The Open 2014: the ultimate fan experience
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Think golf tournaments are stuck in the past? Think again. The R&A’s Director of Communications, Malcolm Booth, says this will be the ‘Interactive Open’.
WiFi wall
“This year, there is going to be a WiFi provision across the golf course. ‘The Open’ network will be delivered through access points, which are built into the grandstands. Access will be faster in and around these areas, but it will also spread across the site.”
Interactive app
“We have designed the official Open Championship app in a way that makes interacting with the championship and knowing what is going on across the golf course much easier. Through it, spectators will be able to get live scoring, watch live television coverage and find out where their favourite players are on the course.”
Phone zones
“We were very aware that while we had a ban on mobile phones we were cutting people off from an essential part of their lives. So we decided to end the ban two years ago. This year, we’re encouraging people to use their phones for enhanced spectating in the grandstands and other areas of the site that are not directly next to the course. We have ‘phone zones’ in the tented village where people can use their phones to make calls.”
GPS tracking
“One of the most exciting features of this year’s Open Championship app will be the GPS option that allows you to locate where your favourite player’s group is on the golf course. It works via a GPS chip that is located in the handheld device carried by the group’s scorer.”
LED scoreboards
“We trialled some LED scoreboards at Muirfield and it was such a success we have decided to put one of every hole bar the 18th this year. The 17 screens will replace the hand-updated scoreboards, and will switch between showing live play, player info and the leaderboard. They will always display the leaderboard when a group is playing right in front of them, as we want the screens to augment play rather than take over. The live action taking place in front of the spectators should still be the focus.”
American assistance
“We are not introducing these innovations to keep up with football or attract younger fans. We are introducing them because, like most sports, we have realised that we need to find ways to use technology to give our spectators a better viewing experience. To help us achieve this, we’ve employed an American company called Straight Up Technologies to help us deliver our full tech package. We went with an American company, because, having studied a lot of sports, we believe the ones in the United States are leading the way when it comes to interactive fan experiences.”
Push messages
“This innovation will not be in place for this year’s championship, but in future I can imagine a scenario where we push messages about spare seats in certain grandstands or long queues at certain food and beverage stands to people’s mobiles. It is all about using the technology available to provide people with information that will help them enjoy a fantastic day out.”
Charging points
“Given the increase in interactivity, we are aware that the batteries on some spectators’ smartphones will run low during the course of the day. With this in mind, we have scattered mobile phone charging trees throughout the tented village.”
This Just In
“There is no better way of keeping spectators informed about what is happening in the tournament than showing them highlights from live play. This year, we are doing this via a regular ‘This Just In’ feature. This means delivering 20-25 key moments a day to the app, the LED scoreboards and the website throughout the course of every round.”
Social media
“In this technological age, consumers at sporting events, festivals and shows expect to be able to complete the loop by commenting on what they are watching via social media. With this in mind, we’ll be engaging with spectators and keeping them up to date with the championship via our Twitter feed (@The _Open) and Facebook page.”
