News - March 2006  

The second edition of Sport and Technology: The Conference, which was held on 23 February 2006, in association with BT Media and Broadcast, was once again sold-out in terms of delegates and exhibitors. Lester Potter, head of global sales for BT Media and Broadcast opened proceedings with a rousing opening address that positioned BT as a leading multiplatform service provider. And the day of thought-provoking panel discussions was rounded off aptly by Marius Schneider, head of information services at FIFA, who discussed the challenges of managing data at a global level for the world’s most popular sport. Panellists included representatives from the BBC, Chelsea Digital Media, the Australian Football League, Sports Resource Group, Deltatre, Hawk-Eye Innovations, Cat Games, Clintons Solicitors, Offshore Challenges Group, Kirkpatrick and Lockheart, Wasserman Media Group, PSV Eindhoven, Sportev and Premium TV. Access to video recordings of the day will shortly be available to delegates along with a post-event paper summarising the day’s findings. These will also be available to non-delegates at a small charge on www.sportandtechnologyconference.com.

ArkSports, publisher of Sport and Technology, will be hosting a morning panel discussion at SPORTELAsia in Shanghai, China on Tuesday, 21 March between 9.30-11am. Entitled ‘How are sports properties using technology to increase the value of their rights?’, the panel of industry experts will address such areas as: How are sports properties monetising their events online? How are they using technology at live events to garner new revenue streams? Are new media and data rights actually increasing in value? How is this being measured? Are sports properties doing enough to capitalise on new technologies? Should broadcasters be more proactive in harnessing new media? Moderator Rachael Church, Sport and Technology’s editor, will be joined by: Dan Markham, VP, business development, communications and new media, Octagon; Will Muirhead, chief executive, Sportev; Tony Singh, associate, Spectrum Strategy Consultants; Oliver Slipper, commercial director, Premium TV; Clare Taylor, commercial director, PA Sport; and Gary Walrath, CEO, Stats Inc. For further information visit: http://www.sportel.fr/asia/?page=5556

Host Broadcast Services (HBS), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Infront Sports & Media has been named as the host broadcaster for the FIFA Confederations Cup 2009 and the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa. Additionally, HBS will consult FIFA on host broadcasting matters for all other events from 2007 to 2010. HBS is the same company that successfully produced the 2002 FIFA World Cup and is also organising the entire broadcast operations and infrastructure for the upcoming FIFA World Cup in Germany. For the 2010 FIFA World Cup, HBS’ role again includes every single aspect of the production of the signal as well as providing necessary services and facilities to rights holders and licensees in order to fulfil their production needs.

Techneos Systems, a Vancouver-based supplier of software for mobile survey automation, and the Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance (CSTA), have extended their agreement to use Entryware software to collect primary data on-site at selected sporting events across Canada. As part of its mandate to grow the $2.4bn a year sport tourism industry in Canada, the CSTA conducts economic impact assessments of sport events in conjunction with a variety of municipal, provincial and federal sport and tourism partners. The survey results that focus on the spending habits of event visitors are extrapolated into CSTA’s Sport Tourism Economic Assessment Model (STEAM), a web-based application designed to predict the economic impact of a sport event on a community. CSTA has previously used Entryware software at the 2004 Brier (Saskatoon), 2004 Grey Cup Game (Ottawa), 2005 World Aquatics Championships (Montreal), 2005 Canada Summer Games (Regina), 2005 Sovereign Lake FIS World Cup (Vernon) and at the 2005 World Junior Hockey Championships (Kelowna, Kamloops). Meanwhile, STEAM PRO, the next generation of STEAM, will be launched on Wednesday, 5 April at a workshop in conjunction with Sport Events Congress 2006.

Sporting Visualisation specialist Barco has announced the launch of its very own sports perimeter LED solution optimised for television broadcast, the Barco SP-10. More and more sports stadiums are looking to use LED technology around the perimeter to improve image quality during broadcast and to offer high-quality advertising and branding packages. With the SP-10, Barco offers a complete digital perimeter solution, including cutting edge visualisation hardware (custom-designed LED display solution) and advanced dedicated SportsBox software (to manage the content of the display).

A new 24-hour broadband TV channel - Paralympicsport.tv - has been launched by Narrowstep, securing worldwide coverage of all sports of the Paralympic Winter Games for the first time. With the new channel, over 100 hours coverage from the 2006 Paralympic Winter Games in Torino will be broadcast, including live coverage of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, plus all four sports of Alpine Skiing, Ice Sledge Hockey, Nordic Skiing and Wheelchair Curling. Additionally, a daily highlights package with the best performances from the previous days' competitions will be available. Paralympicsport.tv has already become fully operational with archive footage, and will broadcast the Paralympic Games between 10-19 March. In February 2006, Narrowstep broadcast a pay-per-view basketball match with NBA star Dennis Rodman which was the first time that ITV Local, the regional broadband channel of UK commercial broadcaster ITV, offered live streaming of an event. In preparation for the broadcast, Narrowstep created a new broadband channel within the ITV Local player. Meanwhile, in the US, Narrowstep has entered into definitive agreements for the sale of common stock in a stock market flotation and warrants for a total purchase price of $7.4m, of which $5.84m has already been received.

Meshhopper WiFi Networks has announced the overwhelming success of the City Centre WiFi Hot Zone in Manchester, UK. The people of Manchester are bullish about the technology, with over 4,000 registered users having taken advantage of the free internet access in just five months, since the network was deployed in September 2005. The service, branded as 'Connect 2 Manchester Meshhopper', gives blanket WiFi coverage and is currently available in the most densely populated areas of Deansgate and Printworks. Users with WiFi-enabled devices can roam seamlessly around the Hot Zone without breaking connection. They use the free service to check out Google and make cheap calls through Skype as well as playing online games and using video conferencing. The network has also been designed to carry data and images for emergency services as well as providing advertising and tourist information.

‘Casual’ computer/videogames – classed as family-friendly, non-violent puzzle, word, trivia and classic arcade-style games are now played by more than 100m people regularly in the US - over half of whom are female. Games like Bejeweled, Diner Dash, Bookworm and Chuzzle collectively consume more than 3bn hours of women's leisure time per year, according to PopCap Games, a US-based developer and publisher of casual games. PopCap's own website demographics reflect the increasing popularity of casual games among women. Of the 7m monthly visitors to www.popcap.com, 72.8% are female, 71% are over the age of 35 and more than 43% are married with children. Part of the appeal of casual games to women may lie in the potential health benefits these games can provide. "Casual word and puzzle computer games such as 'Bejeweled' can help people exercise and enhance their concentration and focusing skills, and control stress by cognitively 'blocking out' the negative stresses of the day, at least temporarily," says Dr Carl Arinoldo, a psychologist in Stony Brook, New York, who is a stress-management expert. Available for PCs, Macs and mobile devices, casual games are inexpensive (usually around $20), yet provide many more hours of entertainment - and even relaxation - than the traditional ‘hardcore’ games that many women steer clear of.

Sony has unveiled its new ‘Share Everywhere’ programme, which will give ImageStation members photo sharing capabilities through web-enabled camera phones, televisions, computers, and portable entertainment systems. One element of the programme is Sony's new Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition 2.0 (J2ME) application developed for distribution through wireless carriers. With this application, ImageStation members can use their web-enabled camera phones to access, view, upload and share photos and video clips through an easy-to-use interface. The application will also be compatible with handsets that are not compatible with J2ME. The application is currently scheduled to be available for wireless providers beginning in the US in April.

Major League Gaming (MLG), the world's first professional video game league, has secured $10m in series A funding from Ritchie Capital in the US. The financing will help the company continue to transform competitive video game play into a mass market, global, sports media business. The company also announced that Matthew Bromberg, former General Manager of Moviefone and AOL Games, has joined the company as President and COO. By elevating video game competition to the level of professional sport, MLG enables a large and growing community of fans and a roster of top sponsors to connect with - and celebrate - the global video game revolution. MLG produces an annual seven-city pro tour and championship; exclusively manages a roster of the top gamers in the world; and produces online and broadcast-quality programming.