In the knockout stage of the World Cup, it’s win or go home.
The heightened expectations magnifies everything to yet another level. The simplest mistake mortifies an entire nation. Thus, there’s very little–if any–room for error.
This reality is no different in the board room as it is on the field of play. FIFA already failed in its app development and deployment. The negative response from users demonstrates the organization’s lack of attention to detail and processes. The brand name of any one company isn’t enough to sway a consumer to be receptive to what they’re selling one way or another. Fans just expect more.
Currently, there appears to be a divide between international and domestic, Brazilian, fans, in terms of their respective mobile consumption.
According to the Digits, nearly 60 percent of the former intend to use their smartphones for World Cup information. Another 46 percent would watch video or listen to audio content of the games with their devices. This survey spanned countries such as Japan, Mexico, China, and the United States. These results, however, have been documented a few months ago and reflect what fans aim to do, not the tangible outcomes. And these statistics gauge a comprised microcosm of how the world outside of Brazil will be participating throughout this time.
Meanwhile, in Brazil, there’s a depressed pool of users. Only about 35 percent of the country’s total consumers, 70 million, anticipate going online on their phones this year, per eMarketer. Just a shade over 11 percent will be following the action via devices. A separate survey projected far worrisome data: three percent. The low penetration discourages hyperlocal, digital brand activations, which could lead to a huge missed opportunity if the national team wins it all.
At the venues, a couple of them have Wi-Fi installed by Ruckus Wireless, including Arena Fonte Nova, where the Americans take on Belgium today. There’s no telling how exhaustive the bandwidth will be able to withstand, considering cellular roaming fees are likely prohibitive. It’s unclear what the roaming charges for American carriers in Brazil are. In Estadio Octavio Mangabeira, specifically, 150 access points hope to cover the 51,000 attendants. These examples shed light on the conditions that coincide with any fan’s in-venue experience.
Outside of these arenas, Linktel, the largest independent network of hotspots in Brazil, partnered with Nomadix in order to provide its AG 5800 online access gateway to various Wi-Fi locations. This provider’s bandwidth management tools look to have substantial connection capacity and equal shareability among users. They are deployed across the 12 major airports, subway stations around Maracana Stadium, and several Rio de Janerio beaches. Some of the latter, in fact, includes a relationship with MasterCard to have Wi-Fi in prime destinations for fans. This initiative supports the circumambulating region, at least partially.
“With such a tremendous influx of visitors for the World Cup, Brazil’s Wi-Fi networks were sure to become overloaded, causing bandwidth challenges and frustrated tourists,” said Nomadix’s Chief Commercial and Operating Officer, Fred Reeder.
The state of connectivity in Brazil for the World Cup conveys a glimpse into the basic accord defined by available bandwidth. There’s proof of stadiums partnering with service providers to install additional small cells for LTE or high capacity Wi-Fi. The application features to entertain fans on top of preliminary customer service can extend to what’s been done at the Super Bowl and Final Four. The in-venue stadium experience has stayed in the nascent stages of shifting to something unique and greater.
Still, one kind of technology has been burgeoning to enter mainstream adoption in this type of sporting environment: Web Real Time Communications, also known as WebRTC.
This tech, in essence, is a web browser-based solution for offering on-demand video, voice, and collaboration. WebRTC simplifies the complexities of real-time interaction. By 2018, upwards of six billion devices will have this technology implemented into them. This projection promises instant connectivity within common UI’s, without adding much software.
Dialogic’s Senior Vice President of Marketing and Strategy, Andrew Goldberg, explains to SportTechie that as an open-source technology, WebRTC, is “simple to integrate because it is already built into the latest versions of Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.”
“However, WebRTC is currently defined as peer-to-peer technology. So, multi-party calls, such as video or voice conferences, would require a high-performance media server, such as Dialogic’s PowerMedia XMS. Our software-based media server enables multiple parties to be connected with HD-quality video and voice for richest, most authentic live experience,” continued Goldberg.
Accordingly, WebRTC’s value proposition to fans would be to give them the means to engage with players, announcers, or fellow fans by enabling on-demand voice or video groups, which wouldn’t need a user to download a specific app or external media player to do so. Fans would just have to access the content through a website via their respective mobile browser.
In light of the aforementioned realities pertinent to bandwidth issues at the World Cup, WebRTC helps connect fans more quickly to live media. While this tech, in it by itself, cannot ease bandwidth capacity problems, the “voice ports” necessity are minimized when users do more voice calls through it. A potential byproduct to this interaction is allowing the service provider to dedicate more bandwidth to mobile data services instead.
“At this point, though, the growth in mobile data consumption is easily outpacing the speed at which capacity is being added to venues,” says Goldberg.
The monetization component for brands would derive from premium content delivered to a certain faction of fans. This offering could stem from either live conferences with athletes or the ability to gain access to exclusive video that take advantage of different angles not visible to the untrained eye.
At the moment, though, Goldberg believes awareness of WebRTC stands as one the biggest misconceptions to overcome since it’s just starting to come online. Bandwidth inefficiencies, of course, will remain a huge hurdle. Signaling factors present another obstacle, some basic call functionality remain inconclusive. Protocols for connection and user identification are virtually mandatory as well. Adoption rates would be contingent on driving it primarily from the vendor’s standpoint.
“As more teams begin to appreciate the power of live, interactive content, the more WebRTC will find compelling use cases for sporting events,” Goldberg states.
The potential of WebRTC being realized would enhance the current collaboration ecosystems. A mechanism that embraces a mixed process and performs a quality UX will prove to be triumphant. Plug-in alternatives would be practical to sustain until all browsers can sufficiently support this tech’s quality. The seamlessness to it for video, voice, and file sharing warrants its introduction and application to the masses.
Goldberg thinks that WebRTC is “only limited by the creativity of teams and their fans.”
Google, for example, has tapped into this tech through a series of mini-games called “Kick with Chrome” angled around the World Cup. These soccer games promote multiplayer modes for each iteration, which is a core aspect of WebRTC’s collaborative nature. The power of a user’s browser showcases a virtually app-like experience that’s just as cool.
Who needs an app when WebRTC would connect fans in new, dynamic ways–without having to drive downloads to boot?