إغلاق بعض علامات التبويب على الإنترنت: تقنيات تيسير الوصول، وجولات القوارب، و«سيوف البيرة»

بقلم بريت ماكورميك

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Let’s close out some proverbial internet browser tabs — what my boss, Abe Madkour, calls “emptying the notebook.”

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RightHear, right now at Sports Illustrated Stadium

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Eagle-eyed fans visiting Sports Illustrated Stadium may notice blue and white, molecule-looking graphics throughout the stadium, particularly next to wayfinding signage.

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They’re RightHear markers, a key part of an orientation system intended to help people with visual impairments or non-native English speakers traverse Red Bull New York’s stadium. Each marker contains a beacon that connects to the RightHear app on users’ phones via Bluetooth; the app then reads the signage aloud and gives other spatial positioning cues to the user.

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RightHear’s goal is to improve upon Braille signage. While the percentage of blind people who can’t read Braille is disputed and varies, none of the percentages match the literacy rates of sighted people. As RightHear co-founder and CEO Idan Meir said, there can be the feeling that, due to the Americans with Disabilities Act, Braille signs are sometimes in public places simply “to check a box. It’s not really there to help a person find their way around and participate.” And how is a blind person supposed to find a Braille sign, anyway?

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Meir makes clear that RightHear is an orientation tool, not a navigation tool; it helps the user know what’s around them, just like a sign would for the sighted. The signs don’t actually speak, but via the beacon, they prompt the (free-to-download) app to speak to its user. No internet connection is required.

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Seeing a case study video in which Red Bulls fan Shanell Matos describes using RightHear to navigate the stadium was moving, in part because she described the smells of food, something she’d never experience listening to a match at home.

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Meir spent three years developing the RightHear markers. They’re conceptually in the same ballpark as QR codes, though the markers aren’t linked to an internet URL and the app can pick them up from all angles, including almost directly sideways (unlike QR codes). Venue operators can manage the RightHear marker information from an online portal.

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RightHear can also benefit speakers of different languages, translating signage and wayfinding into their native tongues. It currently has marker information in 36 languages.

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RightHear is deployed in more than 2,500 locations worldwide, including public parks, libraries, government buildings and museums. But Sports Illustrated Stadium is a big step for the company into live sports venues, and the greater visibility those can offer technologies.

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“It’s 2027,” said Meir. “We can do more, much better than the Braille signage we have out there.”

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Arriving on water

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Nearby bodies of water are being incorporated into the game-day experience at a handful of venues — the KC Current, Rhode Island FC, Chicago Fire and likely the New England Revolution — so what better place to learn how to do so than Venice?

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That’s where Elevate assisted Serie A club Venezia FC in designing a premium boat experience that takes fans to the club’s island stadium. It’s a great example of what Drew Bryant, Elevate chief creative officer, called hospitality extended beyond four walls, and a template for how stadiums near rivers, lakes or oceans could do something similar.

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“Everybody is trying to think about ways to extend the conversation, extend the experience, make it more meaningful,” Bryant told me. “How do you make an experience more meaningful than arriving by boat? Think about the postgame celebration and how much more it resonates when you’re looking at the city and enjoying with friends. What a moment.”

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Could Upper Crust make a college sports play?

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I wrote in August about Missouri athletics’ efforts to raise its revenue game, including a concessionaire switch to Sodexo Live and a local outfit called Upper Crust Food Service. Upper Crust’s inclusion was interesting because its CEO, Adam Guy, was born in Columbia, Mo., and is a die-hard Tigers fan and current season-ticket holder.

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But Upper Crust is no local-yokel outfit. The company had previously serviced fraternities — my desk neighbor at SBJ’s HQ, Alex Silverman, ate Upper Crust grub at his Missouri fraternity — but has grown into a national food service company, with 2,500 employees across more than 600 locations and 44 states.

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I asked Guy if the Mizzou gig could signal Upper Crust’s entry into college sports nationally, not just in the Show Me State.

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“All of the large food contract food services companies that do this do a great job with their operations. Partnering with Upper Crust brings just maybe another view on hospitality that these larger companies can use,” Guy said. “It makes them more well-rounded to have a smaller, more boutique partner that can go in and focus on smaller details, these local activations, these relationships on campus and in the athletic department. If that’s a piece we can get right, it would make us a great partner for these big companies.”

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So … yes.

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What other novelties could be filled with beer?

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USC is selling “beer swords” at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum this fall football season. I’m all for filling any symbolic item with beer; they make cool keepsakes in the era of digital ticketing when you don’t leave the game with many, if any, tokens acknowledging your presence at the event.

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How about:

- A beer oil derrick at Reliant Stadium? The beer shoots out of the top, like oil.
- A St. Louis beer arch? The drinking mechanics might be challenging.
- A beer Statue of Liberty in New York? Booze comes out of Lady Liberty’s torch.
- Or a beer version of any of these quirky/goofy college football rivalry trophies …

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Bret McCormick can be reached at bmccormick@sportsbusinessjournal.com.