Cisco wants to think of the famed 7,075-yard-long Pebble Beach Golf Links course as a connected stadium venue, covering the entire course in Wi-Fi for patrons, media and tournament organizers of the 2019 U.S. Open June 10-16.
The network will offer the week’s 200,000-plus patrons greater access to scoring, content and digital experiences, all while walking and watching the event — the sixth U.S. Open at the 100-year-old course — along the shores of the Pacific Ocean in Monterey, California.
Cisco, the official technology partner of the United States Golf Association (USGA), has long worked with sports and entertainment partners, from the Olympics in London and Rio de Janeiro to the NBA and from music festivals with Live Nation to hundreds of stadiums the world over, partnered with the USGA in fall 2018 to improve networking, cloud, collaboration, cybersecurity and data and analytics.
The first-ever connected course concept at the 119thU.S. Open includes a blanket of Wi-Fi — 350 Cisco Meraki MR access points cover the entire property —to show off the brand-new over-the-top streaming service from Cisco and the USGA. Available for Apple TV and Roku, the USGA app will offer free, live-streaming coverage of the tournament, historic highlights, feature films, entire final-round broadcasts from past championships and a full library of USGA original programming.
“With our partner Cisco, we have built a first-of-its-kind, course-wide Wi-Fi network that gives us the speed and confidence to dynamically deliver content and new experiences to our fans at the 2019 U.S. Open,” says Navin Singh, chief commercial officer of the USGA. “We’ve been able to stretch our imagination, deliver innovative features in our app, and look forward to helping fans consume, share and engage with the championship like never before.”
The app will also cover the U.S. Women’s Open, U.S. Senior Open, U.S. Amateur and U.S. Women’s Amateur championships and will feature an exclusive extended cut of the feature film “2018 U.S. Open: Brooks Goes Back to Back,” which chronicles Brooks Koepka’s successful defense of the U.S. Open title at Shinnecok Hills.
Along with the new OTT streaming service, Cisco hopes to show off how stadiums and live sports venues can accelerate and personalize the in-venue experience for fans while securely controlling and distributing content to fans not at the venue. The 30,000-plus daily patrons at Pebble Beach can use the U.S. Open App to access content, but also a 360-degree virtual reality feature, a virtual photo booth, wayfinding to navigate the course, live streaming, on-site player tracking, player analytics and push notifications for scoring updates. Singh says “we set out to create truly unique experiences for today’s sports enthusiasts.”
The San Jose-based technology company will place its Cisco Vision technology at locations around the course, such as the driving range, where TopTracer technology will allow fans to visualize player shot data on the range.
"The future of the fan experience will be more immersive and customized, and that requires a secure and reliable network," says Ken Martin, general manager and director of global sales, Cisco Sports and Entertainment. "We have delivered that network in scores of venues around the world, and we're thrilled to be partnering with the USGA to bring that connectivity to fans at Pebble Beach for the 2019 U.S. Open."
As part of the blanket Wi-Fi coverage, Cisco plans to conduct the first-ever major sporting event test of Wi-Fi 6, the next-generation wireless standard that increases individual device speed but also offers a more robust overall network speed with multiple users, key for major sporting events. With a 400 percent greater bandwidth capacity, reduced latency and higher reliability coming four times more power efficient on devices, the Wi-Fi 6 test — only the newest of devices currently have the ability to access Wi-Fi 6 networks — will offer a fresh perspective both for Cisco and the USGA pulling data on its value, but also for fans who can access the benefits.
“Together, the USGA and Cisco have built a foundation of connectivity that will enhance the USGA Championships and allow the delivery of compelling content to fans everywhere,” says Kevin Dunbar, Cisco’s senior director of brand strategy and content. “Delivering video on demand is a critical way to engage with sports fans everywhere.”
Cisco calls the 2019 Pebble Beach championship a first step in using technology to support the USGA. It starts with a re-focus of the network infrastructure, but also for planning a more connected and secure future to “create inspiration, drive participation and ultimately facilitate business and industry transformation for the great game of golf.”
