By Sara Miller, NoCamels -
Sports fans will know all too well that moment in a match when the action is too quick to catch, invariably leading to laments over their own lack of access to a video replay service enjoyed by the referees and umpires on the field.
Israeli startup Stadicom has developed an app that offers just that, allowing fans in the stands the opportunity to go back to those moments they might have missed, using industry standard Video Assistant Referee on their own devices and from multiple angles.
“One of the most important things in a stadium is not the ability to send SMS, it is the ability to watch video,” Stadicom CEO Uri Sharir tells NoCamels.
“We can send it to the audience [during] the game – two and a half or three minutes after the goal or yellow card or foul.”
The company even plans to allow spectators to vote on whether they think a referee’s decision was correct, although that feature is still in the future.
The app also comes with the technology to ensure those replays stream smoothly – a rare experience when tens of thousands of people in a very small area are all trying to access the same internet service.
“We install systems in stadiums that turn them into smart stadiums,” Sharir explains.
“It’s a system that accompanies them from the moment they enter the stadium until the moment they leave, for everything connected to the event,” he says.
But the app is not just for sports – it provides the same service at any stadium-based large event, be it a Manchester City match, Chris Rock show or Taylor Swift concert.
This not only means the playback facility and superfast internet, but also the ability to place bets (where permitted) and even order food and drink from the refreshment stands and mementos from the in-house souvenir store.
The Tel Aviv-headquartered company was created in 2022 as a solution to the growing problem of providing fast and reliable internet for large events, where tens of thousands of people are all trying to get online at the same time.
Bringing such a complex set of features together in one app is achieved through Stadicom’s Israeli partnerships: advanced 5G antenna from RunEL; management software from TDCOMM; and speedily delivered footage from the country’s top TV sports broadcaster, Charlton.
The startup has now also partnered with HaMoshava (Shlomo Bituach) Stadium in the central Israeli city of Petah Tikva for a pilot program that will bring the technology to its audiences.
The stadium has a capacity of 11,000 and is largely used as a soccer venue, serving as the home ground for both Maccabi Petah Tikva and Hapoel Petah Tikva.
And with a successful pilot under its belt, Stadicom now has its eye on expanding abroad. In fact, Sharir says the company has recently been in talks with senior management of a world-leading soccer club.
Stadicom maintains that with the exception of US sporting titans such as the 30 members of the National Basketball Association and 32 members of the National Football League, most large arenas around the world have poor internet service.
The concept is to provide the infrastructure for high-speed internet to the grounds (which the company says is cheaper than the big service providers) and recoup the cost from the sales made through the app.
But even those locations that do not make use of the fast internet feature can use the other aspects of the app.
Sharir explains that the different functions of the app can be integrated into an individual club’s own applications via an API plugin – a piece of software that allows different networks or platforms to talk to one another.
“We want to revolutionize the way people experience live events,” Sharir says. “Be it sports or entertainment or whatever is on at the venue.”
