1. FAN EXPERIENCE 2015
august 17-23, 2015 special advertising section ❘ street & smith’s sportsbusiness journal 27
After a Spectacular Super Bowl,
Ephesus Looks to a Bright Future
FAN EXPERIENCE 2015
In today’s sports world, the fan experience involves much
more than just the competition on game day. Whether it’s personalizing the
experience to create unique memories or providing technology that allows fans
to share those moments in real time, paying customers expect much more for
their entertainment dollars these days. In SportsBusiness Journal’s “Fan Experience
2015” section, we profile some of the industry’s most innovative companies and
spotlight their unique contributions to improving the fan experience. Their products
and services are not only enriching the sports environment, but driving significant
revenue and return on investment for clients.
When the first Super Bowl was staged
under LED lights in February, Ephesus Light-
ing Founder and Chief Technology Officer
Joe Casper’s attention bounced between
the action on the field and his company’s
shining performance above it. And while the
New England Patriots outlasted the Seattle
Seahawks at University of Phoenix Stadium in
one of the most thrilling title games ever,
Ephesus might have emerged as the eve-
ning’s biggest winner.
Ephesus reached a pinnacle in LED
sports lighting when we lit the Super Bowl,”
Casper said. “There was a lot of skepticism
that the technology was not yet ready for
prime time. If you can light the Super Bowl,
the most recognized sporting event in the
world, with the most challenging broadcast
requirements, all doubts that the technology
is not ready are erased.
Ephesus had previously lit the first NFL
regular season game, Fiesta Bowl and Pro
Bowl at the Glendale, Arizona-based sta-
dium, but Super Bowl XLIX served as both a
culmination and watershed moment for LED
in succeeding traditional metal halide light
systems.
“Lighting the Super Bowl allowed Ephesus
to demonstrate and pioneer semiconductor
technology innovations into LED lighting,”
Casper said.
By now, and with Ephesus having
enhanced the fan experience at a growing
number of major venues across the country,
most everyone knows about the innovative
company based in Syracuse, N.Y. The mete-
oric rise of Ephesus started in its hometown
five years ago.
In 2012, Ephesus lit the first professional
sports arena in North America with LED, War
Memorial Arena, home to the Syracuse
Crunch, the Tampa Bay Lightning’s AHL affili-
ate,” Casper said. “Being the first to light a
professional indoor sports arena gave us the
opportunity to build on that success. Since
we lit that arena, we have an installed more
than 140 LED sports lighting solutions in the
market. And now that we have lit the Super
Bowl, it is opening up much larger opportu-
nities for us. And it's not just North America
anymore; we are now seeing an increase in
global opportunities.
LEDs, which create light with a semicon-
ductor chip and solid state technology, are
more environmentally friendly and cost
effective than legacy systems, considering
the latter’s high costs for energy consump-
tion, maintenance and replacement over
time. Ephesus prides itself on providing the
most efficient system with lowest life cycle
costs in the industry, something realized
through the company’s unique approach
to engineering LED sports lighting solutions.
We went about it in a manner that was
unconventional. Rather than trying to design
a LED light based on a traditional lighting
background, Ephesus leveraged its in-depth
solid-state semiconductor design and man-
ufacturing experience. We developed a
complete system solution that integrates
advanced technologies co-developed with
our strategic partners,” Casper said. “The
LED sports lighting solution Ephesus has
developed is an engineering marvel.
The Super Bowl provides a shining exam-
ple in LED advantages for both the host
venue and fans. Ephesus replaced 780 tra-
ditional metal halide fixtures with 312 of the
Ephesus Stadium Pro fixtures powered with
custom Cree LED chips — and reduced
energy usage by more than 75 percent
compared to the legacy metal halide sys-
tem. And yet, the number of foot-candles (a
unit that measures the intensity of light falling
on a surface) increased from 148 to 277.
“We doubled the light level on the field
and cut the number of fixtures in half,”
Casper said. “The clarity and brightness are
remarkable, in terms of the way you could
see the players and how their uniforms and
colors just popped on the field.”
See ephesus, page 28
Ephesus-designed lighting gave Super Bowl XLIX a new look, making players “pop out” from the field background and giving the entire production an even
more spectacular feel.
Ephesus
3. august 17-23, 2015 special advertising section ❘ street smith’s sportsbusiness journal 29
FAN EXPERIENCE 2015
Mobilitie Takes Victory Lap at Churchill Downs
History was made at Churchill Downs this
May when American Pharoah won the Ken-
tucky Derby, putting him on the path to ulti-
mately become the first American Triple
Crown winner in 37 years.
Thanks to Mobilitie’s Distributed Antenna
System (DAS), a unique wireless network con-
figuration that improves connection
throughout the iconic Louisville facility, more
people were able to share in the historic
moment. The company’s neutral-host DAS
provided critical support to help nearly
300,000 fans in attendance for the Kentucky
Oaks and Kentucky Derby weekend share
the most exciting moments from their
mobile devices. “Mobile connectivity is a
critical component of any large-scale event
today,” Mobilitie President Christos Karmis
said. “Churchill Downs hosts the highest
attended sporting event of the year, with
hundreds of thousands of visitors. Mobilitie's
robust networks provide the needed wireless
coverage and capacity to allow fans the
ability to share their special moments by
texting or calling family and friends, as well
as posting photos and videos on their social
channels to share their experiences in real
time.
Data usage peaked in the hour leading
up to the Derby, when more than 474 GB
crossed ATT’s network, an in-venue event
record for the company. Total data volume
for the weekend eclipsed an estimated 10
TB. Mobilitie’s DAS at Churchill Downs is one
of the largest in the country, with more than
283 antennas and one million feet of fiber
optic cable installed throughout the facility.
Churchill Downs is the latest successful
case study in sports for the Newport Beach,
Calif.-based Mobilitie. The demand for supe-
rior wireless experience has never been
higher and Mobilitie helps fans stay con-
nected at stadiums and arenas across the
country. As the largest privately held wireless
infrastructure provider in the U.S., Mobilitie
helps enhance the fan experience across a
wide spectrum of professional sports
leagues, including the NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB
and MLS.
Mobilitie’s venue partners span the coun-
try and include the Honda Center, home of
the Anaheim Ducks; Arrowhead Stadium,
home of the Kansas City Chiefs; Edward
Jones Dome, home of the St. Louis Rams;
Verizon Center, home of the Washington
Wizards; Toyota Park, home of the Chicago
Fire Soccer Club; and Tropicana Field,
home of the Tampa Bay Rays. Furthermore,
Mobilitie’s partnership with the NHL Colum-
bus Blue Jackets helps illustrate the compa-
ny’s relentless quest to provide the ultimate
in wireless service. Last year, Mobilitie engi-
neered a high-density Wi-Fi system, featuring
263 access points strategically installed
throughout Nationwide Arena, to comple-
ment the neutral-host DAS deployed in
2013.
“Hockey is one of the most exciting
sports to watch live,” Karmis said. “Fans are
eager to share that experience with their
friends and family. Columbus Blue Jackets
fans will be able to stay connected, share
information via their social channels and
enjoy the in-venue entertainment with the
new Wi-Fi, in addition to the DAS. As a long-
term partner of Nationwide Arena, we are
committed to ensuring the venue remains
one of the NHL’s most advanced arenas
when it comes to wireless connectivity.” Larry
Hoepfner, executive vice president of busi-
ness operations for the Blue Jackets,
emphasizes the importance of keeping up
with fans’ evolving needs and how Mobilitie
ensures they are continually met. “We’re
always striving to provide the very best in-
arena experience for our fans and this
enhancement enables us to better serve
the changing needs of our customers,”
Hoepfner said. “Fans attending games and
special events now expect a fully immersive
experience. The addition of this network
encourages active engagement and
opens the door to a host of future applica-
tions.”
In today’s super charged sports environ-
ment, the game-day experience involves
much more than the actual competition.
“Fans today want to share these unique
experiences with others and a reliable, fast
network connection is critical to making that
happen,” Karmis said. “The arena’s DAS and
Wi-Fi network will transform fans’ wireless
experience while at the game, making it
easier to make calls, post to social media
and run mobile applications. It’s a game
changer.” ■
Thanks to Mobilitie’s Distributed Antenna System (DAS), more fans at Churchill Downs were able to see and
share American Pharoah’s first step toward the Triple Crown.
Mobilitie
4. 30 special advertising section ❘ street smith’s sportsbusiness journal august 17-23, 2015
FAN EXPERIENCE 2015
www.expapp.com
Experience is the award-winning fan experience technology company that helps over 250 live sports and entertainment
organizations attract new audiences and convert casual attendees into lifelong fanatics.
LET’S TALK! And change your fans’ experience forever. Email us at letstalk@expapp.com
Experience Reinvents How Mobile Creates Lifelong Fans
After Experience garnered SportsBusiness
Journal’s 2014 Sports Business Award for
Best In Sports Technology, the Atlanta-based
company refused to rest on its laurels.
Instead, in the next year, Experience built on
its tradition of innovation and nearly dou-
bled its roster of client properties. Experi-
ence has also grown its product portfolio,
providing teams, venues and live events
new ways to reward loyal season ticket
members and also reach the coveted
“next generation” fan.
Experience’s numbers from this past year
are striking. The company grew from 140 to
265 properties, and now represents a total
reach of more than 200 million fans. Nota-
ble among the new partnerships are Feld
Entertainment (Ringling Bros. and Barnum
Bailey®
, Monster Jam®
, Monster Energy
Supercross, Disney On Ice and Disney Live!),
PGA TOUR, Chicago Bears, Indianapolis
Motor Speedway, Oklahoma City Thunder
and the University of Notre Dame. They also
expanded internationally with events in Can-
ada, Ireland, the U.K. and Australia. By year’s
end, Experience will have handled 12,000
overall events, compared to 4,500 last year,
and the company’s fan happiness rating
stands strong at 90 percent.
“We exist to ensure fans have fun at live
events,” Experience President Ben Ackerman
said. “Every day, we focus on helping our cli-
ents create lifelong fans by attracting new
audiences, engaging them once they’re in
the venue and then retaining those fans for
a lifetime.”
The company’s core mission remains live
event personalization, empowering fans to
personalize their experience and create
unique memories. In the past year, Experi-
ence broadened that platform with three
new products — Fluid Ticket™, Experience
Pass®
and Experience Pass®
One.
Fluid Ticket technology retains sea-
son ticket holders by transforming their
tickets into mobile assets for when
life happens. If their seats
can’t be used for
a particular
event, fans
can return
those tickets
with a few taps
on their mobile
device in
exchange for
guaranteed credit
that can be used
at future events.
Need additional
seats? If they’re avail-
able, Experience’s
technology lets fans
expand their group size
or seat a larger party
together. Fans can also
sign up for real-time, automatic, personal-
ized upgrades that allow them to leverage
the value of their existing seats for an
upgrade to a better location. “Fluid Ticket is
a complete game changer for the season-
ticket holder,” Ackerman said. “It adds flexi-
bility and value to the season ticket that has
never been delivered previously.”
As the Boston Celtics recognized, fans
utilizing Experience’s technology converted
to season ticket holders at a rate 3.5 times
greater than fans who did not. Ackerman
noted that fans that engage with the tech-
nology have an 80 percent higher lifetime
value.
Experience Pass
enables teams to
offer next generation
fans a 100-percent
mobile subscription to
a block of games for
a particular time
period. Experience
Pass lets fans access
any of those games,
permitting last-minute
confirmation of atten-
dance, and the ability
to experience every
game from a new
seating location.
Ackerman
explained, “Pass deliv-
ers a new level of
choice to younger, millennial fans who pre-
fer subscription access to their favorite forms
of entertainment, from music to video to
sporting events. It’s the first mobile subscrip-
tion product in sports or live entertainment.”
For example, the Atlanta Braves offered
access to every home game during the
months of April and May with the Braves
Spring Pass, allowing the team to reach a
younger, mobile-first audience through a
ticket plan relevant to their needs. The results
were astounding — with Pass buyers attend-
ing nine times the number of events versus
the same subset of fans who did not use
Pass — increasing in-venue revenue on food
and beverage, parking and merchandise.
Data also revealed that 55 percent of Pass
buyers were net new to the team’s database
and 60 percent were age 18-34 years,
increasing the number of millennial fans pur-
chasing primary tickets.
Experience Pass One is the solution for
last-minute ticket sales. “We work with clients
to create a waiting list of fans through text,
email or social media,” Ackerman
explained. “The team can continue to sell
tickets on the primary market up to the last
minute and, when inventory becomes avail-
able, we can offer those registered fans seat
locations from unsold inventory or inventory
that was reclaimed through our Fluid Ticket
technology.”
The key for both Experience Pass and
Experience Pass One, according to Acker-
man, is that they attract a net new audience
and largely a younger one.
“All of our clients are trying to attract that
18-34 year old category as next generation
fans,” he said. “Ultimately, you want to get
that fan in the venue just to try the product.”
Clearly, the latest wave of innovation by
Experience has proven to be another boon
for fans and teams alike.
“Ultimately, all the data is playing out
that way and these three new products —
Fluid Ticket, Experience Pass and Experi-
ence Pass One — continue to accelerate
our value propositions and provide the
industry with technology that completely
changes the fan experience and creates
lifelong fans.” ■
Experience technologies and innovations
offer flexibility to fans and properties,
maximizing the fan experience.
5. august 17-23, 2015 special advertising section ❘ street smith’s sportsbusiness journal 31
FAN EXPERIENCE 2015
Innovation, New Technology Headline ISC’s Fan Experience
International Speedway Corporation (ISC)
is a business built on speed.
As such, it’s fitting that ISC has been so
fast to meet the needs of its fans in the
modern era.
The ambitious DAYTONA Rising project is
emblematic of the innovation that’s
become a hallmark of ISC in the motors-
ports industry. The iconic Daytona Interna-
tional Speedway will welcome fans in 2016
as the first modern motorsports stadium fea-
turing 101,500 new seats and enhanced
vertical transportation, including 40 new
escalators and 17 elevators. The improve-
ment in comfort and access will also be evi-
dent in Daytona’s newly-created “social
spaces,” situated in three new wider con-
courses and within 11 new neighborhoods.
Designed with open sightlines, the football-
field sized spaces will feature enhanced
Wi-Fi connectivity, lounge areas and dozens
of video screens to monitor on-track action.
ISC, which promotes more than 100 rac-
ing events annually in NASCAR, IndyCar,
IMSA, NHRA and AMA, among other series,
actively listens to customers at all 13 of its
tracks.
“We survey our fans after every event as
their feedback is crucial to our success,”
said Daryl Wolfe, ISC’s executive vice presi-
dent and chief marketing officer. “Whether
it’s improved food and beverage, more
room to roam within the grandstands or bet-
ter comfort in their seating, we listen and are
making advancements in those areas. Our
fans are the best in sports and we are com-
mitted to delivering an ever-improving guest
experience.”
New technology has been a huge area
of emphasis across the entire ISC portfolio,
including Chicagoland Speedway, Michi-
gan International Speedway, Richmond
International Raceway, Auto Club Speedway
in Southern California, Homestead-Miami
Speedway, Kansas Speedway, Phoenix Inter-
national Raceway, Martinsville Speedway,
Darlington Raceway and Watkins Glen Inter-
national, among others. ISC's multiyear strat-
egy began with upgrading the video
boards providing fans with a superior view of
the racing action. Talladega Superspeed-
way's fan experience got bigger and better
during the track’s Geico 500 race weekend
in May, with several of the Sprint Vision digital
high-definition video screens that lined the
frontstretch increasing in size.
Two new mammoth video boards (40’ x
80’) have permanent homes behind pit
road in the tri-oval area and feature 5.12 bil-
lion LED pixels (X7mm HD). Remarkably,
each weighs 28,000 pounds. The other per-
manent structure is a 26’ x 52’ video board
located at the exit of Turn 4. The 16,000-
pound unit has 1.26 billion LED pixels
(X10mm HD). Other locations include the
start/finish line (26’x 52') and Turn 1 (18’ x 33’),
along with the Alabama Gang Superstretch
(20’ x 27’). Each of the new video boards
projects bigger, brighter, crisper and clearer
pictures.
“There’s nothing like watching a race at
Talladega in person,” Talladega Super-
speedway Chairman Grant Lynch said.
“With our new and improved video boards,
fans can now get the best of both worlds
with an incredible, up-close view of all the
happenings on the track, no matter where
the action is taking place. Couple this with
our 21- and 22-inch comfortable fold-back
seating in our grandstands, it makes for a
weekend like no other.”
As with DAYTONA Rising, and in today’s
ever-changing tech-driven sports world,
improving the fan experience means keep-
ing your foot on the proverbial pedal. It is
something ISC will continue to do in the
near future and beyond.
“Through 2017, our strategic plan
focuses on funding innovations that provide
the most impact and value for our fans,”
said Craig Neeb, ISC’s executive vice presi-
dent and chief development and digital
officer. “We want to improve the at-track
experience, going beyond driver access, by
really connecting fans through technology.
Our new video boards are a great example
of that initiative and we are hearing rave
reviews.” ■
Daytona’s makeover will include state-of-the-art
video boards, giving fans a closer and clearer
look at the action on the track.
InternationalSpeedwayCorporation
In addition to more seating, more elevators, enhanced WI-FI and other amenities, the renovated Daytona
International Speedway will include 11 football field-sized, social “neighborhoods”.
InternationalSpeedwayCorporation
