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New app features, streaming opportunities for March Madness

March 19, 2014 by

bracket

The NCAA Men’s Division 1 Basketball tournament, or as it is better known March Madness, has already started but there is still time for those that wait until the 13th hour to get their act together to both follow the tournament as a fan and your bracket as, well also a fan.

First and foremost is watching and following the games and Turner Sports, along with NCAA.com and CBS Sports have simplified that by making all of the games available online, with some requirements for the viewer. You can go to the March Madness main page for more information; the key is finding the “Select TV provider” button in the upper left corner as you must have a qualifying TV service contract to watch online. The effort by Turner et al may shake up how future major sporting events are broadcast and garnered solid reviews in Fast Company. There is also a twist for the Final Four television coverage, where there will be separate announcing teams on alternative Turner channels. The SI roundup has a good description of what’s going on, television-wise.

Pretty much any newspaper, blog, web site and sports channel has a contest, ranging from billionaire Warren Buffett and Quicken Loans’ offer to pay $1 billion to anybody that picks all 64 winners to local office and bar pools.

The next games start Thursday and many pools allow you to enter up until just before tipoff of that round. If you are looking around for something that is not in the mainstream but will connect you to everybody that you might want to chart with, or talk trash with.

An app launching in support of the iPad in time for the tournament is called FanKave, and it functions much like you might imagine. You enter a ‘Kave’ for each game and can talk, both online and using voice, with friends or rivals while receiving play-by-play results. A nice feature is that from a Kave a fan can post to a variety of social media sites such as Facebook without needed to open a separate app for that.

The app supports more than simply the basketball tournament, with the NFL, NBA and NCAA football available now and MLB and FIFA World Cup 2014 expected soon. It is currently available only on the iPad platform but its developers said that iPhone and Android versions are expected soon.

A more established mobile app called theScore is also trying to make hay while the tournament’s sun shines by adding a number of additional features that revolve around March Madness. Among the new features is an ‘upset tracker’ that uses push notification to let users know that an underdog is leading with 5:00 minutes in the game.

There are plenty of established apps as well and pretty much everybody I know has multiple ones to follow both the tournament but also teams that they are interested in. Checking out specific schools can get you apps that (sometimes) enable you to closely follow the team’s progress through the tournament.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Basketball, CBS Sports, Duke University, Facebook, FIFA, Instagram, iOS, iPad, iPhone, iTunes, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NBA, NCAA Hoops, NCAA.com, NFL, truTV, Turner Sports, Twitter Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

MLB finishes first two ballpark iBeacon installations for LA Dodgers, San Diego Padres

February 14, 2014 by

mlblok

Major League Baseball Advanced Media has installed the micro-location technology called iBeacon that is found in Apple’s iOS operating system in the first two ballparks as part of project that expects to land the capabilities in a total of 20 sites this season.

The first two parks are Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles and Petco Park in San Diego. The parks are filled with small iBeacon beacons that fans will be able to use via mobile devices that support the technology, which can be supported by Android devices as well as Apple’s. They will also need the upcoming version of the MLB.com At The Ballpark app when that is released sometime prior to Opening Day.

iBeacon is an indoor positioning system, operating much like the GPS that most users are familiar with but designed for a much more pinpoint location capability. With it a fan could conceivable find all of the different concessions, restrooms and other features of the park while sitting in their seat waiting for a break in play.

It also has the ability for the teams to tailor marketing to fans, from enabling social media check ins at specific locations in the park to showing them where items are on sale and since the technology includes point of sale capabilities a user could purchase items with their phone or tablet. Retailers and others are now starting to look at the technology as a way of engaging customers and keeping the in the stores.

Baseball demonstrated the capabilities of iBeacon with the New York Mets last season so that this move should not be a surprise. Baseball already includes the ability to upgrade seats and ordering food to At the Ballpark so the iBeacon capabilities are a natural extension.

MLBAM continues to keep baseball at the forefront of the digital world by constantly updating and enhancing the technologies and apps that fans use including apps that allow users to watch or listen to games on mobile devices and a number of contests and games over the course of the year to keep fans following the sport even in the offseason.

Football and basketball fall far behind baseball in terms of embracing next generation digital technology. The NFL is just now developing some digital capabilities and considering the resistance teams have put up in wiring their stadiums it might not see huge usage. Though most NBA stadiums have internal Wi-Fi for fans, few teams are actively promoting the service and there is no league-wide directive on wireless. Only Barclays Center in Brooklyn has expressed any interest in the iBeacon technology.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Baseball, iOS 7, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, Major League Baseball Tagged With: , , , , ,

Pebble takes second step in smartwatch space

January 7, 2014 by

apeb

Pebble has brought out its second generation smartwatch with the $249 Pebble Steel Watch, a more fashionable, and expensive version of the original $150 Pebble offering from last year. The watch is being shown at the current CES International trade show in Las Vegas.

The Steel Watch will be available in either a brushed stainless or black matte finish as the company develops a look that would not look garish on an executive. It replaces the plastic cover with Gorilla Glass and comes with both steel and leather straps.

The battery life is good for between 5 and 7 days and it is waterproof to 5 meters. The company has added a tri-colored LED and as with the earlier model will run both the Android and the iOS operating system. Scheduled to ship at the end of the month the move coincides with the launching of the Pebble Appstore, a place where users can easily find apps designed to run on the device.

Pebble, the Kickstarter favorite, wow the market when its funding effort went massively over the amount that the company founders were seeking, something that slightly harmed the company, at least public relations wise, by forcing it deliver the product late because it needed to build significantly more than it had expected in its early run. Not that this is not a problem that most startup companies would kill for.

Pebble was certainly one of the groundbreakers, if not the groundbreaker in the wearable computing technology with mainstream devices that connected a watch with a cell phone to bring data to your wrist. There were already sports specific devices that did some of the same features in areas such as golf and running but none that seemed to serve as a pure extension of your mobile phone.

That started a land rush by larger mobile developers to lay claim to this space as well, with Samsung, Apple, Google, Sony, Dell and others delivering products, planning to or simple becoming part of the rumor mill that they have one in the works.

Samsung, Qualcomm and Sony have already brought out products with the Samsung Gear, Qualcomm Toq and the Sony SmartWatch and I am sure this year we will see a wave of additional devices introduced to the market, much like how the tablet space exploded a few years ago. A number will be simply me-too devices while others will take the time to create truly differentiated offerings.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Apps, Dell, Golf, Google, iOS, Kickstarter, Live sports via mobile, Samsung, Sony, Startup Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

ESPN holding nothing back for tonight’s BCS broadcast

January 6, 2014 by

bcs

An era ends tonight in college football with the last of the current format championships about to be played between Florida State and Auburn. Next season will usher in a playoff format that is a major change from the current poll-based system.

The current system was introduced in 1998 and now it is gone, but when you look at the freight train of equipment and army of personnel that ESPN is bringing to the event, it will likely live on for quite a long time in the form of multiple digital recordings.

The sports channel is broadcasting the 2014 Vizio BCS National Championship game tonight with the biggest broadcast team in its history and has termed it the “BCS Megacast” with it being presented across six of its television platforms as well as its audio and digital outlets.

You can pretty much take your choice of platforms- ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNEWS, ESPN Radio, ESPN3, ESPN Classic, ESPN Deportes, ESPN Goal Line and ESPN International. There will be pregame talkshows, interviews, analysis, celebrities and much more available prior to the kickoff at 8:30 ET.

Social and digital media will be strongly represented in the mix with the personalities posting thoughts and comments prior to kickoff as well during the game.

For those that are not able to watch at home or in a comfortable sporting establishment the presentations that were broadcast on the ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3 and ESPNEWS will be available to a range of alternative platforms via WatchESPN including online at WatchESPN.com, on smartphones and tablets, through ESPN on Xbox LIVE to Gold members, on Apple TV and Roku to fans who receive their video subscription from an affiliated provider.

So how many people and trucks will this take? According to USA Today Sports and ESPN it will be 16 trucks, 63 cameras, 73 microphones a four-engine generator and as many as 200 employees, only a few who you will see online.

Hopefully this will make for a great broadcast, but much of that will depend on the teams. A stinker of a game will lead to fans tuning out as happened a few years ago when Alabama crushed LSU 21-0. The blowout was obvious early and fans tuned out in droves even though ESPN had added some interesting bells and whistles to its broadcast. At that time the future was 3D and ESPN had a 3D broadcast of the game as well as a more traditional broadcast.

However I am looking forward to the game and hopefully in all of the broadcasts comes something that will last to enhance future broadcasts.

Filed Under: ABC, Android, Apple, Apps, BCS, ESPN, ESPN FC, ESPN Radio, ESPN3, iPad, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NCAA Football, WatchESPN Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

TigerLogic seeks to drive fan engagement via social media

November 1, 2013 by

tiger

TigerLogic is charging into the collegiate sport scene with its social media platform Postano (meaning, ‘to post’ in Italian) a set of tools that will enable the school’s athletic departments to use fans’ social media posts to help promote the sports and school.

The company has already landed its platform at a number of schools, and at least one pro basketball team as well. Its customers see Postano as a way to engage fans not only at the events but in-between games as well. Among the early adopters are the University of Oregon and Arizona State University.

Postano is a flexible tool that can be adjusted to meet a school’s needs, according to the company. The goal is to enable schools to be able to present their teams in exactly the way they want them presented, down to the correct colors if somebody wants to paint their face school colors, said Tom O’Keefe, TigerLogic’s senior vice president of Social and Mobile.

The idea is pretty simple on the face of it: The company can provide a package of technology that allows the school to collect, curate and rebroadcast social media including posts from Instagram, Facebook, Vive and Twitter. They can be text, photos or video or combinations of these types of content.

Under Postano, the schools can create a media command center and then after the collection of the data they can display it in a variety of ways including on stadium scoreboards, or on displays set up for the purpose. Fans can see their own social conversations being broadcast while at the events. At the same time the schools can get a feel for the mood of the fan base by reviewing what is going on in the social media world.

Postano has created set packages specifically for college sports that include access to the following options: The Postano Social Hub, Postano Command Center, Postano Mobile and Postano Events and Social wall. It also will create customized features for its customers. The mobile platform supports both Apple’s iOS and the Android operating system.

One of the challenges that its technology faces is the inability of some stadiums to support large volumes of social media. Users can flood the grid bringing it to a halt. It does no good to try and engage fans if they cannot get a connection to post data.

While most major athletic conferences have signed away broadcasting and some digital media rights, the use of social media was not covered in these deals, and TigerLogic believes that this will be a major growth market for the company as schools use the media to further engage fans, O’Keefe said.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Android, Apple, Apps, DAS, Facebook, Instagram, iOS 7, Sports Social Media, Sports Social Media Data, Twitter Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Sunday Sermon: More Support and Execution Needed for Mobile Sports Apps

September 15, 2013 by

So far this NFL season, we’ve had two weeks and two big failures on the mobile football-viewing application front. For the opener there was the (still unexplained) meltdown of Verizon Wireless’ NFL Mobile app, a snafu that probably caused millions to miss live coverage that they had paid for on their phones.

This weekend, we’re still not sure of the extent of the problem (or whether it was something NBC knew about) but I was unable to view NBC’s Sunday Night Football game on the web, even though as a Comcast subscriber and a Mac user NBC’s own site tells me that I can. Attempts to watch in Chrome or Firefox met with error messages pointing me to Safari. And while some of our readers said that disabling an ad-blocking extension allowed them to use Safari to watch SNF online, even using Safari I wasn’t able to connect and neither were other readers. The bigger question is, why, in 2013, is a major network restricting access to different browsers and OSes? Aren’t we past all that?

Apparently not. The bigger problem, I think, is that there’s too much money and attention being spent promoting online and wireless sports-viewing apps, and not enough spent on the coding and technical support. When I finally got through to a Verizon support rep on opening day that person tried to say that errors couldn’t be fixed because “high call volume,” as if that’s a believable phrase anymore, was taking resources away from tech support. And even the NFL Mobile support’s efforts to pass off Verizon’s errors as a “server hiccup” are lame. Verizon makes something like $40 billion a quarter, and can pay $1 billion just for mobile NFL rights. But they can’t keep their phone banks staffed or their biggest sports app working on opening day? That is a priority decision that is a head slap to the users who pay $5 extra a month for NFL Mobile. But it’s apparently about the norm for mobile sports viewing apps.

NBC’s apparent decision to alienate Macintosh users is harder to figure out. At the very least, if they are going to take money from Microsoft and that is behind why NBC is “enhancing” things for Windows viewers online, be honest and tell Mac users upfront that you’re not going to get access.

If I can send any advice to teams thinking about putting in stadium apps, it would be to make sure you also have budget for technical support. I know it’s not easy to design an app or a web service that works with the dizzying amount of client devices and software install versions out in the world today. But when the biggest companies out there now are falling down on the job, it’s not a good sign for the industry overall. More support for mobile apps, please — before users stop trying them out of sheer frustration.

Filed Under: Apps Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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