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Friday Grab Bag: No Old Style in Chicago

November 8, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Android USA, a smartwatch maker, has said that its technology will connect its forthcoming smartwatch to other mobile devices that run the Android operating system.

According to the company, its device will wirelessly sync with a smartphone via Bluetooth and give users access to features such as the phone’s music library as well as email and calendar. Pricing and availability of the watch have not yet been announced.

A Phablet too far?
Time magazine has taken a look at the growing trend, and size of phablets, the large smartphone, small-tablet hybrid that is becoming increasingly popular with users, particularly communters who use mass transit and can use the device for both purposes.

The author of the piece ties in sales of the devices with portability, and uses three different sized devices to see how well they do and don’t work in different situations for an interesting read.

Nike+ gets a new app
The Nike+ Move app has been released and for all of you band wearers get ready. Of course the new Fuelband SE Fitness tracker is still pending. The new app is designed to work with iPhone 5S and takes advantage of the new M7 motion coprocessor.

The app has a number of additional features compared to older versions of tracking apps and includes sleep. It has been designed so that users cannot game it and make it appear to be more active than they really are.

Old Style out of style at Wrigley
Bad news for baseball traditionalists in Chicago’s north side, the last can of Old Style beer was served at the last game of the season that just recently concluded. Now fans at Wrigley Field seeking to drink an alternate to some of the big named beers will need to leave their seats and go in search of a cart.

Budweiser has apparently taken over all traveling beer vendor sales and so that will limit the choices of fans. Of course they can always pregame at the Cubby Bear. [editor’s note: Real Cub fans will refuse to order Budweiser, aka Cardinals beer; and Murphy’s is a better pre-game spot especially on sunny days.]

Baseball launches Free Agent Frenzy
No, this is not just the usual hot stove league where people discuss who they want their team to pick up. Instead MLB.com has a contest that could see you at opening day with free tickets. All you have to do is correctly pick where a number of free agents will end up by the start of next season, with a point for each correct guess. There is a pair of tie breaker questions as well.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Baseball, Chicago Cubs, Major League Baseball, Nike Tagged With: , , , , ,

MSR Special Report: Bringing Technology to the ‘Friendly Confines’ of Wrigley Field

July 25, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Wrigley Field on Opening Day, 2012. Photo courtesy of Chicago Cubs. All rights reserved.

Wrigley Field on Opening Day, 2012. Photo courtesy of Chicago Cubs. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: This is part of a series of interviews with speakers and thought leaders from the upcoming SEAT 2013 conference in Kansas City, Aug. 4-7.

There are baseball stadiums, and then there is Wrigley Field. As a dyed in the blue-pinstriped-wool Cubs fan, I can’t write objectively about the place. It is Mecca, the Friendly Confines, the hallowed outfield walls of ivy. It’s precisely because of people like me that Andrew McIntyre’s job of bringing better technology to the storied ballyard is so much more complex than that of his stadium-technology peers. Wrigley may have one of the greenest fields anywhere, but from an information-technology deployment standpoint Wrigley is about as far away from a “greenfield” project as you can get.

McIntyre, Senior Director of Information Technology for the Chicago Cubs, spoke with MSR recently on the phone to describe the delicate line his organization must tread as it brings necessary technology improvements to one of the world’s great historic sporting venues. In other stadiums, things like a brand-new huge video board would be welcomed, even celebrated. At Wrigley? Renovation plans that include an outfield video board will need to pass muster with national landmark regulations, and survice reactions from a widespread fan base that resists even the slightest changes to the stadium, and work with the unique neighborhood apartment buildings whose rooftops offer views into the stadium.

So when McIntyre said the Cubs need to get “everyone on board” before things like video screens can be introduced, he’s talking about a lot more than people who pull a Cubs paycheck. That extra planning, McIntyre admits, will likely keep the Cubs a bit behind their sports-stadium brethren in certain technology areas, like digital signage. But on many other fronts McIntyre and his technology team are helping the Cubs and Wrigley keep pace with advanced stadium services, like better mobile device connectivity.

Wi-Fi and DAS, with AT&T

Now in his second year with the Cubs, McIntyre and the IT team there has spent a good amount of time putting infrastructure in place that will support future efforts, beginning with things like optical fiber deployments that bring an almost 10-fold speed improvement in bandwidth backhaul.

Andrew McIntyre, Senior Director of Information Technology, Chicago Cubs. Photo courtesy of Chicago Cubs. All rights reserved.

Andrew McIntyre, Senior Director of Information Technology, Chicago Cubs. Photo courtesy of Chicago Cubs. All rights reserved.

“Some severe infrastructure upgrades were needed here to enable initiatives moving forward,” McIntyre said. “There was historically a lack of investment from the IT side of the house. We’ve been working on a lot of non-fan-facing improvements that are very critical to us.”

One improvement that fans have been able to enjoy for the past season and a half is improved mobile connectivity inside the park, thanks to a neutral-host Distributed Antenna System (DAS) deployment and a stadium Wi-Fi network, built with carrier partner AT&T. “Next time you’re here, keep your eyes peeled for the antennas,” McIntyre said.

Having improved cellular and Wi-Fi connectivity puts the Cubs in the top third of MLB franchises, as by our count only 12 of the 30 major league parks currently offer free fan Wi-Fi services. When it comes to advanced apps and services that such in-park networks might power, like same-day seat upgrades or video replays, McIntyre said the Cubs are paying close attention to pilot programs underway at other parks, and will be “fast followers” when MLB-approved solutions are ready for prime time. (All in-stadium apps in baseball parks can only be run through the league’s At Bat or At the Ballpark mobile app.)

“I don’t think anyone’s knocking it out of the park yet” with in-stadium services, McIntyre said. But McIntyre also said he and the Cubs have met with franchises who are trying leading-edge deployments, including the San Francisco Giants and some European stadiums.

“We’re doing a lot of watching, listening, and learning,” McIntyre said.

Digital Signage as a Communication Vehicle

While most of the heated debate around the Cubs’ renovation plans centers on the size and placement of the proposed outfield video board, McIntyre and his team are looking deeper into a synchronized digital signage strategy, where boards all around the stadium — even, say, a concession stand pricing menu — could become a communications vehicle for the team to send messages out to the fans.

Wrigley Field marquee entrance. Photo courtesy of Chicago Cubs. All rights reserved.

Wrigley Field marquee entrance. Photo courtesy of Chicago Cubs. All rights reserved.

“One major thing we are investigating is how the signage can change, to become a communications channel,” McIntyre said. Currently, when games go to a rain delay, there’s not a lot of ways for the team to give fans information about when the game might restart, or to communicate weather forecasts and safety instructions. That could change with a digital signage system that can instantly act as a synchronized stadium-wide messaging system.

“The digital signage strategy doesn’t necessarily get highlighted [in public discussions] but it can all become a vehicle to communicate,” McIntyre said.

Andrew McIntyre will be speaking at the upcoming SEAT Conference in Kansas City, Aug. 4-7.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, Baseball, Chicago Cubs, DAS, Major League Baseball, SEAT Conference, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Reilly, Trump Fall Short in Bid to Renovate Wrigley Field

March 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment

wrigleyWell, Chicago, it almost happened. You know what I’m talking about, the plans by sportswriter Rick Reilly to buy the Cubs and turn them into a winner by “making necessary improvements” to Wrigley Field.

Turns out that Reilly’s last ESPN column wasn’t just opinion, it was strategy — who knew that Reilly had a partnership already in the works with Donald Trump to do a leveraged buyout of current Cubs owner Tom Ricketts, who was only too happy to take Reilly and Trump’s $3 billion to leave the Friendly Confines? Or rather, the “Friendly’s Ice Cream Confines,” which the park would have been re-named under the Reilly/Trump “aggressive revenue raising plan.”

See, Reilly, wizard that he was, had solved the problem that had been vexing the North Side for more than a century — the reason why the Cubs couldn’t win, Reilly wrote, was because they weren’t using Wrigley to its full fiscal potential, thereby robbing the Cubs of necessary income they could use to bolster their lineup. Never mind that the soon-to-be renegotiated TV deals for Cubs games could net the franchise at least equal to the Dodgers’ recent $7 billion 25-year pact. Or that the Oakland A’s somehow managed to win the AL West in 2012 with the next-to-lowest MLB salary total. It was that missing $70 million or so, Reilly said, that would end the goat curses and bring a World Series trophy to Addison and Clark.

You gotta have more bucks to lure the big stars, Reilly reasoned, and the best way to do that was to make some “obvious” changes needed to the ballpark that used to be crammed to the gills no matter how good or bad the team was. Just to recap, some of the highlights of the Reilly/Trump plan were:

— Tearing out the grass field and putting down blue synthetic turf, a la Boise State. Not only would that net a cool $5 million per year from sponsor FieldTurf, but it would also stand up better than grass and dirt for the 40-concert revenue-rich schedule of “old rock stars selling $250 tickets” tour, headlined by Bruce “No Free Tickets” Springsteen.

— The new “Trump-surround” Digitial Scoreboard, which would wrap from foul pole to foul pole in the back of the outfield, soaring 100 feet above the top of the back wall. Replacing the Dallas Cowboys’ TV screen as the world’s largest, the Trump-surround screen was going to be revenue-positive from its launch, thanks to constantly changing display ads and to the $10-per-tweet charge for fans to post messages to the big screen during play. The back of the screen was going to be live too, showing repeated recordings of Trump and Reilly laughing and flipping off anyone who still climbed to the rooftops of surrounding buildings.

— Instead of organ music, the Reilly/Trump plan called for the “world’s biggest collection of iPods,” a number of different-colored versions which would replace the ivy lining the outfield walls. Fans would have been able to pay $10 to request a song, with music playing non-stop at every break in play. During the seventh-inning stretch, the traditional “Take me Out to the Ballgame” break would no longer be live, but instead feature a different hip-hop star doing a rendition of the song in a Intel-sponsored hologram projection every game.

— There was more, of course, like the Budweiser “simple math” scoreboard that was to show only one digit at a time (saving fans all the time and pain of having to actually add the runs scored every inning) and the “BALCO Distance Meter,” which would use lasers to track the flight of every home run hit by the Cubs’ new steroid-powered lineup. No named sponsor was necessary for the “Alderman’s Payoff Race,” where cartoon versions of famous Chicago politicians would push shopping carts full of cash around the bases between innings. Trump and Reilly said the race would simply honor the new “city/stadium leasing agreement,” under which half of the team’s purchase price would be underwritten by city-backed bonds.

Luckily, the deal fell through when Chicagoans stopped laughing hard enough to make it to the polls to defeat the bond measure by the first ever unanimous margin in city elections. Reilly and Trump, of course, redirected their energies to golf, and are now presiding over the “Trump Resort and Spa at Augusta National,” where this year’s Masters tournament will be the first in that event’s history to be played at night, under the lights installed around the entire course.

“We’re confident golf fans will appreciate our eliminating all that stuffy old tradition in favor of exploding scoreboards and comfortable, double-deck seating,” Reilly said. “After all, how can the Masters expect to survive without reaping the obvious ad revenue that’s available? Isn’t that what sports is all about, anyway? To take maximum advantage of fans’ undivided attention? The idea of going to an event to escape the everyday barrage of marketing is as old as gutta percha balls. Masters fans will be happy we’re moving this event to the 21st century.”

The preceding was a special report from our bureau of satire. We now return you to our regular programming.

Filed Under: Baseball, Chicago Cubs, Major League Baseball Tagged With: , , , , , ,

NL West Leads MLB Stadium Wi-Fi Scorecard, with 4 out of 5 Teams Offering Network Service to Fans

March 11, 2013 by 6 Comments

The Giants' Bill Schlough in front of some hard-working wireless network hardware. Credit: John Britton, AT&T.

The Giants’ Bill Schlough in front of some hard-working wireless network hardware. Credit: John Britton, AT&T.

Welcome to the spring training version of Mobile Sports Report’s annual roundup of Major League Baseball stadium Wi-Fi networks, where we tabulate which teams have networks for fan use. By our count, the National League West division is the sport’s network-savviest, as four out of the five teams — San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and Arizona — will have free in-stadium Wi-Fi service for fans this season. For the entire major leagues, our research found 10 11 12 stadiums that definitely have Wi-Fi, two that are “maybes,” and 16 that don’t have public Wi-Fi service available. But just like baseball, which hasn’t started its regular season yet, we’re expecting our lineup to change before the games that count start.

FIRST UPDATE: Thanks to Jeff Baumgartner over at Light Reading, we have proof that Philadelphia and Citizens Bank Park can be added to the “has Wi-Fi” list, thanks to some work by hometown provider Comcast and equipment partner Cisco. Check out the great slideshow Jeff put together.

SECOND UPDATE: Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs, has Wi-Fi. More on this soon, but we have it from the horse’s mouth so we are moving the Friendly Confines to the “yes” list.

THIRD UPDATE: Maybe we shouldn’t count Dodgers Stadium yet, since the Wi-Fi service has yet to be launched according to this report from the LA Daily News. Will the lack of Wi-Fi keep the Dodgers from getting All-Star votes?

For the record, here are the 12 teams with networks that we can verify, some of which (like the Dodgers) are coming online for the first time in the 2013 season: San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, Washington Nationals, Houston Astros, Chicago White Sox, Minnesota Twins, Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox. The two “maybes” are the Seattle Mariners and the New York Mets, which are supposed to have networks but as of this writing we can’t confirm services are available.

Why do we have “maybes,” you ask? Since this research was done completely online and on the weekend, we haven’t had a chance to contact teams directly for confirmation of services. And it’s pretty apparent to us that MLB and the teams do a good job of obfuscating whether or not there is Wi-Fi at the park — some of the teams that have networks don’t list the service anywhere on their MLB-approved team home page. In the weeks between now and the start of the season, we’ll try to figure out our maybes, and maybe add a few more teams in case deals get done before Opening Day. Anyone with definitive knowledge that differs from our totals, please feel free to contribute with a comment or a tweet to me, @paulkaps, with a verifiable link. Any fixes or adds, we’ll salute with a retweet and a hearty well done.

WHY WI-FI DEALS AREN’T PUBLICIZED

As an outlet that humbly boasts having stadium Wi-Fi news and analysis that is the equal of anyone else’s out there, we’re not that surprised that even some teams with networks are keeping things under wraps a bit. Some of that has to do with the secrecy that sometimes surrounds the contracts behind the deals; cellular service providers, for example, might not want to overly publicize the fact that they are subsidizing Wi-Fi at one stadium, since then others will want the same sweet deal. The Dodgers’ planned network, for example, is touted as being built by the Dodgers and MLB’s Advanced Media division — hiding from view whoever the service provider and equipment partners are (we suspect Time-Warner Cable and Cisco, but can’t verify).

The other reason why teams might not want to shout out loud about their Wi-Fi? In case they are worried about performance is one reason. Since these networks are notoriously hard to deploy and operate, if you are new to the Wi-Fi game you might not want to advertise it too heavily. But we expect that will change in the near future as more fans demand connectivity, and as Major League Baseball pushes its teams to all install networks so that MLBAM can sell more of its single, league-approved mobile app.

But on to the stats! Among the gems we uncovered was that among service providers backing networks AT&T had the most with four (San Francisco, Atlanta, Chicago Cubs and Arizona) while Verizon has one (San Diego), along with Time-Warner Cable (Houston), Boingo (Chicago) and CenturyLink (Minnesota). Among equipment providers with announced deals we have Cisco at two and Meru Networks at two (Washington and Boston), though we suspect Cisco is behind more deals (like LA’s) as a silent partner. Interestingly, Cisco also has already partnered with AT&T to do StadiumVision video deals in Yankee Stadium and Kansas City, so don’t be surprised to see Wi-Fi networks from the same partners in those facilities sometime soon.

Below is our list of stadiums with yes/no on Wi-Fi fan networks, and some news links we’ve scoured. Again, this is a working post so please — especially if you are with a team, provider or vendor — send us a message if you see an error. Remember, errors are part of baseball! And enjoy your Wi-Fi at the game this season.

MOBILE SPORTS REPORT MLB STADIUM WI-FI ROSTER, 2013 SEASON

NL WEST

YES:
San Franisco Giants, AT&T Park
The Giants, namesake sponsor AT&T and team tech wizard Bill Schlough are recognized widely as the Wi-Fi and in-stadium network leaders not just in baseball, but probably in all of sports and stadiums. Here’s our profile of the Giants from last year.

Los Angeles Dodgers, Dodger Stadium
As part of the team’s $100 million stadium renovation, Dodgers fans get Wi-Fi this season.

UPDATE: According to the Long Beach Press-Telegraph, the Wi-Fi and cell improvements won’t be live on opening day. Too bad.

San Diego Padres, Petco Park
This one was news to us — but it looks like fans in San Diego will finally get Wi-Fi in their park, thanks to Verizon’s first baseball play.

Arizona Diamondbacks, Chase Field
Another AT&T network, Chase Field has had Wi-Fi for some time now. They even have one of the better apps pages.

NO:

Colorado Rockies, Coors Field

NL CENTRAL

YES

Chicago Cubs, Wrigley Field
AT&T has helped the Cubs build Wi-Fi in Wrigley. More on the details soon.
NO:

St. Louis Cardinals, Busch Stadium

Milwaukee Brewers, Miller Park

Pittsburgh Pirates, PNC Park

Cincinnati Reds, Great American Ball Park

NL EAST

YES:

Atlanta Braves, Turner Field
Another AT&T network.

Washington Nationals, Nationals Park
Reportedly, this was one of the first 802.11n networks, thanks to gear from startup Meru Networks. However, we can’t find an official link on the Nationals home page, making us wonder if this service still exists. Natitude fans, what say you?

UPDATE 2: Nats are getting a Wi-Fi upgrade, thanks to Comcast. No word if Meru is still the AP vendor.

Philadelphia Phillies, Citizens Bank Park
See Light Reading’s excellent slide show cataloging Comcast’s Wi-Fi plans at its hometown park.

MAYBE:

New York Mets, Citi Field
Does it or doesn’t it? No answer on the Mets’ website, but the new place was supposed to have a Wi-Fi network… of course that was before its supplier, Nortel Networks, went out of business.

NO:
Miami Marlins, Marlins Park
No Wi-Fi, though Marlins Park does have a new DAS install which helps cellular reception.

AL WEST

YES:
Houston Astros, Minute Maid Park
The refugees from the NL are the only park that we can tell has tried to charge for services — wondering if this info about a $3.95 cost for four hours airtime still exists. Houstonites? Yea or nay? This is a Time-Warner Cable/Cisco deal.

MAYBE:

Seattle Mariners, Safeco Field
All we could find were some references to Seattle’s Nintendo having sponsored a Wi-Fi network for gaming. No sign that it still exists or has been replaced. Hello Microsoft? No network for the home of Windows Phones? For shame.

NO:

Oakland A’s, Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum

Texas Rangers, Rangers Ballpark in Arlington

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Angel Stadium

AL CENTRAL

YES:

Minnesota Twins, Target Field
Good writeup from our friends at SportTechie.

Chicago White Sox, U.S. Cellular Field
This one courtesy of the folks from Boingo.

NO:

Detroit Tigers, Comerica Park
No fan network, though we like this picture showing SSIDs and passwords for the media networks. Hope those settings have been changed.

Cleveland Indians, Progressive Field
No stadium-wide network, but the Indians at least have a social media suite with Wi-Fi. What, only a few people in Cleveland use social media?

AL EAST

YES:

Boston Red Sox, Fenway Park
Here’s our profile of the Meru win at historic Fenway.

NO:

New York Yankees, Yankee Stadium
Do they still ban iPads?

Toronto Blue Jays, Rogers Centre
A bit embarrassing, since Rogers is Canada’s AT&T-like telco

Tampa Bay Rays, Tropicana Field

Baltimore Orioles, Oriole Park at Camden Yards

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, Baseball, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Cisco, Cleveland Indians, Los ANgeles Angeles of Anaheim, Los Angeles Dodgers, Major League Baseball, Minnesota Twins, New York Yankees, San Francisco Giants, Texas Rangers, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

MLB’s Trade Season in Full Swing

July 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment

With the conclusion of MLB’s All Star game the next notable day on the calendar is the non-waiver deadline, which is July 31. This is one of my favorite times of the year not just for the trades as for some of the major trade rumors that always seem to be making their way around the league.

The trade rumors often come from a variety of sources and can show player unhappiness with his team, teams being unhappy with their players and agents already working on next year’s deals by showing how popular their players under contract are.

Of course people in fantasy leagues closely follow the comings and goings but often I find people seem to miss some of the trades and are surprised that a player is now on a new team. That is too bad because it is so much fun to follow the activity and a number of sites do a good job tracking them. I read five rumors this morning that I had not heard last night.

We have already seen some interesting trades this year, and no doubt some, as always, will break hometown fans’ hearts. The first in that category is probably the Ichiro Suzuki from the Seattle Mariners to the New York Yankees deal. This is in the sad tradition of Willie Mays going from the Giants to the New York Mets and others along these lines.

One of the more interesting trades, in a sort of head scratching way, was the big ten player swap between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Houston Astros. Now I was a bit confused by the purpose of the deal but others think it might be a great deal for at least one of the teams.

Teams like the Chicago Cubs have been looking for a wholesale house cleaning all season and now might be the time. Teams are looking for pitching and they have Ryan Dempster, who as a 10/5 man can veto any trade he does not like.

Teams in the playoffs or at least in the hunt will obviously be looking to shore up areas that appear to be a weak spot while teams looking to rebuild will want prospects and cash. The Marlins look to be a rebuilding team and have already sent Hanley Ramirez to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Some teams will be looking to unload players perceived as problem players as well. It will be an interesting next few days. Next up will be the wavier deadline, always a much tougher call as players must clear waivers to go to a new team, a much harder prospect since rivals can often easily block moves.

Filed Under: All Star Game, Baseball, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Fox Sports, Los Angeles Dodgers, Major League Baseball, New York Yankees Tagged With:

Cubs Announce ‘Social Media Night’ Promotions that, Like the Cubs, Fall Short of Fantastic

April 24, 2012 by 3 Comments

Is giving someone a print magazine as a prize a fitting way to celebrate a “social media night” promotion? It may not exactly resonate with fans who are certified thumb-clickers but who cares when you’re at Wrigley Field?

By announcing a pair of “social media nights” the Chicago Cubs are taking a baby step into the waters of social media — and, in this Cub fan’s opinion, not really “getting it” when it comes to what social media fans might want. On the Cubs’ ticket promotion site it says people who buy the special social media-night tickets will get to come to a pre-game panel discussion on social media that includes… not any members of the Cubs, but instead Chicago Bears kicker Robbie Gould.

Now I get it — the Cubs players will be getting ready for a game that night and might not want to hang out beforehand with twitter-pals. But the other schwag items include a free copy of the Cubs fan magazine (what is this dead tree stuff?) a chit for a Vienna Beef hot dog (always good), a t-shirt (rarely bad) and some “social media series” baseball cards (questionable worth). And… SOME of the cards may be personally autographed! I guess you can’t get any more random than that. But it’s hard to justify plinking down extra dough on the fact that your card *might* be signed by Ryan Dempster. I guess I just don’t see these cards as becoming big eBay items anytime soon.

In my mind, a real social media night would offer something tangible and fan-specific, like the Golden State Warriors’ events where fans stay after a game for a Q&A session with a real player, or get to go on the court to shoot free throws. Or better yet like the Cleveland Indians, who set aside a suite for Twitterers. If the best the Cubs can do is reward social-media fans with a t-shirt, a dog and a Bear, that’s not really a World Series experience. As we say from Chicago, that’s so Cub. And not in a good way.

Filed Under: Baseball, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, Major League Baseball, Twitter Tagged With: , , ,
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