Cisco Sports & Entertainment – It’s All About The Experience; Getting Fans Off The Couch, And To Live Sports &am …

Today, Cisco is excited to introduce the latest Connected Sports and Entertainment innovation, StadiumVision Mobile. This ground-breaking solution leverages a high-density Connected Stadium Wi-Fi network to deliver live video to the latest mobile devices at live sports and entertainment events, with minimal delay.

Recent research highlights how vital this capability is for leagues, teams and venues to “compete with the couch” – an astounding 57% of fans prefer to watch at home versus live in person. Watching at home is less expensive (68% of fans said this was a factor), delivers great flexibility (34% said it allows them to multitask), and allows for crystal-clear HD video (22% said it was good enough or even better than live). Arguably the couch is winning over the live experience, and that is why our customers around the world have told Cisco that the next big technology hurdle they wanted solved was “video everywhere” in their venues.

All of these statistics were derived from a recent global fan survey that Cisco’s Sports & Entertainment Solutions Group conducted along with Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) to identify how fans currently consume sports, what they value and why they pay to attend live events when the home experience is so good.

What we found from the survey is that fans need to have the best from at home in the venue, evidenced by the stats above, and aside from economic constraints, no factor explains fan attendance or satisfaction as much as quality of the venue experience (63% said it was the most important).

With the projection that there will be more than 10 billion mobile devices by 2016, and the fact that 71% of mobile data traffic will be video by that time as well, a single and important way that the atmosphere can be enhanced for fans is through mobile video. It provides THE platform to deliver breakthrough innovations in the fan experience.

Three global sports and entertainment leaders understand that, and they are the first to be implementing StadiumVision Mobile in their venues – the Brooklyn Nets (Barclays Center), Real Madrid (Estadio Santiago Bernabéu), and Sporting Kansas City (Sporting Park).

At Cisco, we understand what fans want, and ultimately how technology will determine the next generation fan experience. StadiumVision Mobile is a real-life demonstration of the Internet of Everything: taking mobile devices and connecting people and physical things (events/venues) in innovative ways – which will help teams, leagues and venues get fans off the couch and even more excited about heading to live sports and entertainment events.

TOMORROW starts here…