Interview continued...
They say in sports that speed can’t be taught, but there’s nothing stopping us from learning how to harness it to improve the game. From creating immersive fan experiences, accelerated training techniques and real-time game rulings never before possible, the technology teams at Major League Baseball have embraced the power of 5G connectivity available in both ballparks and beyond to bring America’s favorite pastime into the modern age.
In this special 2-part episode of The Restless Ones, we sit down with Vasanth Williams, Chief Product Officer and EVP of Product & Engineering and Truman Boyes, SVP of Infrastructure for Major League Baseball. Their complementary responsibilities span everything from keeping the league and teams interconnected to unlocking enhanced fan experiences both inside the ballpark and at home. We’ll hear how they are utilizing some of the latest innovations made possible in a connected world, such as AR, smart sensors and low-latency/high-throughput data transfers to elevate the player and fan experience both on and off the field.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The experience you're going to have is going to change,
the rich, mussive experience that was never thought possible. It
will be possible with five G, especially from a sports
point of view. I'm excited about what it can bring
to the fans and provide a rich and a more
communal experience. And I think it's up to us across
MLB to make that possible, and we will. We're going
(00:23):
to have some interesting things in the Mobile Home Run
Derby and the All Star Game this year with the
A R and five G, and it will be fun
to showcase that to our fans. Welcome to the Restless Ones.
I'm Jonathan Strickland. I've spent more than a decade really
learning about technology, what makes it tick, and then describing
(00:43):
and explaining that to my audience. But it's the conversations
with the world's most unconventional thinkers, the leaders at the
intersection of technology and business that fascinated me the most.
In partnership with T Mobile for Business, I explore the
unique set of challenges that see I O S C
T o S face from advancements in cloud and edge computing,
(01:04):
software as a service, Internet of Things, and of course
five Gen we are often left wondering how the leading
minds and business continue to thrive. Let's find out. Today.
We have two guests from Major League Baseball or MLB,
(01:25):
the Sans Williams, Chief Product Officer and e VP of
Product and Engineering, as well as Truman Boys, s VP
of Infrastructure. In our last episode, I spoke with the
San Than Truman to learn more about their roles and
how they leverage technology to augment the game of baseball.
And by that I don't just mean the experience of
watching a game or even visiting a ballpark. It also
(01:48):
includes the game itself, which changes as coaches and players
gain access to more sophisticated technology and analytics. In today's episode,
we begin exploring how some emerging technologies are already having
an effect on how we experience baseball and what we
might expect in the future. I want to start with
talking about how MLB is planning on leveraging five G
(02:11):
connectivity with high frequency five G. Now that we're seeing
more and more five G supported devices coming out, we've
got a broader implementation of five G and different regions.
What are the plans for MLB to leverage five G?
I can speak to it on an infrastructure standpoint, I think,
you know, overall, there may be additional product changes that
(02:32):
we we start to unlock, but I look at it
as a technology that unlocks possibilities. So to start with one,
it would be additional bandwidth and low latency and being
mobile matters. So you know, we talked about the thirty ballparks.
That's one thing, but we also service Jewel events, which
are you know, there's the t Mobile Home Run, Derby's,
(02:53):
there's Field of Dreams, and there's just all these other
things that support the game of baseball which are more
for transient or temporary connections and being able to have
either live video streamed out of these locations with adequate
bandwidth or stats or all of it. You know, it
may be all of that type of data that we
want to have delivered. And so you start there and
(03:14):
then you sort of, you know, build upon it. You know,
how can we have better security in the areas to
monitor anti drone technologies and things that we know we
care about, we care about, you know, how do we
protect the entire ballpark? Five G I think provides transport
and infrastructure to allow us to do that. So that's
from an infrastructure side, I'd say those are key points,
(03:34):
excellent fasof do you have any thoughts? Yeah, I would
say at this point we are scratching the selface and
all the possibilities of five gets. So if you really
take a step back and think about it, imagine you know,
the ballpark and the things five G allows you to do.
One of the things we talked about internally at MLBS,
(03:56):
how could we make the experience at the ballpark better
than watching it on TV? With all this different camera angle,
going to the ballpark experience should be, on part better
than watching it from home on your television. How can
we make that happen? I think five G enables that,
you know, if you missed a play, or you want
to see it from an angle that has never seen before,
or you can see from a different camera angle itself,
(04:18):
we should be able to make that possible. And I
think I really provides that experience makes that possible, right,
And you'll see some of that coming out part of
a jewel the wind. But I think I'm excited what
five you can unlock. Yeah, I think of things like
augmented reality implementations that could go from anything from just
augmenting the experience of sitting between innings, two things that
(04:42):
are actively giving you more information about what you're seeing. Absolutely, yeah,
I can't wait. I'm curious. Also, where are some of
the bleeding edge technologies that you're eager to experiment with,
stuff that you know, you see the promise of that
tech and you're hoping that you might be able to
find meaningful ways to implement within the MLB approach. Definitely,
(05:03):
you already touched upon it a little bit. The augmented reality,
It's already here, but to a point where it is
not interfering with your actual physical experience. So that's to
me is the things that we're experimenting with augmented reality
need not just be through your phone. It could be
through your your smart class or any other device that
actually lets you experience a full physical reality as well
(05:26):
as and adds on to it versus right now, I
got to do one or the other. So at any
point in real time, you can say how fast the
pitch was, was the launch angle, and where are you
sitting in the field and really create an experience that
is really phenomenal and immersive for a fan, so that
I'm excited about it and and it's going to happen. It's
a question of time and how fast we're going to
(05:47):
do it, and we're going to keep experimenting with it
and and the someth I'm so glad you brought that
up to because I agree. I think. I think when
we get to a point where are headsets are at
a level of sophistication and affordability, then they are truly
immersed in the experience while they still get the benefit
of that augmentation. I really look forward to the emergence
(06:11):
of that technology and the maturation of it. Um Truman,
do you have any thoughts about any sort of bleeding
edge tech that. I mean, you've been working with things
like lidar and stuff already to a great extent, but
I think all those things are really exciting. I think
biometric access to ballparks is going to have a transformational impact.
(06:31):
I think to fans and even new fans, it's just like,
what's it like to go to a game? Oh wow,
I have to wait in all, you know, minutes to
kind of get in here, and then I got to
deal with the concession stands. It's a lovely experience, but
making it better and finding ways to just even purchasing
items should just be a very seamless experience. We've we've
solved other places, and it would be nice to see
this make its way, you know, into into the ballparks.
(06:53):
And I think the second thing is it's a little
bit more reachable right now, which is a lower latency product.
So you know your phone and go and try and
watch a game live, you know, physically, go to the
ball park and look at the delta between when a
pitch is thrown and when you see it on your screen.
And the reason why this actually matters is because when
you get up for some reason and you want to
(07:14):
just see what just happened or what you missed, or
there's a cheering every everyone in the crowds are going
wild and then you're like, what I miss Well? How
nice would be able to pull that back up and
just go, oh wow, that's cool. All right, I'm back
in the game now, I saw what happened, and to
experience that to bring that latency down, and those technologies
are they're accessible to us, and so we're spending time
on this now to try to make the experience better.
(07:35):
And I guess it also really helps to be a
fan of baseball and to know what those experiences are like,
where are those potential pain points for fans, Like what
are the things that might be frustrating for a fan
UH and finding ways where technology can perhaps alleviate that
or speed things up so that it is a more
(07:57):
seamless and fun experience from start to a mission. At
the end of the day, when you go home after
the Braves have choked and playoffs, you can say like, well,
that was an amazing day, even if it didn't turn
out the way I wanted it to. Well. Um, I
also I'm curious how are you how are you leveraging
(08:18):
technology not just to UH to create new experiences for
baseball fans, how are you using it to attract new
fans to the game In what ways are you looking
at technology as a way of bringing in new people?
So we need to be where the fans are, so
the next generation of fans not just which digital places
(08:41):
they are, but also the way they consume media. It's different,
and if we don't adapt and provide them in the
way they consume, we're going to lose them in a
formordable long period of time. So we're leveraging all of
this new technology that we have to provide content in
a way that's aging to them, whether it's shot from
(09:02):
white sized content where they have it on the go,
are you know you're morning ground up of what happened
last night. So those are biggers of investment for us.
We launched a product called Rally, which is a predicted
gaming where you can predict what's gonna happen while you're
watching the game. So the age group that plays that
game is significantly lower than our average baseball fan because
(09:24):
we're using technology and products and functionality that appeals to
the next generation is critically it changes all the time.
So as I talk to you about pace of change,
you know they go back five six years ago TikTok
was didn't exist or wasn't big, and we have to
continuously adapt and use technology to be in the forefront
of that. So I love that part of the strategy
(09:48):
is gamifying the baseball game. It's gamification taken to the
nth degree. But also, like as you point out, it
is interesting because part your challenges that you're looking at
making the all this amazing data, finding those meaningful implementations
of that data not just in one size fits all,
(10:11):
but in different aspects to appeal to the various UH
tendencies you you observe in different generations. I honestly have
not even thought about that. It's not just enough to
collect this information and not even enough to just package it.
You have to very intently create different packages for different
(10:34):
types of fans. And I would also add that you
should also allow them to create. What we are seeing
with the younger and newer fans, they want to be creators.
How could we let them create their own experience with baseball?
That's how we need to be thinking about. Uh, it's
not just we created and hey, hey take it, I
think you will like it, but rather allow them to
(10:55):
create their own experience when they interact with digital or
even when they go to the ballpark, creating what we
call the personalized experience. And what we've seen this the
next generation is very creative content creators in general. So
we want to be able to allow that to happen. Well,
it takes the baseball experience even more of as a
participatory thing as opposed to being a passive spectator of
(11:18):
a sport. Now, I feel like we've touched on this
a little bit because you've talked about how the data
you collect, you're able to share that with teams and coaches.
But how would you say that the game overall has
sort of evolved due to the fact that you have
the ability to to leverage this kind of technology and information. Well,
(11:39):
I mean, I think on the macro level, you know,
probably you know, five to ten years ago, no one
has even heard of a launch angle velocity off the
bat was a stat that nobody knew because it simply
wasn't measured nor advertised. And I think you've seen impacts
to the game where you know, in the dugouts, you know,
there's you know, coaches have of iPads they're reviewing, you know,
(12:02):
some of the content of the players, so they're able
to provide coaching tips. This is happening as a real
time feedback loop, and it's supported by a bunch of
infrastructure to put in there, you know, high speed WiFi
or capabilities for four G and five G within the ballparks.
The other thing which is is super important to us
is around accuracy, so just accuracy of the tracking, but
(12:23):
also accuracy of all of the camera angles and distributing
them back to areas where they can be reviewed in
a very quick time. Period. So these are high frame
rate cameras. We're talking you know, normal cameras, you know,
anywhere from thirty to sixty frames per second. It's cameras
are like three thousand frames per second, so you can go,
you know, clip, clip clip, Let's look at the way
(12:44):
that ball was spinning. Let's take a look at you know,
what's the foot on the bag. All of that is
sent back at very high bit rates, and so it's
just enabled better calls. It's enabled a better experience so
that you know, fans agree with that particular call that's
happening on field. Hopefully there's more of that. Yeah, it's
just small changes in tech are having monumental impact. It
just takes a little time for them to proliferate, so
(13:07):
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(13:29):
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(14:42):
As you pointed out earlier, Truman, something that really excites
me is this idea of being able to leverage technologies
like five G so that you can start to recreate
a simulacrum of the experience of a big ballpark in
other areas where you're able to have this rapidly deployed
in for structure essentially to support that kind of incredible
(15:03):
data capture and leveraging of data. Uh, something that would
not have been really possible without that kind of very
low latency, high throughput connectivity. Yeah, you're right. I think
there's a lot that you can do with you know,
at least five megabits per second that you can realize
on five G and and upwards, and that just didn't
exist in the past. So you can have a near
(15:25):
parity with a wired connection with five G and latency
that matches an Ethernet connection. And so you know, it's
not just around you know, can we do the same
things that we were previously doing. It's just what can
you build on top of this when you have completely
open potential on any location and speeds that are adequate.
So we were excited about just the transport of video
(15:47):
infrastructure components, resilient connections that you know, if fiber connections
were to break in a ballpark, that we could route
that traffic back over five G and and protect the
streaming experience. Just all of it together, I think really
becomes you know, open and unlocked. So I really exciting
to be a part of it. I mean anecdotally. I
would also share that in Jersey City, in New Jersey,
(16:08):
I was able to get five megabus per second on
T mobile off my sailboat. So you know, it was
pretty nice to be able to connect back and stream
a game and get that kind of throue. But on
a boat no less. Yeah, well vacant. I'm very curious
because we've been talking a lot about these these new
experiences people can have and things that are uh that
(16:31):
are already out there at least in some form. Can
you kind of give me what you envision the experience
would be like going to what a baseball game five
years from now? I mean, clearly the Braves are in
the postseason, they're destined to win at this time, but
what's that experience like? Yeah? Absolutely, So there's two aspects
(16:52):
to when we think about what's five years gonna look
like from a technology and digital point of view. The
one big one asking about is the into the ballpark experience.
Where we think about it is what is the couch
to seat and back to couch experience should be? Sitting
in your couch. You you want to buy a ticket,
you could just ask you Alexa, Google Home, or your
(17:14):
Siri and you say, okay, you know, get me these
tickets to the Braves games. And it's just there and
goes into your wallet and and you say it's time
to go to the game, and you get into your
car and it's smart connected cards say, one of the
things you really want to make sure is like nobody
likes waiting in lines, whether it's at the concession stands
or trying to get in it. How do you have
(17:36):
minimize that? So you could order right from your car
and you walk into the ballpark and you go to
where you need to go and food is either delivered
to you where you're sitting or you just go pick
it up. There's no waiting and standing in line. There's
nothing coming in between your experience of the ballpark and
the game. So we want technology to take the backseat
that just enables and figures out what you're mad seeing
(18:00):
most of experience. It's going to be every part of
your journey. It's connected. You know, if you want to
access and buy memorability or signed baseball. So it's just
all real, little easily done for you, and all your
there is to enjoy that moment with your family, your
friends and watch the game and hopefully people be back
and I can promise you will get there. I'm hoping
(18:20):
it's not five years, but much earlier than that. A
lot of the technologies are there. We just need to
make sure that that we do that at scale for people.
And I talked to you about allowing people to create
their own baseball experience, both physical and digital. That's what
we mean the san I think you just created a
new season ticket holder. Uh, probably more than one. So
(18:44):
that's that's a wonderful vision. Before I could let the
sant and Truan go, I needed to ask them one
more thing. The santh will start with you. What excites
you most about five G? Look at that gets it's
the obvious ones. It's Uh, the experience you're going to
have is going to change the rich, mossive experience that
(19:09):
was never thought possible. It will be possible with five G.
It's still in the early stages, but I'm excited about
what especially from a sports point of view, I'm excited
about what it can bring to the fans and provide
a rich and a more communal experience. And I think
it's up to us, across MLB and across all the
leagues to make that possible, and we will and we'll
(19:29):
see We're going to have some interesting things in the
Mobile Home Run Derby and the Old Shot game this
year with the A R and five G and it
will be fun to showcase that to our fans. And
and Truman, same question to you, what excites you most
about five G? So I was just recalling one of
the first cell phones I had that had data capabilities,
which I think was like a Sony ericson phone with GPRS,
(19:52):
which at the time, you know, fifty six k bits
per second and it's like, wow, this is amazing. I
remember using it on the Acceller train going you know,
up to uh Boston, and I just thought it was
mind blowing that you could take data with you and
you didn't have to dial up. And we've just seen
phenomenal impacts with the data rates increasing. Has every new technology,
three G, four G, now five G. It just unlocks
(20:13):
capabilities and you see a richer media format in every
single site that you go to. So that's only going
to increase. And whether that's actually a R or you know,
it's four K or eight K streaming, these video streams
look beautiful and just imagine people to take that anywhere
you go, possibly give it to the kids in the
backseat of the car and they're streaming at you know,
(20:34):
four K. Just that's the kind of things that you
can do with five G. And I think it's just
going to open up the possibility for you know, a
more connected world, which I think has a lot of
benefits as well. Well. Said well, Lassans and Truman, thank
you so much for being on the show. I greatly
appreciate it. Thanks for having us. I again want to
(21:00):
thank the San and Truman for coming on the show
and sharing their vision of how technology can enhance the
world around us in meaningful ways by laying out infrastructure,
building engaging experiences, and leveraging the power of five G.
I have no doubt that MLB will continue to pull
in new generations of fans and they can't wait to
get back to a baseball game and see this technology
(21:21):
and action. As we see more sophisticate implementations of technologies
like augmented reality and the Internet of Things, we need
five G connectivity to make it all work as intended.
You don't want to try out a new interactive a
R feature in the baseball game and then wait for
everything to buffer that it cause you to miss the
(21:42):
next play. I really think that in terms of five
G utility, professional sports make a pretty great use case.
But the powerful story behind five G is that it
can enable technological processes in any kind of organization. If
there is a task that depends on high throughput and
low latency, five G is the answer, and all without cables.
(22:04):
Be sure to join us for more the restless ones
as we meet with thought leaders in tech. Thanks for listening.
I'm Jonathan Strickland. Major League Baseball trademarks used with permission.
These days, new ways of working have become the norm,
(22:26):
and the status quo no longer cuts it when it
comes to helping businesses evolve and grow. That's why T
Mobile for Business uses unconventional thinking to help businesses sees
innovation only. T Mobile offers America's largest and fastest five
gene network, which makes their new WFX solutions possible, letting
businesses stay connected and productive where work happens. See what
(22:49):
T Mobile for Business can do for you at t
mobile dot com. Slash Unconventional Open Signal awarded T mobile
fastest five G network based on average speeds USA five
G User Experience Report January Capable device required coverage not
available in some areas. Some users may require certain plann
or features set mobile dot com
The experience you're going to have is going to change,
the rich, mussive experience that was never thought possible. It
will be possible with five G, especially from a sports
point of view. I'm excited about what it can bring
to the fans and provide a rich and a more
communal experience. And I think it's up to us across
MLB to make that possible, and we will. We're going
(00:23):
to have some interesting things in the Mobile Home Run
Derby and the All Star Game this year with the
A R and five G, and it will be fun
to showcase that to our fans. Welcome to the Restless Ones.
I'm Jonathan Strickland. I've spent more than a decade really
learning about technology, what makes it tick, and then describing
(00:43):
and explaining that to my audience. But it's the conversations
with the world's most unconventional thinkers, the leaders at the
intersection of technology and business that fascinated me the most.
In partnership with T Mobile for Business, I explore the
unique set of challenges that see I O S C
T o S face from advancements in cloud and edge computing,
(01:04):
software as a service, Internet of Things, and of course
five Gen we are often left wondering how the leading
minds and business continue to thrive. Let's find out. Today.
We have two guests from Major League Baseball or MLB,
(01:25):
the Sans Williams, Chief Product Officer and e VP of
Product and Engineering, as well as Truman Boys, s VP
of Infrastructure. In our last episode, I spoke with the
San Than Truman to learn more about their roles and
how they leverage technology to augment the game of baseball.
And by that I don't just mean the experience of
watching a game or even visiting a ballpark. It also
(01:48):
includes the game itself, which changes as coaches and players
gain access to more sophisticated technology and analytics. In today's episode,
we begin exploring how some emerging technologies are already having
an effect on how we experience baseball and what we
might expect in the future. I want to start with
talking about how MLB is planning on leveraging five G
(02:11):
connectivity with high frequency five G. Now that we're seeing
more and more five G supported devices coming out, we've
got a broader implementation of five G and different regions.
What are the plans for MLB to leverage five G?
I can speak to it on an infrastructure standpoint, I think,
you know, overall, there may be additional product changes that
(02:32):
we we start to unlock, but I look at it
as a technology that unlocks possibilities. So to start with one,
it would be additional bandwidth and low latency and being
mobile matters. So you know, we talked about the thirty ballparks.
That's one thing, but we also service Jewel events, which
are you know, there's the t Mobile Home Run, Derby's,
(02:53):
there's Field of Dreams, and there's just all these other
things that support the game of baseball which are more
for transient or temporary connections and being able to have
either live video streamed out of these locations with adequate
bandwidth or stats or all of it. You know, it
may be all of that type of data that we
want to have delivered. And so you start there and
(03:14):
then you sort of, you know, build upon it. You know,
how can we have better security in the areas to
monitor anti drone technologies and things that we know we
care about, we care about, you know, how do we
protect the entire ballpark? Five G I think provides transport
and infrastructure to allow us to do that. So that's
from an infrastructure side, I'd say those are key points,
(03:34):
excellent fasof do you have any thoughts? Yeah, I would
say at this point we are scratching the selface and
all the possibilities of five gets. So if you really
take a step back and think about it, imagine you know,
the ballpark and the things five G allows you to do.
One of the things we talked about internally at MLBS,
(03:56):
how could we make the experience at the ballpark better
than watching it on TV? With all this different camera angle,
going to the ballpark experience should be, on part better
than watching it from home on your television. How can
we make that happen? I think five G enables that,
you know, if you missed a play, or you want
to see it from an angle that has never seen before,
or you can see from a different camera angle itself,
(04:18):
we should be able to make that possible. And I
think I really provides that experience makes that possible, right,
And you'll see some of that coming out part of
a jewel the wind. But I think I'm excited what
five you can unlock. Yeah, I think of things like
augmented reality implementations that could go from anything from just
augmenting the experience of sitting between innings, two things that
(04:42):
are actively giving you more information about what you're seeing. Absolutely, yeah,
I can't wait. I'm curious. Also, where are some of
the bleeding edge technologies that you're eager to experiment with,
stuff that you know, you see the promise of that
tech and you're hoping that you might be able to
find meaningful ways to implement within the MLB approach. Definitely,
(05:03):
you already touched upon it a little bit. The augmented reality,
It's already here, but to a point where it is
not interfering with your actual physical experience. So that's to
me is the things that we're experimenting with augmented reality
need not just be through your phone. It could be
through your your smart class or any other device that
actually lets you experience a full physical reality as well
(05:26):
as and adds on to it versus right now, I
got to do one or the other. So at any
point in real time, you can say how fast the
pitch was, was the launch angle, and where are you
sitting in the field and really create an experience that
is really phenomenal and immersive for a fan, so that
I'm excited about it and and it's going to happen. It's
a question of time and how fast we're going to
(05:47):
do it, and we're going to keep experimenting with it
and and the someth I'm so glad you brought that
up to because I agree. I think. I think when
we get to a point where are headsets are at
a level of sophistication and affordability, then they are truly
immersed in the experience while they still get the benefit
of that augmentation. I really look forward to the emergence
(06:11):
of that technology and the maturation of it. Um Truman,
do you have any thoughts about any sort of bleeding
edge tech that. I mean, you've been working with things
like lidar and stuff already to a great extent, but
I think all those things are really exciting. I think
biometric access to ballparks is going to have a transformational impact.
(06:31):
I think to fans and even new fans, it's just like,
what's it like to go to a game? Oh wow,
I have to wait in all, you know, minutes to
kind of get in here, and then I got to
deal with the concession stands. It's a lovely experience, but
making it better and finding ways to just even purchasing
items should just be a very seamless experience. We've we've
solved other places, and it would be nice to see
this make its way, you know, into into the ballparks.
(06:53):
And I think the second thing is it's a little
bit more reachable right now, which is a lower latency product.
So you know your phone and go and try and
watch a game live, you know, physically, go to the
ball park and look at the delta between when a
pitch is thrown and when you see it on your screen.
And the reason why this actually matters is because when
you get up for some reason and you want to
(07:14):
just see what just happened or what you missed, or
there's a cheering every everyone in the crowds are going
wild and then you're like, what I miss Well? How
nice would be able to pull that back up and
just go, oh wow, that's cool. All right, I'm back
in the game now, I saw what happened, and to
experience that to bring that latency down, and those technologies
are they're accessible to us, and so we're spending time
on this now to try to make the experience better.
(07:35):
And I guess it also really helps to be a
fan of baseball and to know what those experiences are like,
where are those potential pain points for fans, Like what
are the things that might be frustrating for a fan
UH and finding ways where technology can perhaps alleviate that
or speed things up so that it is a more
(07:57):
seamless and fun experience from start to a mission. At
the end of the day, when you go home after
the Braves have choked and playoffs, you can say like, well,
that was an amazing day, even if it didn't turn
out the way I wanted it to. Well. Um, I
also I'm curious how are you how are you leveraging
(08:18):
technology not just to UH to create new experiences for
baseball fans, how are you using it to attract new
fans to the game In what ways are you looking
at technology as a way of bringing in new people?
So we need to be where the fans are, so
the next generation of fans not just which digital places
(08:41):
they are, but also the way they consume media. It's different,
and if we don't adapt and provide them in the
way they consume, we're going to lose them in a
formordable long period of time. So we're leveraging all of
this new technology that we have to provide content in
a way that's aging to them, whether it's shot from
(09:02):
white sized content where they have it on the go,
are you know you're morning ground up of what happened
last night. So those are biggers of investment for us.
We launched a product called Rally, which is a predicted
gaming where you can predict what's gonna happen while you're
watching the game. So the age group that plays that
game is significantly lower than our average baseball fan because
(09:24):
we're using technology and products and functionality that appeals to
the next generation is critically it changes all the time.
So as I talk to you about pace of change,
you know they go back five six years ago TikTok
was didn't exist or wasn't big, and we have to
continuously adapt and use technology to be in the forefront
of that. So I love that part of the strategy
(09:48):
is gamifying the baseball game. It's gamification taken to the
nth degree. But also, like as you point out, it
is interesting because part your challenges that you're looking at
making the all this amazing data, finding those meaningful implementations
of that data not just in one size fits all,
(10:11):
but in different aspects to appeal to the various UH
tendencies you you observe in different generations. I honestly have
not even thought about that. It's not just enough to
collect this information and not even enough to just package it.
You have to very intently create different packages for different
(10:34):
types of fans. And I would also add that you
should also allow them to create. What we are seeing
with the younger and newer fans, they want to be creators.
How could we let them create their own experience with baseball?
That's how we need to be thinking about. Uh, it's
not just we created and hey, hey take it, I
think you will like it, but rather allow them to
(10:55):
create their own experience when they interact with digital or
even when they go to the ballpark, creating what we
call the personalized experience. And what we've seen this the
next generation is very creative content creators in general. So
we want to be able to allow that to happen. Well,
it takes the baseball experience even more of as a
participatory thing as opposed to being a passive spectator of
(11:18):
a sport. Now, I feel like we've touched on this
a little bit because you've talked about how the data
you collect, you're able to share that with teams and coaches.
But how would you say that the game overall has
sort of evolved due to the fact that you have
the ability to to leverage this kind of technology and information. Well,
(11:39):
I mean, I think on the macro level, you know,
probably you know, five to ten years ago, no one
has even heard of a launch angle velocity off the
bat was a stat that nobody knew because it simply
wasn't measured nor advertised. And I think you've seen impacts
to the game where you know, in the dugouts, you know,
there's you know, coaches have of iPads they're reviewing, you know,
(12:02):
some of the content of the players, so they're able
to provide coaching tips. This is happening as a real
time feedback loop, and it's supported by a bunch of
infrastructure to put in there, you know, high speed WiFi
or capabilities for four G and five G within the ballparks.
The other thing which is is super important to us
is around accuracy, so just accuracy of the tracking, but
(12:23):
also accuracy of all of the camera angles and distributing
them back to areas where they can be reviewed in
a very quick time. Period. So these are high frame
rate cameras. We're talking you know, normal cameras, you know,
anywhere from thirty to sixty frames per second. It's cameras
are like three thousand frames per second, so you can go,
you know, clip, clip clip, Let's look at the way
(12:44):
that ball was spinning. Let's take a look at you know,
what's the foot on the bag. All of that is
sent back at very high bit rates, and so it's
just enabled better calls. It's enabled a better experience so
that you know, fans agree with that particular call that's
happening on field. Hopefully there's more of that. Yeah, it's
just small changes in tech are having monumental impact. It
just takes a little time for them to proliferate, so
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(14:42):
As you pointed out earlier, Truman, something that really excites
me is this idea of being able to leverage technologies
like five G so that you can start to recreate
a simulacrum of the experience of a big ballpark in
other areas where you're able to have this rapidly deployed
in for structure essentially to support that kind of incredible
(15:03):
data capture and leveraging of data. Uh, something that would
not have been really possible without that kind of very
low latency, high throughput connectivity. Yeah, you're right. I think
there's a lot that you can do with you know,
at least five megabits per second that you can realize
on five G and and upwards, and that just didn't
exist in the past. So you can have a near
(15:25):
parity with a wired connection with five G and latency
that matches an Ethernet connection. And so you know, it's
not just around you know, can we do the same
things that we were previously doing. It's just what can
you build on top of this when you have completely
open potential on any location and speeds that are adequate.
So we were excited about just the transport of video
(15:47):
infrastructure components, resilient connections that you know, if fiber connections
were to break in a ballpark, that we could route
that traffic back over five G and and protect the
streaming experience. Just all of it together, I think really
becomes you know, open and unlocked. So I really exciting
to be a part of it. I mean anecdotally. I
would also share that in Jersey City, in New Jersey,
(16:08):
I was able to get five megabus per second on
T mobile off my sailboat. So you know, it was
pretty nice to be able to connect back and stream
a game and get that kind of throue. But on
a boat no less. Yeah, well vacant. I'm very curious
because we've been talking a lot about these these new
experiences people can have and things that are uh that
(16:31):
are already out there at least in some form. Can
you kind of give me what you envision the experience
would be like going to what a baseball game five
years from now? I mean, clearly the Braves are in
the postseason, they're destined to win at this time, but
what's that experience like? Yeah? Absolutely, So there's two aspects
(16:52):
to when we think about what's five years gonna look
like from a technology and digital point of view. The
one big one asking about is the into the ballpark experience.
Where we think about it is what is the couch
to seat and back to couch experience should be? Sitting
in your couch. You you want to buy a ticket,
you could just ask you Alexa, Google Home, or your
(17:14):
Siri and you say, okay, you know, get me these
tickets to the Braves games. And it's just there and
goes into your wallet and and you say it's time
to go to the game, and you get into your
car and it's smart connected cards say, one of the
things you really want to make sure is like nobody
likes waiting in lines, whether it's at the concession stands
or trying to get in it. How do you have
(17:36):
minimize that? So you could order right from your car
and you walk into the ballpark and you go to
where you need to go and food is either delivered
to you where you're sitting or you just go pick
it up. There's no waiting and standing in line. There's
nothing coming in between your experience of the ballpark and
the game. So we want technology to take the backseat
that just enables and figures out what you're mad seeing
(18:00):
most of experience. It's going to be every part of
your journey. It's connected. You know, if you want to
access and buy memorability or signed baseball. So it's just
all real, little easily done for you, and all your
there is to enjoy that moment with your family, your
friends and watch the game and hopefully people be back
and I can promise you will get there. I'm hoping
(18:20):
it's not five years, but much earlier than that. A
lot of the technologies are there. We just need to
make sure that that we do that at scale for people.
And I talked to you about allowing people to create
their own baseball experience, both physical and digital. That's what
we mean the san I think you just created a
new season ticket holder. Uh, probably more than one. So
(18:44):
that's that's a wonderful vision. Before I could let the
sant and Truan go, I needed to ask them one
more thing. The santh will start with you. What excites
you most about five G? Look at that gets it's
the obvious ones. It's Uh, the experience you're going to
have is going to change the rich, mossive experience that
(19:09):
was never thought possible. It will be possible with five G.
It's still in the early stages, but I'm excited about
what especially from a sports point of view, I'm excited
about what it can bring to the fans and provide
a rich and a more communal experience. And I think
it's up to us, across MLB and across all the
leagues to make that possible, and we will and we'll
(19:29):
see We're going to have some interesting things in the
Mobile Home Run Derby and the Old Shot game this
year with the A R and five G and it
will be fun to showcase that to our fans. And
and Truman, same question to you, what excites you most
about five G? So I was just recalling one of
the first cell phones I had that had data capabilities,
which I think was like a Sony ericson phone with GPRS,
(19:52):
which at the time, you know, fifty six k bits
per second and it's like, wow, this is amazing. I
remember using it on the Acceller train going you know,
up to uh Boston, and I just thought it was
mind blowing that you could take data with you and
you didn't have to dial up. And we've just seen
phenomenal impacts with the data rates increasing. Has every new technology,
three G, four G, now five G. It just unlocks
(20:13):
capabilities and you see a richer media format in every
single site that you go to. So that's only going
to increase. And whether that's actually a R or you know,
it's four K or eight K streaming, these video streams
look beautiful and just imagine people to take that anywhere
you go, possibly give it to the kids in the
backseat of the car and they're streaming at you know,
(20:34):
four K. Just that's the kind of things that you
can do with five G. And I think it's just
going to open up the possibility for you know, a
more connected world, which I think has a lot of
benefits as well. Well. Said well, Lassans and Truman, thank
you so much for being on the show. I greatly
appreciate it. Thanks for having us. I again want to
(21:00):
thank the San and Truman for coming on the show
and sharing their vision of how technology can enhance the
world around us in meaningful ways by laying out infrastructure,
building engaging experiences, and leveraging the power of five G.
I have no doubt that MLB will continue to pull
in new generations of fans and they can't wait to
get back to a baseball game and see this technology
(21:21):
and action. As we see more sophisticate implementations of technologies
like augmented reality and the Internet of Things, we need
five G connectivity to make it all work as intended.
You don't want to try out a new interactive a
R feature in the baseball game and then wait for
everything to buffer that it cause you to miss the
(21:42):
next play. I really think that in terms of five
G utility, professional sports make a pretty great use case.
But the powerful story behind five G is that it
can enable technological processes in any kind of organization. If
there is a task that depends on high throughput and
low latency, five G is the answer, and all without cables.
(22:04):
Be sure to join us for more the restless ones
as we meet with thought leaders in tech. Thanks for listening.
I'm Jonathan Strickland. Major League Baseball trademarks used with permission.
These days, new ways of working have become the norm,
(22:26):
and the status quo no longer cuts it when it
comes to helping businesses evolve and grow. That's why T
Mobile for Business uses unconventional thinking to help businesses sees
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gene network, which makes their new WFX solutions possible, letting
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(22:49):
T Mobile for Business can do for you at t
mobile dot com. Slash Unconventional Open Signal awarded T mobile
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G User Experience Report January Capable device required coverage not
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