Hi welcome, thanks for joining us. We are here live from mercedes-benz Stadium the home of the Atlanta falcons and Atlanta United um. Today, we're going to be taking you on a technology tour behind the scenes very exclusive Super cool. I'm angela. I'm social strategist at and I'm with today, yup hi. My name is Ben I'm the chief architect responsible for sports and entertainment and large public venues othe infrastructure systems that we put into these venues so I'm happy to have you here at the mercedes-benz Stadium where has been involved in bringing all the Technology that you see here to life okay great Super excited we're starting the tour in Atlanta falcons locker room very, very behind the scenes here and um just just to let you know. We are taking questions so if you have any questions for us um make sure you comment in the comment section and we're happy to answer them as we go so I'm gonna turn it over to you, but if you can just take us through some of the awesome technology features in the in the locker room here yeah thanks so like we said we're starting here in the Atlanta falcons locker room I know that it's the off season There's, a lot less gear and equipment that usually fills this room. Uh but this room is the heart of getting the team prepped and ready for the game and ready to go out there and make the great place and put on the show that everyone is expecting and wants to see so in this room the team is able to work together. There are televisions that you see on all of the walls around here along with a couple of televisions that actually come down out of the ceiling when they wanna have the entire team watching content uh Small that you see on the Wall are for the sort of smaller breakout groups like when the defensive coach wants to have a conference with his players and go over something with them. They have Mobile carts. That they actually roll out and are able to connect and plug into this uh for either overhead projector or laptop, whatever they're working on um and then of course, the players themselves have alot of technology that they're now bringing with them um just from their own personal cell, phones or tablets or what not uh everyone has a lot of tech and you need to get that charged and connected so I'm a little nosey looks like yeah look at the actual locker here yeah so ready Here you can see that just the little touches that have gone into making the technology ever present in this venue. So there's, two usb chargers right in there, along with the regular ac charger, um there's also, several access points covering the space so that we have enough fun activity for all of the players gear to be online and connecting and downloading the content that they need to have on their own devices that's awesome so I think this is so cool. I know that everyone's probably really curious to see if we can actually go on to the field. Yes so, let's go from here out of the field. It will actually be a really unique experience. This is the same walk or run that the Take when they go out on to the field at the beginning of the game and after half time um one of the things you'll see as we go is that this venue has really been built to keep the players and fans Super closely connected. We want the fans when they're here to be right in the Middle of the action and the building architects when they laid out this facility really made a lot of touches to make sure that that would happen so uh we're walking here right down where the falcons run when they go out on the field and if you are in the field level club, you actually are able To see the players run right by you through these windows here, uh and be right up close to the action. As those players go by and get some great looks at your team. So cool so we talked a lot about the players um but you mention the fan. Experience so it seems like the fan experience was like really at the Center of the design yeah absolutely the the fan experience the goal here is that you should be able to come and have a great day as of and we want you to have just an absolutely awesome time. We want you to come again and again and again and we're gonna do that of course, through the uh interaction that You have with the players uh via the physical experience so, like I said you're able to see the players through the club, suites you're able to be right next to the field. If you have seats on the club and you'll see there's, a drink rail uh where you can get right up next to the sideline and you know feel the sweat coming off the players yeah and then also with the technology and we're really looking to have that technology designed to bring you and immerse you in the event and make sure that you have a great day while Yes, oh look at how massive this place is been like nobody's in here. Yeah you really get a sense of the size of the place when you're out here you know uh especially with it on an empty day. Uh it seats about 75000 people depending on configuration right now you'll see the Atlanta United banners are down over the 300 level seating uh brings it down about 42000 or so people for the soccer games uh but still it's a huge venue, but it still feels homey and when you're here, just the energy is really incredible um so you know Welcome and I'm glad to have everyone here so is it possible, if we can actually like walk out to the Middle of the field. Yeah let's go right out there, let's go out to the Middle of take a look. Um so when you talk about the fan experience can you tell me a little bit about how it has approach that, and designed the technology to support the fan. Experience absolutely so you know you're here to experience the game and we wanna make sure that you have a great experience uh both from the physical attendance but also digitally and what that means is keeping you connected to the fans and to the venue through the uh technology T and the apps and the infrastructure and your experience so for example, uh I mention that we want you to be connected well, we want you to be connected with the game at all points throughout the Stadium. So while of course you can see the game when you're sitting in your seats there's also two thousand 500 televisions in locations throughout the Stadium. You can see a lot of them along the ring of the sweets here uh two thousand 500 televisions that are placed all over the place so that no matter where you go, if you need to get up you don't have to worry that you We're gonna miss that incredible play uh you can know that when you walk out to go and buy a hot dog that you can still see the game on one of the that's, there you can even be waiting in line for the restroom there's televisions that are helping you so that you can wait in line for the restroom and even be connected with the game. There uh really any place that you can go you're gonna be connected and we try to follow that through not only for the fans but for everyone who's here experiencing the game so for example, the press box is up in the uh left behind me here And there are actually individual little small televisions at each of the press seats, so that of course, the press can see the game with their own eyes, but they also can see those replays and highlights that are presented to them upon the little small televisions. So that's Super fascinating um can you tell me like what is this crazy. Large 300 and 60 degree screen above us yeah absolutely so uh it's dark right now, but the the black Halo that you see here is the iconic feature of the Stadium uh. This is the largest screen in sports in the world today. It is a 300 and 60 degree halo screen produces some really unique content and make sure that even as a fan in the field of course, you can see the players right up close but you can see the replay so you can see the fan quizzes everything all of the interactive elements that they're able to put it right up there can keep you connected the other thing that you can't see while you're here, but that is present is that there are over one thousand 800 wireless access points othe Has installed under the seats of the Stadium in order to be sure that while you're here that you can get connected, that you have the great band with that you're looking for uh to be posting online to be sharing to be making uh facebook video uh. Whatever it is that you're trying to do that you have the connectivity that you need um and that is really hoping to bring the experience not just the people who are here in the Stadium, but also helping to share it with the larger group of fans every fan who's here that shares is bringing someone else who didn't get to come to the game that day into the event that's amazing. I mean, obviously Wanna be connected that's huge. Um point for them to be able to interact and into engage while the game is taking place. Um I'm just curious. Can we actually take a look at what how you make this all come to life like where did this all start yeah absolutely, let's walk over to the production studio where we can see where the content that is created for all of these screens comes from okay cool, but you mentioned a lot about the fan. Experience and, like the icon activity um other Mobile applications or um. I know that there Mobile application, development for yeah so of course, we're talking a lot about the that experience for the fan and from the digital perspective, we have what we call our top down design and bottom up build methodology and what I mean by that is that we start with at the apex. We start with the experience that we want the fans to have. We want you to come and have a seamless and really enjoyable day when you get here and what that means for us is building out and mapping what we call a journey map of your digital experience. We wanna be sure actually, digital and physical experience together We, wanna be sure that, as you start to plan your day as you start to plan that you're going to come to a game and then through and your visit arrival getting to your seat, that you are engaged and able to find what you wanted and have a great and seamless experience. So what I mean by that is for example, uh. We will map out that one key event that you need to do in order to actually get to the Stadium is that you have to drive here in than Park. Your car so we identify that and we say okay well what technology is necessary to make sure that driving here in parking your car is not Uh painful for you that you have an easy time of it. So we actually have integrated with the local parking vendors so that you can prepay your parking right within the app. We then take that step at the lower level. That's the top down and say, let's build these integrations that we need to have in the technology system so that we can have Mobile parking payments and so that when you get there, you can pay be parked and be on your way and, ideally, not even notice that that happened so we try to look at Each of the elements that you very like using technology to just improve the entire experience, yeah entire process and if we've done it right, you won't even notice that it's happened right. It won't be some we want you to show up and the only thing that you remember really should be that you had a Super great time that you remember the play you know, remember you know that you had a hard time finding a parking spot. I guess that's the beauty of technology right, like you only really experience it or have an experience when it's negative so it should be seamless when you're actually, when it's probably absolutely the more behind the scenes we can be the better than it's worth that's awesome so this is incredible Well, um can we just like to take a second to like this is the production room. Yeah so this is the production studio for the mercedes-benz Stadium. This is where all of the content that you see out on the halo board out on the mayo calling one of the other large format displays um out on all of the two thousand 500 in the facility is produced there's, a team of well over 40 people that can work out of this room to produce edit and create that live content that Keeps the fans so engaged and makes it really compelling experience when you get here so basically, this is like everything is created here. Digitally and then it's some how magically appears on the big screen. Yeah well, I hope not. Magically uh. You know if there's infrastructure behind it so the infrastructure supporting in this facility is all fiber optic one of the really unique things here is that we don't have any what's called structured cable in the term of cat, five copper or cat. Six. All of the The cable in here is fiber optic and you can actually see this in the cable trays above us different kinds of fiber optic cable. Color differently. Um we're seeing this much cable in my life. Yeah and so it actually it leaves the production studio here and heads over to the data Center the data Center and we can actually walk over there and take a look at the data Center So this I mean the cable in there, like yeah, it was four thousand miles of fiber optic cable in this building is exactly there's over four thousand miles of fiber optic cable in here and a lot of it. I have a piece of it here is what we call composite hybrid fiber and copper, so this cable actually contains 24 strands of single mode fiber optics. I 12 each inside these two little White cables and then also power because, while we might have the fiber transmits the data, we still need to be able to power up and operate that is Camera or that access point we still have to get the electricity to it somehow. So these just carry playing all power and then over here we carry you know, multiple gigabytes of uh data. Connectivity and all of that leads back right here to the ibm data Center. So from wherever you go in the facility, it eventually collapses all down into these cable trays that you see, above us here and goes into the data Center uh. We actually have somewhere over about a hundred gigabytes per second of band with all in aggregate for the various different systems in the Stadium, so one question That we have from the audience um about venues and sports venues. Um feel building out of technology forward Stadium or technology proof Stadium is how does ibmers view that or how is the infrastructure here supporting that yeah so we have what the falcons themselves like to call future flexible network environments of course, we we won't pretend to have a crystal ball, but we know exactly what's coming in the future, but what we're trying to do is make the best decisions that we possibly can with the information that's available to us and so uh the way that we do that is by building systems that we think can grow and change in the way that they need to so for example, the fiber optic cable in here right the fiber optic cable in today Made these little fibers are running at what's called upon giggle passive optical network, but this same fibers can support the next generation. Jeep on which will have roughly 10 fold increase in speed. Um we looked at things such as the access points are all installed in boxes under the seats. Well, we built the boxes a little bit bigger than they need to be to fit different kinds of access points so we're trying to make decisions as best as we can to account for where we think technology will go uh So that when that next thing does come regardless of what it is, that we are ready as best as we can be so can you tell me just a little bit more about like what is one of the most standout features as far as technology is concerned here um and mercedes-benz like. What kind of defines it as like very one of the most technically advanced stadiums, uh, I think, certainly the access to the over one thousand 800 under seat access points is a real standout feature and that converts directly to the fans having a great experience with are Mobile apps um Actually designed and built three different Mobile apps for the Stadium, so there is an app for each of the teams in Atlanta falcons and Atlanta United. App and then there's an app for the venue itself. The mercedes-benz Stadium and what's unique about this is of course, we designed them to support that top down design of an first experience in those points in the journey map uh, but we've also designed them to provide real, useful functionality such as your Mobile ticketing so there's. No paper tickets when you Come to falcons and Atlanta United games here. The tickets are all on your phone, if I invite you to a game with me, I'll, send them to you. Digitally um and uh. It allows us to take away that sort of paper step and have an all digital experience. So I have another question and this is a fairly interesting question. The venues huge this Stadium is massive. How did you know it was gonna work like how did you actually know the technology you're building for this entire venue would work yeah so We actually wanted to be really sure that when we got here that the different systems would work and not just work work together which is important because there are a lot of different technologies and play here to do that we had a facility that we called the mock up lab, which is a few miles down the road and the lab actually hosted three different one I'll call technology towers. We came up with three different possible mixes for the technology of the Stadium. We built it out in prototype and then we're able to say okay. This piece works. This piece doesn't work. He works with be but it doesn't See and get all of that tested before we came here so after we went through that selection process. We then sort of had the winners and we were able to put them altogether and now a fully functioning technology stack and test out and be sure that all of the different systems that the cameras would work on the passive optical network that the would talk to the television remote controllers that all of these pieces actually came together and worked as a whole we're taking Chances we really try to tell you guys a few chances as possible. Yeah that's amazing so I think um this is our last stop of the tour and I'm going to ask audience again if you have questions or if you would like to um direct anything to bend directly um you can also find than I think on yet please feel free to find me on twitter, follow me on twitter, ask any questions. It's at Ben. At B and L and Ben is uh sports and connected new expert so um. He has experience Um you know deep deep subject matter, expertise and, in sports in the intersection of sports and technology. So I wanna thank you guys so much for coming with us on the tour. Today really had an amazing time. This is a Super exclusive behind the scenes view and you got it here with us so um. Thank you so much and we'll see you again. Thank you everybody by