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.
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