Technology today is increasingly embedded into public venues, as part of Smart City projects, Smart Transportation and Smart Factory projects, and now Smart Stadiums. Siemens highlighted their partnership with TIAA Bank Field in Orlando at their flagship U.S. technology and innovation conference held recently in Orlando (Spotlight on Innovation 2019).
This modern venue, which is home to the Jacksonville Jaguars football team, is “maxing-out the fan experience and securing optimized playing-field conditions using the Siemens breakthrough software MindSphere,” Siemens said, calling this unique deployment “football on the cutting-edge of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).”
Siemens has leveraged their MindSphere platform, a cloud-based, open IoT operating system that links sensors and other data recorders to “create a virtual world of energy, transportation, and production infrastructure for the Industrial Internet of Things,” enabling real-time visualization and modification of code, optimizing efficiency, and updates on the go.
Creating the perfect playing surface means controlling complicated variables, and field managers at TIAA Bank Field are using, as one application, Siemen’s Greenkeeper Analytics application, hosted on the MindSphere cloud-based platform.
Cleats on the turf are first contact in every game, on every play, Siemens explains, so every team in the NFL wants a perfect playing field. This includes high-quality grass in optimum condition allowing professional, NFL football players to maneuver quickly and safely.
In fact, the NFL rules require multiple turf-condition reports prior to and on gameday from stadium groundskeeping teams.
To collect essential turf data, the groundskeeping team at TIAA Bank Field (operated by SMG Inc.) uses the Greenkeeper Analytics application, hosted on the MindSphere cloud-based platform. The app employs six sensor boxes at the field level.
Every two minutes, the sensors send real-time data for six key performance indicators (KPIs)—weather; light conditions; temperature (ground, air, roof); fertilization; and moisture (ground and air)—to a data-collection device. The device transmits the data securely to the to the MindSphere platform, which hosts the Greenkeeper analytic and asset-management software that can assess the turf conditions.
The Greenkeeper application, which is a self-learning system, then can provide the groundskeeping team with information about the KPIs and activity tracking via a visual dashboard, with historical daily, weekly, and monthly values available.
You can learn more about Siemens work with the Jacksonville Jaguars here.
Bringing together many of the country’s foremost industry leaders, technologists, mayors, innovators, and even a stuntman-turned-CEO, Spotlight on Innovation is a real-world look at the technologies spanning topics like the gamification of manufacturing, cyber security, city infrastructure, AI and the digital twin that are helping businesses and cities around the world unlock their potential.
Edited by
Ken Briodagh
