Dallas Cowboys fans score with video technology at stadium

The new $1.1 billion Dallas Cowboys stadium will have 3,000 high-definition TV displays to bring customized game footage to fans anywhere in the facility.

The content will be provided from eight high-definition cameras roving throughout the massive complex, even into the locker rooms to give fans pictures of injured players, Cowboys officials said.

That innovation is one of many technologies provided by Cisco Systems Inc., working with AT&T Inc., to make the stadium the most technologically sophisticated of any in the world, Cisco CEO John Chambers said today in a video Webcast.

"You keep the fan experience going up and up," Chambers said about the value of the technology.

Jerry Jones, owner and general manager of the Cowboys Football Club, noted that the Cowboys were the first to allow cameras in the football draft room 15 years ago, in an attempt to promote the game and the fan experience. "We'll have the eight HD cameras all over the place, even the X-ray room," he said on the Webcast.

Jones said the new technologies reminded him of his early career when he supplied popcorn to airports and promoted the smell of popcorn by trying to pump the scent through the air ducts. "It has to be subtle," he said, of new promotional techniques, including the Cisco technology.

The Cisco Connected Sports technologies will allow fans in luxury boxes to customize their experience at each game by providing Internet Protocol phones with touch screens that allow them to browse video content.

Chambers said the services, such as the video feeds and IP phones in luxury boxes, are innovative technologies that Cisco is well-suited to provide. Asked whether the HD video could be supplied to each spectator over a handheld device through a wireless network, Chambers said that won't happen yet. Eventually, he said, "you can get any device to any activity ... [but] you have to deliver what's available."

A Cowboys spokesman said the video experience will be immersive for fans inside the stadium, giving them various views not seen by home television viewers. "Make no mistake about it, we are in competition with the couch," the spokesman said.

Pete Walsh, head of technology for the Cowboys, said the video technology will provide revenue opportunities that haven't even been fully contemplated so far. "It brings the wow factor," he said.

Intel shows first working Moorestown prototypes

Anand Chandrasekher, the senior vice president of Intel's ultra mobility group, showed off a handful of sleek prototype mobile devices containing its upcoming Moorestown platform at the Computex exhibition in Taipei on Thursday.

Moorestown is a chip platform designed for handheld computers that Intel calls mobile Internet devices (MIDs). The heart of Moorestown is a more power-efficient version of the Atom processor, named Lincroft, which is paired with a chipset called Langwell. Intel claims Moorestown uses one-fiftieth the idle power of its predecessor, the Menlow platform. The new platform is available with a range of wireless options, including Wi-Fi, WiMax and 3G cellular connectivity.

"We're not yet in [volume] production. We're getting close," Chandrasekher said, declining to be pinned down on a precise date. The chips are currently available in samples, he said.

During his speech, Chandrasekher was joined on stage by executives from hardware makers Inventec Appliances, Quanta Computer and Elektrobit, who all have working handheld devices based on the chips. The devices were all running the Moblin 2.0 version of Linux and are expected to hit the market early next year, company executives said.

Engineers managed to get the three devices working and ready for Computex in less than two months, a source familiar with the situation said, adding that Intel originally hoped to show five working prototypes at the show.

While Moorestown is nearing volume production, the current MID platform - called Menlow - continues to be used in new designs, a trend that is likely to continue into next year and overlap with the availability of Moorestown, Chandrasekher said.