon Wireless and AT&T, the two biggest cellular carriers in the U.S., were on the neutral host DAS at the start, and were later joined by Sprint and T-Mobile. And even though the park is fairly new, Avenson said everyone involved realized quickly that wireless demands were growing, meaning that an upgrade was needed sooner rather than later.

According to the team, the most recent upgrades were to add MIMO capability for 1900 and AWS 2100 MHz bands, as well as adding four additional sectors in the bowl for AT&T. The new DAS can also support newer 4G LTE technologies, the Twins said.

“It’s just part of the evolution of DAS,” said Starkey. “Once we realized we needed additional coverage and capacity, InSite and the carriers acted quickly.”

Suite view of Target Field

Suite view of Target Field

The downtown difference

Like many other stadiums and large public facilities, Target Field had to be creative in finding space for the DAS head end equipment.

“In 2008 and 2009, we thought we’d fit it [the DAS head end] in a corner but it grew to a larger space and then that wasn’t big enough,” said Avenson, who added that AT&T and Verizon each have 10 to 12 cabinets of back-end gear for their DAS operations. “When the building was being built in 2008, the architects were not aware that we’d be needing more space. It’s amazing how much space and power a DAS takes at the head end.”

Adding to the complexity of the Target Field deployment is the fact that the field is in the middle of downtown Minneapolis, with large office buildings peeking over the roof of the stadium. According to Avenson, carriers and the team had to perform a series of reconfigurations to antennas both inside the park and out, so that the macro metro cellular network didn’t interfere with the DAS network inside the stadium.

“When the macro network wants to invade [the stadium] you have to push the macro network out,” said Avenson. “If you’re Miller Park [the baseball field in Milwaukee] and you have a big parking lot around the stadium you can control your own destiny. Parks in the middle of cities have a much different challenge.”

Editor’s note: This profile was originally published on May 1, 2014. It is also included in our Stadium Tech Report for Q2 2014, which you can download for free from our site.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, All Star Game, AT&T, Baseball, DAS, Major League Baseball, Minnesota Twins, MSR Guides, Sprint, T-Mobile, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Fox to live stream baseball’s All-Star game

July 14, 2014 by

Target Field, the downtown home of the Minnesota Twins. Credit: Minnesota Twins

Target Field, the downtown home of the Minnesota Twins. Credit: Minnesota Twins

Fox Sports Go will live streaming online coverage of Major League Baseball’s All-Star game on Tuesday, starting at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time, according to Fox. Good news for those of you who prefer commentary in Spanish, Fox will also provide a stream with commentary from the FOX Deportes telecast. (No word on whether we can also get an “anybody but Joe Buck” version of the play-by-play, but Spanish or mute should work if not.)

P.S. — if you look here I think the home run derby is live online right now.

Like previous Fox Sports Go online efforts, the stream will be available to subscribers of “participating video providers,” so if your cable or TV provider is listed here, you just authenticate and you are good to go. According to Fox, here is the list of devices and URLs where you can watch the stream:

“FOX Sports GO is currently available for iOS, Android, and Kindle phones and tablets, select Windows devices, and on desktops through FOXSportsGO.com.”

According to Fox this is the first time the MLB All-Star game is being streamed live online, but our guess is it won’t be the last. If you’re not near a TV, please enjoy Bud Selig’s “meaningful” game. Also if you are at the game live please send us a Wi-Fi and/or DAS network report from the new Target Field network … good luck Twins hosts!

Filed Under: 4G LTE, All Star Game, Baseball, DAS, Fox Sports, Major League Baseball, Minnesota Twins, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

ESPN to make ‘TigerCam’ idea come true: ESPN3 will live-stream Woods’ British Open rounds

July 10, 2014 by

Call me a visionary. Call me media-savvy when it comes to golf. Go ahead. Because it was almost 2 years ago that I asked why some broadcaster couldn’t tee up what golf fans really wanted — 24/7 coverage of Tiger Woods. And now, ESPN is doing just that for the upcoming British Open, live-streaming every round that Tiger will play on its ESPN3 Internet channel.

Like the very successful Megacast of the most recent BCS Championship game, I think ESPN’s decision to offer one of its many outlets as all Tiger, all the time, is brilliant. I’ll even go out on a limb here and predict that for the first 2 days of the tournament, the ESPN3 Tiger feed will outdraw the regular ESPN coverage. OK maybe not but it will be huge, and it will set online golf watching records — I’ll bet a virtual pint of warm ale on that.

Say what you will about Woods as a person, and call him washed up as a golfer. There is still a huge army of people who, whether they are Tiger fans or just Tiger followers, find him so far more compelling than any other pro golfer currently playing that they would watch him playing mini-golf before they watch, say, Zach Johnson or Brendt Snedeker.

No offense guys. Your results show you’re outstanding golfers. But when it comes to professional golf, there’s nobody currently active who moves the needle like Woods — not even Phil Mickelson, who is also a tremendous golfer in his own right. But have you watched Phil play? A lot? It’s an exercise in pain, most of the time. When will Phil crack is a much different show than the Tiger show. And it’s a brilliant move by ESPN, because nobody can claim they are shirking other coverage just to show Tiger. That’s the beauty of multiple streams from the same event… and let’s hope this is just the first of many such experiments. Bravo, ESPN!

Filed Under: British Open, ESPN, ESPN3, Golf, Tiger Woods Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Stadium owners and operators — take our 2014 technology survey!

July 10, 2014 by

Call this a call to action for all of you who are part of stadium ownership or operations teams: We need your participation to help make our upcoming State of the Stadium Technology Survey for 2014 better! With our surveying underway, we already have more participants for this year’s survey than we had for last year’s inaugural effort. But the results get better with each new stadium, team or ownership group that participates, so read on below on how to sign up and add your information — and get a free copy of the results and analysis afterwards!

Done in a partnership with the SEAT Consortium, and set to be unveiled at the SEAT 2014 Conference in Miami on July 20, our State of the Stadium Technology Survey covers the main areas of stadium technology deployment, including Wi-Fi, DAS, Sports CRM, Digital Marketing, Social Media, and Digital Signage. We already have participants from all the major U.S. professional leagues, along with many major colleges as well as other large public venues like race tracks. When we close out our surveying in a couple weeks, we’ll tabulate the results and add in our analysis to produce our 2014 “State of the Stadium” publication, which we will make available to all attendees at the 2014 SEAT conference. All participants in the survey will also get a digital copy of the publication, whether they attend SEAT or not.

How can your team, school or stadium participate? There are two easy ways: One is to send me a direct email to kaps at mobilesportsreport.com, and I will send you the link to our online survey (which takes only several minutes to complete). You can also get a link by subscribing to our email newsletter; later this week there will be an email sent out with a link to the survey site, where you can view the questions and submit your answers. Again, by participating you only help make our results better — and in the process, you get our results and analysis for free for your school, team or stadium to use in your own deployment efforts.

Thanks in advance for your time and help!

Filed Under: About MSR, DAS, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Report excerpt: At Bat app driving the MLB digital experience bus

July 9, 2014 by

Editor’s note: The following excerpt from our MLB technology deployment analysis comes from our Stadium Tech Report for Q2 2014, which includes a wealth of information, research and analysis about the stadium tech marketplace. With a focus on Major League Baseball technology deployments, the report is available free for download so get your copy today. Enjoy the excerpt that follows.

At Bat driving the application bus

If there is one other thing that defines MLB’s digital advantage, it’s the league-wide requirement to use the MLB.com’s At Bat app as the only in-stadium app offered by every team. Though there is some grumbling heard from time to time from teams who want to innovate at a faster pace, for these early days of digital in-stadium experience having At Bat as a base is most likely a huge bonus, since it makes it easier for fans to learn how to find and use the features, no matter which stadium they are in.

Though we here at MSR are more in favor of an eventual open infrastructure – say, a package of MLB-approved APIs that third-party developers could use to bolster the At Bat ecosystem – in these days when fans are still learning how to connect to Wi-Fi and are still getting familiar with the idea of using their phones to purchase in-game seat upgrades or to order concessions, it’s probably not a bad idea to limit choices.

The interesting thing to watch may be to see if, in a few years, MLB has metrics to back up its all-for-one strategy, or whether the MLB digital team decides (like Apple and the iPhone) that opening up the platform could lead to more innovation. The good news for fans is, with better connectivity and more apps, going to games should be easier and more fun as time goes on.

Giants CIO Bill Schlough (left) talks with workers in the park's main DAS head end facility.

Giants CIO Bill Schlough (left) talks with workers in the park’s main DAS head end facility.

DAS upgrades are good news

Maybe the best news on the DAS front is what seems to be (finally) some benefit from the always-improving pace of technology – accord- ing to several teams we’ve talked to recently, a pleasant surprise that comes about during DAS upgrades is the fact that head end equipment footprints are actually decreasing, meaning that the space crunch often caused by DAS may be easing somewhat.

Of course, some of those space savings may be eaten right back up by additional carriers joining in, or by existing carriers adding more coverage support. A continued issue that we will keep watching is whether or not more teams and stadium owner/operators choose neutral third- party hosts for their DAS, or whether they trust that a single carrier will be able to balance the needs of all. In our interview with AT&T’s John Donovan for this issue he said that he doesn’t think any carriers want to use DAS deployments as a strategic advantage over others; we will track your stories and what happens in the wiring closet to see if his opinion reflects reality.

To read the rest of our analysis, download your free copy of our Stadium Tech Report for Q2 2014.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Apps, AT&T, Baseball, DAS, Major League Baseball Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
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