Sept. 30, 2005

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - It began as a pilot project in 2003 and has exploded into an interactive fan experience offering everything from instant replays to a restaurant locator to weather reports.

E-Stadium is a collaboration involving the Center for Wireless Systems and Applications, Information Technology and Intercollegiate Athletics.

Fans in the Ross-Ade Pavilion can borrow one of 70 personal digital assistants from the project team control desk located in the Shively Stadium Club. Fans carrying their own PDAs into Ross-Ade Stadium can access e-Stadium by directing their 802.11b-equipped handheld devices to estadium.purdue.edu/estadium. From there, they need only click to the various features to enjoy the experience.

At the e-Stadium splash page, fans will see, in addition to rotating images of Boilermakers in game action, this summary: "Welcome to e-Stadium at Ross-Ade. You have entered a world of invention and entertainment that takes the fan experience to a new dimension. By giving fans video instant replays in the palms of their hands and dynamically reformatting data generated by statisticians in the Ross-Ade press box, e-Stadium provides an array of real-time information, hyperlinked to players' and coaches' biographical information. Besides up-to-the-minute statistics and play-by-play, fans will find the latest updates of other games, as well as diversions such as food locator, restaurant locator, trivia, the history of the Boilermakers, weather reports and more."

Project manager Ronald Glotzbach, assistant professor of computer graphics technology, and his students developed several new applications and uses for the third year of the ongoing project.

Using drop-down menus to choose distance from the stadium and cuisine, fans can locate restaurants to visit on their way from the game. A similar application provides a locator for hotels and motels in Greater Lafayette.

For weather updates, fans will see the latest forecast provided by the Purdue Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.

Another popular feature is updates of current games provided at espn.com.

But by far the most popular feature, introduced in 2004 and refined in the off-season and during the Sept. 10 Purdue-Akron game, is on-demand video highlights of the game that have the look and feel of a handheld Jumbotron.

"The real Buck Rogers feature of e-Stadium is the almost instantaneous streaming of the replays seen on the Jumbotron," says Jay Cooperider, associate athletics director and a member of the e-Stadium project team. "You even see the players' video headshots and replay sponsors the same as on the big screen."

Among the improvements implemented by Glotzbach and his students and CWSA students and faculty are the hyperlinking of play-by-play summaries, player biographies and video replays.

"You can click and see how many yards Jerod Void had on a run, and then click on his name to read more about him from the online media guide or click on the video link and see the play," Glotzbach says.

The foundation of e-Stadium, rolled out as a pilot project in 2003, is the real-time reformatting of data generated by statisticians. The data feeds the scoreboard at Ross-Ade as well as the Gametracker feature available at purduesports.com, which allows fans who can't get to the game to follow along online. An automated program designed by CWSA students and faculty extracts the data and reformats it for display on PDAs.

Julie Kercher-Updike, associate vice president for information technology and project team leader, has researched other wireless systems in sports venues and found none that approach the depth and breadth of e-Stadium.

"In addition to being a singular union involving academics, athletics and technology, e-Stadium represents something that is being talked about at the professional sports level," she says. "But as far as we can tell, no one is actually providing this kind of experience for the fans. We think e-Stadium has a bright future."

E-Stadium has received media attention from the Chicago Tribune, Forbes magazine and Stadia magazine, and it was the topic of presentations at international conferences in 2004 and 2005.

For more information about e-Stadium, direct your browser to estadium.purdue.edu.

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