On the heels of yesterday’s Super Bowl XLIX setting yet another viewership record of 112.6 million viewers, there could be a more efficient way soon to watch the pro and college football games that fans love.
During last month’s College Football National Championship game between Ohio State and Oregon, AT&T used the game to show their new broadcast video stream capabilities, with their new LTE networks to more efficiently use ever crowded airwaves.
At the game, AT&T offered fans with Galaxy Note 3 devices to receive various additional angles from the ESPN broadcast as well as see replays that might not be showed on the main stadium video board.
This may not sound like groundbreaking technology, but the way in which it will be delivered could be a big boost for sports fans attending games in person. Anyone who attends a sporting event these days knows how at the venues the wireless signing often becomes completely unusable as soon as the venue fills up and fans begin texting, sharing photos, or anything that consumes precious wireless space provided for the stadium.
The need for a more efficient means to accessing data is apparent. In yesterday’s Super Bowl, according to Verizon Wireless, when the New England Patriots opened the scoring, data usage surged 41 percent higher than the normal levels. Additionally, there was a 35 percent spike in data traffic immediately following the Seattle Seahawks’ first-quarter interception.
Many stadiums have somewhat combated this issue by installing powerful Wi-Fi networks at their facilities, but even with the upgrades, users are still often unable to support any sort of video and performance of the smart devices often, still lag way behind normal levels in less congested areas.
This is what AT&T is trying to change with the LTE technology.
When fans access video at the venue of whatever game they are attending, the video is streamed one at a time to each device that is requesting the video. Since fans at the game often want to see the same big play or moment in the game, fans are often having slow download times for a video that they all collectively want to see.
The inefficiency in the process stands out greatly.
What AT&T showed at the College Football National Championship game to SportTechie, was how with the new technology a commonly requested video can be sent to a number of different devices simultaneously, and greatly increasing the download time and streaming video quality. The hope is that one day this could be accessed by thousands of fans simultaneously at the game; and, in turn, reduce the burden on new Wi-Fi networks installed at the venues as well as provide the fans with the similar second-screen capabilities that they have when they watch the game on their couch. This process is similar to a television station broadcasting to a number of homes by viewers receiving the feed from an antenna.
During the game, AT&T offered a data feed as well as two video streams straight from the ESPN production control room as well as the infamous Spider camera that has given fans unprecedented views straight on the field of play, itself. AT&T said the video feed isn’t quite HD quality yet, the picture still looked very clear, ran remarkably smooth. While Verizon tested LTE technology to fans outside the stadium of Super Bowl 48, AT&T was broadcasting video to those in attendance. Whilt there is no timetable when this technology will be available on a large consumption levels, the LTE technology definitely has intriguing benefits to the future in-game experience.
“We see a promising future with this technology,” AT&T’s Chief Technology Officer, John Donovan, said in a blog post last month.
“It could offer a variety of valuable future uses such as the ability to deliver software updates to not just smartphones, but also to the Internet of Things, like connected cars and other devices, as well as new one-to-many commercial services for businesses.”
With the quality of televisions and other devices continuing to improve rapidly, it has become a major challenge for venues to compete with the comfort of the home experience, watching a game over the hurdles of attending in-person.
With the potential for efficient streaming and a strong Wi-Fi signal that remains strong throughout the entire game, AT&T’s LTE technology could combat one of the major hurdles for venues and teams competing for fans attending their games.