Our weekly tech round-up from the stadium and arena sector…
English Premier League football club Manchester City has announced details of a new ‘connected scarf’ product that has been developed in collaboration with Cisco.
The scarf, which has been tested by six lifelong City fans as part of a pilot programme, tracks a range of physiological indicators and is designed to show how supporters are impacted by what they are watching on the pitch.
Using an EmotiBit bio sensor sitting discreetly on the neck, the scarf captures the body’s bio-signals throughout a match and allows City to shape more curated, customised experiences. Measures recorded include heart rate, body temperature and emotional arousal.
The pilot programme saw over 120 moments of interest captured across a 90-minute match. From next season, Cisco will bring the scarf to fans in Manchester and around the world.
The Baltimore Ravens NFL team has set a first for the league by partnering with augmented reality company ImagineAR.
The two-year partnership will see ImagineAR provide its augmented reality mobile platform for fan activation and engagement. The Ravens will integrate the platform to deliver metaverse fan experiences.
The Ravens becomes the first top-tier professional sports team in the US to partner with ImagineAR, which hopes the deal will lead to further expansion in the country.
Elsewhere in the NFL, beverage technology company TendedBar has added Empower Field at Mile High, home of the Denver Broncos, to its venue roster.
Broncos fans will be able to use TendedBar’s facial recognition technology to order drinks at the stadium during the upcoming season. The technology has already been trialled at concerts held at the venue.
TendedBar also has a presence at TIAA Bank Field, home of the Jacksonville Jaguars, and was used at Allegiant Stadium, home of the Las Vegas Raiders, during the Pro Bowl.
Sports and entertainment business technology services provider EngageRM has expanded its presence in the US marketplace by agreeing a five-year partnership with NBA basketball franchise the Milwaukee Bucks.
Under the agreement, the Bucks will utilise EngageRM’s data-driven platform to optimise day-to-day operations and enhance opportunities to interact and engage with its fan base.
Check out our story from earlier in the week for full details.
PTI Digital has today (Thursday) announced that it has been appointed as the official venue technology service provider for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, as the event gets underway this week.
PTI will use specific venue knowledge and expertise to support the deployment of key venue technology services more efficiently and effectively, and provide further on-the-ground expertise during the Games.
Earlier this week, Birmingham 2022 selected Iventis as its official technology supplier.
Inventis’ geospatial event planning tool will be deployed to bring together maps, CAD plans and other datasets. This will help organisers create and share their plans with key stakeholders with the intention of facilitating better, faster communication and expediting decision making.
Read our full story here.
Conker, a provider of devices for mobile workforces, has launched the NS6.VTAP, which is designed to enable faster throughput in the hospitality environment.
The device can be used at stadiums and large events and brings together the six-inch Windows tablet with the VTAP100 contactless reader from Dot Origin. The VTAP100 will read and decrypt mobile pass data from any compatible Apple or Android mobile device and has the ability to set multiple merchant/pass IDs and encryption keys.
