betimes on in the November 26 Stanford - Notre Dame football skirmish , Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck lobbed a formal toward the recession of the end zone . His receiver , taut end Levine Toilolo , leapt up , get to over the head of the Fighting Irish protector to pick up the ball , and landed in the conclusion zone for the first touchdown of the plot .
Or so I assumed , estimate by the crowd ’s reaction . From my vantage distributor point in the nosebleed seats at Stanford Stadium , I had no idea if Toilolo had get down with the nut , let alone if he set down in bounds .
At Stanford University , football game devotee with smartphones can determine replays of secret plan highlights stake almost instantly to a mobile site .
At Stanford University, football fans with smartphones can watch replays of game highlights posted nearly instantaneously to a mobile website.
Not a problem : With the same cool head and dexterity that has NFL guide jabber about Luck , I pulled out my iPhone , fired up Stanford ’s Gameday springy site in Safari , and tapped on the liaison to watch the instant replay of Toilolo ’s touchdown catch . In fact , I could choose between three unlike camera slant of the same play .
almost - instantaneous replay deliver directly to your mobile headphone while the gang around you go hazardous auditory sensation like something out of a sports fan ’s daydream . But it ’s very much been a reality at Stanford University since this past fall . The school worked withElemental Technologies , a video processing and delivery company , to install a system that gives fan in the stands accession to replay and highlight of the game unfolding before them .
The system of rules Elemental put into place at Stanford covers both the school ’s football game sports stadium and its lyceum , Maples Pavilion . ( In fact , the control cubicle for Stanford Stadium ’s telecasting replay system is tucked aside in Maples , about a fourth - mile manner of walking from the football game field . ) Using this instant replay scheme , fans at football , basketball , and volleyball game games can get replay on any mobile gadget , include the iPhone and iPad , over a Wi - Fi connectedness .
Stanford’s Gameday Live site lists the available video highlights (including multiple camera angles on plays), along with other in-stadium amenities.
Stanford ’s Gameday Live site lists the available video high spot ( including multiple camera angles on plays ) , along with other in - bowl amenities .
That kind of on - demand action replay has long been swash as a room of enhancing the in - game experience for fan at hot sporting effect . Even the best bum in the house does n’t offer the undecomposed perspective on every frolic . Maybe the action is taking place on the diametrical side of the arena , or your view was choke up by the cat seated in front of you wave a giant foam fingerbreadth . Or maybe you were off start out nachos during a decisive account . picture action replay on your phone stand for you ’ll never miss a cardinal moment , and Elemental ’s approach means you ’ll have multiple views of those fundamental moment .
“ I reckon , expire forward , you ’ll go into a stadium , download an app for that specific stadium , and be able to determine rematch , ” Elemental Technologies CEO Sam Blackman allege . “ It customizes the experience . ”
The view from the video-board control booth, which is actually housed in Stanford’s Maples Pavilion—a quarter-mile away from the football field.
Elemental knows a thing or two about delivering picture content to different devices . Just last calendar month , the companionship announced that it now serves more than 100 enterprise customer after launch its professional Cartesian product railway line in 2010 . Customers include Comcast , HBO , and ESPN , which uses Elemental ’s products to make on - requirement television for the sport web ’s websites and mobile apps .
Stanford ’s telecasting projection proffer a different set of challenges . For one , there ’s the not inconsequential matter of making picture available in a stadium occupy with 50,000 people , position a tenor on the electronic connection ’s bandwidth . There ’s also the fact that Stanford had its own organization already in berth — video replay screens on the scoreboards in Stanford Stadium show some highlights — so whatever Elemental could offer had to fit within the existing set - up .
On that first issue , Elemental got some help from Apple in the form of theHTTP Live Streaming technologythe companionship developed . A primal vantage of using HTTP Live Streaming , or HLS , to send out audio frequency and picture content to various equipment is the technology ’s ability to adjust playback on the fly to answer for for mesh traffic . In other words , if useable bandwidth drops , HLS dynamically downgrade the video timber to keep the depicted object coming . That ’s made the engineering a pop choice among company that delvier sports natural action to mobile devices — Major League Baseball uses HLS for its offerings , for exemplar — and Elemental is no elision . “ Our destination is to extinguish buffering , ” Blackman said .
The view from the video recording - control panel control booth , which is actually housed in Stanford ’s Maples Pavilion — a quarter - mile aside from the football field .
Working Elemental ’s video - replay offer into Stanford ’s existing operation intend working with the university ’s already existing EVS system , a video replay and production set - up that ’s fair plebeian in gymnastic venues around the commonwealth . The EVS system constantly records activity captured by multiple cameras ; an operator logs the start and barricade decimal point and name the magazine , pushing selected action replay to the bowl ’s TV board .
“ We basically leveraged that existing system , ” said Adam Salkin , an engineering manager with systems integrator Diversified Systems , which worked with Elemental to set thing up at Stanford .
Essentially , the same feeds going into the EVS system are at the same time deliver to Elemental ’s encoder . Each provender is converted into an HTTP file that can be pushed out to Stanford ’s Gameday Live site .
The key to this process is speed . Salkin told me that a clip can be converted to the HTTP data format on one of Element ’s encoders in about 15 seconds — a fraction of the time it would take to convince something from the EVS system ’s proprietary formatting to an MPEG-4 file that could be viewed on a smartphone .
“ By the prison term the EVS operator tell , ‘ That ’s the cartridge holder I want , ’ the encoding ’s already been done , ” Salkin said .
It ’s something to see in action . A producer back at the football sports stadium organise the legal action , communicating via headset with the half - a - twelve masses in the control booth a quarter - mile away . The EVS wheeler dealer who ’s logging clips for video board replays ( and , by elongation , the ones that Elemental ’s encoders will push to Stanford ’s Gameday site ) baby-sit at a workstation with four reminder showing motley television camera slant from the sports stadium . Two monitors below the incoming feeds admit the operator to trim back and log clipping — each one is labeled with the name of the player involved , a one word description of the play ( like “ touchdown ” or “ hammock ” ) , the quarter it occurred , and the camera angle used . ( This same data shows up on the Gameday springy Mobile River website when telecasting highlights seem there . ) All of this materialize fairly rapidly , with no extra hands postulate to manage the Elemental - produced clips other than the personnel already on bridge player in the control booth .
clipping prepared via Elemental ’s scheme may be ready to view within 15 seconds or so , but at the game I attended to see the setup in action , they were appearing on Stanford ’s mobile internet site a minute or two after the play in motion . That ’s by design , consort to Stanford associate theater director of athletic contest Kevin Blue , who explicate to me that the university is “ still playing around with how to produce the best experience for the sports fan . ”
The system had been put in home in September , and by the last football game family game of the season , Stanford officials were still grapple some of the technical issue posed by trying to beam near - instant replay to a stadium full of fans . For case , at a football secret plan , the kinsfolk execute the Gameday organisation had to handle with a band more radio - oftenness preventative from everything include the communication organisation coaches practice to send plays from the press loge to the by-line and the systems TV broadcasters engage to remotely control the skycam that floats on conducting wire above the field .
Things are a little prosperous to manage at basketball and volleyball game games , according to Blue , because of the smaller crowds ( Maples Pavilion holds about an eighth of the bunch that crams into Stanford Stadium ) and less cluttered airwave . gloomy approximate that between 10 and 30 per centum of the hoi polloi advert game at Maples Pavilion are accessing the Gameday Live situation on their mobile devices , and while not all of those visitors are necessarily view video high spot , it does exemplify the chance for augment the lover experience .
“ There are expert issues to overcome precisely because it ’s an unprecedented learning experience , ” said Blue , adding that the university is happy with the way thing are “ out of the gate . ”
Testing the Stanford - Elemental high spot system first - hand , it was easy for me to reckon how on - requirement picture highlights could acquire given a footling time . By design , the squad selecting highlights for Stanford ’s mobile situation were restricting the clips they cull to marking plays and a few Stanford defensive highlights . But a wider selection of clip would certainly profit smartphone - tote fans . For example , the opening maneuver of the game featured a fumbled kickoff tax return that was subject to a video review by the plot ’s official ; I conceive of that fans would sleep together to send away up their smartphones to see a replay of the play in dubiousness as officials moot over whether to countermand the call . The biz I attended feature Luck , Stanford ’s quarterback , tying and then breaking the school day track record for career touchdown passes ; the peregrine video highlights shew the platter - breaking passport could have include that significant chip of linguistic context to further fans ’ enjoyment of the game .
“ The note value is in pass water the [ fans ’ ] telephone extensions of the telecasting board , ” Blue agreed .
Still , it ’s obvious that Elemental and Stanford are on the correct caterpillar tread with their mobile phone - free-base video recording highlight . And , given the wide borrowing of smartphones in general and the iPhone in fussy , it ’s an experience likely to reach far beyond Stanford ’s Palo Alto , Calif. , campus as it issue forth to a arena or arena near you . “ There ’s no dubiousness the future is what we ’re doing here , ” Blue said .
Elemental ’s Blackman agrees : “ In five long time , every individual level - one arena will have these kinds of capabilities . ” And when that happens , your only apology for leave out a looseness will be that you ’re a small too slow on the draw play with your iPhone .
[ Philip Michaels is the editor of Macworld.com . ]
