the most connected ryder cup ever

Fan Experience Forum 2015 Innovation Showcase

Ian Bayly, VP EMEA June 9th, 2015

© 2015 Xirrus. All Rights Reserved.

The Ryder Cup 2014 The Most Connected Ryder Cup, Ever

2

© 2015 Xirrus. All Rights Reserved. © 2015 Xirrus. All Rights Reserved.

The Beginning

3

2012 BMW Championship at Wentworth

Convenience connectivity with tight content controls to conserve bandwidth

Highly successful POC for on-course spectator Wi-Fi

Xirrus will continue to deliver Wi-Fi services for European Tour Events through the 2018 Ryder Cup

AJP partnered with Xirrus to deliver HD Wi-Fi connectivity in key spectator areas - Hospitality Pavilions - Tented Village - Public Catering Zone


Why Wi-Fi?

4

Spectator Connectivity – 4th Utility POS Support - Merchandising

Golf Tournament Wi-Fi

Closed circuit HD broadcast

Follow the action anywhere -  Sky Go -  TV Now

Location specific app

Social media engagement -  Patrons encouraged to tweet -  Twitter #RyderCupEurope -  YouTube, Facebook, Instragram

Media Centre Connectivity


The Ryder Cup 2014

5

The Challenges

45,000 attendees per day

Highly transient at a +/- 16KM2 Site

Bandwidth availability in the lower highlands of Scotland

Hospitality and grandstand construction

Hospitality and grandstand design changes

Global event profile – it had to work!!


The Ryder Cup 2014

6

Deployment

132 HD Wi-Fi Access Points across the site

928 software programmable radios

Distributed architecture

On premise management system

Maximum connections to one HD AP: 24.3K

Maximum simultaneous connections to one HD AP: 688

Total of 499 stations were connected to ‘2014RCMedia’ on Sunday afternoon


The Ryder Cup 2014

7

Fan Engagement

34,000+ unique clients during the tournament

24,000+ unique connections per day

2,500 connections at 6.30AM on Thursday (Practice Day)

12,500 peak concurrent connections on Sunday at 9.30AM -  9000 were iOS clients 70% of connected devices were iPhone 5 or newer – operating on the 5GHz band

Fully installed and decommissioned in less than 6 weeks

£14M+ in POS transacted over wireless in 4 days

10% of devices were next wave Wi-Fi ‘ready’ (802.11ac)


The Ryder Cup 2014

8

Social

2014 was the first truly social Ryder Cup

Global awareness raised via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram & YouTube

Wireless connectivity underpinned RC2014’s marketing strategy -  Inform -  Engage -  Grow

Ryder Cup Europe enjoyed 92% increase in followers

644 posts from official accounts in event week

5.31M clicks on official content in match week

50.9M people reached with official content in match week


The Ryder Cup 2014

9

Outcomes

The 2014 RC was the first truly social Ryder Cup

The 2014 RC raised global awareness via Social

Wireless connectivity underpinned the 2014 RC Marketing strategy -  Inform -  Engage -  Grow

The 2014 RC was the most connected Ryder Cup ever….2018 will be more so!

Thank You

the most connected ryder cup ever

Technology