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

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

The Beginning

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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

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

Why Wi-Fi?

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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

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

The Ryder Cup 2014

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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!!

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

The Ryder Cup 2014

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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

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

The Ryder Cup 2014

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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)

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

The Ryder Cup 2014

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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

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

The Ryder Cup 2014

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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