From the shoes we wear on our feet to the high definition televisions in our living room, wearable devices, the sports universe is a breeding ground for technology. Writer and Photographer Rick Limpert will examine this each week on The Tech of Sports – With guests which include athletes, inventors and journalists that cover the intersection of sports and technology.
Rick talks with Neville Boston on “Tech of Sports.”
Disrupting a 125-year old industry doesn’t happen overnight… but Reviver Auto Co-Founder and CEO Neville Boston is up to the challenge. That, added with the fact that people, especially sports fans love personalization.
What started out as a way to speed up and streamline the registration process for your car or fleet of vehicles has some additional byproducts. Gone is old dirty metal tag or plate and taking its place is a high tech and customizable digital display.
The Rplate Pro from Reviver Auto is the world’s first digital license plate. The multi-functional digital display and connected vehicle platform offers a variety of features to make driving safer and smarter for consumers including:
-Automated DMV Registration – Including renewals, transfer of ownership and autopay
-Parking & Tolls – Display parking permits & violations, automatically pay tolls
-Safety Alerts – Including emergency, weather and Amber Alerts
-Personalization – Change plate’s background color and add custom messages such as student driver, real driver or baby on board
-Specialty Plate – Handicap, medical condition, senior driver, student driver etc.
-Cause Plate – Support nonprofits, communities, charities and other causes with approved cause plates
-Vehicle Tracking – Track your vehicle, speed and trips, and even display a stolen vehicle message
-Smart Home Connectivity – Connect your Rplate Pro to interact with smart home features such as lights, garage door and security system
-Targeted Messaging – Display customized messaging when the car is legally parked
Rick and Neville talk about how this impacts the world of sports! A fun talk!
Track and field legend, Michael Johnson, is coaching in the American Flag Football League (AFFL). And his Godspeed team is going for the $1 million.
Great to be joined by Michael Johnson, this week on “Tech of Sports.”
Michael Johnson is nothing short of a legend. Michael was a part of the USA Olympic team in Barcelona in 1992, Atlanta in 1996, and Sydney in 2000. He established a record of 13 Olympic and World Championship gold medals during his 11-year career.
Michael broke world records in the 200 meter, 400 meter and the 4 X 400-meter relay. He completed the historic 200/400-meter Olympic double in 1996, giving him the title of the “Fastest Man in the World.” He was clocked running 23mph en route to his historic 200-meter performance of 19.32 seconds. He added the 400-meter world record in 1999, clocking in 43.18 seconds, securing his place in history.
“He is obsessive about human performance. With decades of research and the relentless pursuit of the best training methods, they combine tested and proven training methodology with the latest and most innovative techniques to produce the best results possible. Michael Johnson Performance has a simple belief that training programs should be created to help individuals of every athletic ability achieve their goals and reach their full potential in their sport. The fundamentals and structure of the programs are designed to optimize the athletic performance of any athlete on the court, track, field, or ice.”
Johnson is lending his expertise, knowledge and training advice to the Godspeed team in the AFFL; and it;s working. Godspeed led by Seneca Wallace and come ex-NFLers will be playing on Thursday night for a winner take all chance at $1 million. It was great to talk with Michael, enjoy the interview and enjoy the Flag Football.
Where to see it:
America vs Pros
BBVA Compass Stadium
Houston, TX
July 19, 2018
July 19 at 8pm EST Godspeed vs. Fighting Cancer, NFL Network
America’s Team and The Pros compete for $1,000,000.
It’s the middle of summer… do you need your football fix? Did you catch the American Flag Football League on the NFL Network over the weekend? Longtime NFL and Iowa State Football fans would’ve had a chance to relive some of the glory days, when Seneca Wallace was taking snaps from center and scrambling around to make plays.
Wallace is starring in the NFL-backed, AFFL, and his team, Godspeed, is currently in the semifinals of a tournament that will pay out a cool $1 million to the winning team.
He talks to Rick about playing flag football, strategy, his post NFL career and the state of Iowa State Football.
The likeable Wallace spend 10+ seasons in the NFL after two successful years leading Iowa State in 2001/02. He was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in the fourth round of the 2003 NFL Draft. He was also a member of the Cleveland Browns, New Orleans Saints, San Francisco 49ers and Green Bay Packers.
Wallace received widespread notice in 2002 while with the Iowa State Cyclones in a play known affectionately to some as “The Run,” in which he traversed back to the 32 yard line before running it in for a 12-yard touchdown versus Texas Tech. While quarterbacking the Iowa State Cyclones in 2001 and 2002, he threw 26 touchdowns.
Post NFL, Wallace, is now owns two restaurants- Wingstops in Ames and Des Moines.
The American Flag Football League (AFFL) brought the remaining eight teams of the US Open of Football (USOF) to Fifth Third Bank Stadium in Atlanta on July 7-8, along with some new technology debuting for the sport of football.
This is an NFL-backed league with players from all walks of life and former professional athletes going “all in” for a chance at $1 million. The winners coming out of the Atlanta games, advance to the America’s Bracket Final and Pro Bracket Final on July 14 at Indianapolis’s Butler Bowl, and then the $1 million Ultimate Final (featuring both bracket champions) on July 19 at Houston’s BBVA Compass Stadium. The NFL Network has been covering the games with the help of some new tech.
Will Allen, a college football star for Ohio State University, received All-American honors. He was drafted in the fourth round of the 2004 NFL Draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and also played DB for the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers.
He was a panelist at the recent Green Sports Alliance Summit, in Atlanta. The theme for the 2018 Summit was “PLAY GREENER™ : Get in the Game” and focused on taking action that encouraged collaborative problem-solving to achieve sustainable change across the sports spectrum. Attendees engaged in multiple skill-building and problem-solving workshops to develop solutions that encourage environmental and social responsibility across operations, supply chains, and fan bases.
Rick talks to Allen about how athletes can use their name to promote change and eco-awareness.
A great deal of talk at the Summit about sustainability of sports facilities.
Great talking to Will Allen.
Keep the conversation going on social media! Green Sports Alliance handles:
Samsung has announced the installation of their displays at Vivint Smart Home Arena, home of the Utah Jazz. The Utah Jazz teamed up with software integrator RevelTV and Samsung to create a fan experience unlike any other.
More than 600 Samsung screens and videowalls are installed throughout the arena, from the concourse to concession stands to club seating areas. The displays and videowalls helped the arena reopen with a reimagined, fan-focused venue that excites guests and enhances the amenities. Specifically, the 82-inch flat HD displays are equipped with content management tools that make it easy to change the content, messaging and overall look as often as needed. If a client asks for specific advertising, based on time and location, venue management can accomplish that very easily, using the hardware and software installed on the display. Here is a video case study on the integration to provide visuals and additional information.
Rick talks with all three and found out how this all came about and what it means for the future of fan engagement at sporting events. Have a listen.
This week, Rick is joined by entrepreneur, the founder of Adams Golf, inventor of the Tight Lies fairway wood, holder of several patents on golf products, author of The WOW Factor! – Barney Adams! And he has something new.
Adams was selected as Manufacturing Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young in 1999.[1] The 2010 Ernie Sabayrac Award for lifetime contribution to the golf industry was presented to Adams by the PGA of America. Adams has also been named an Honorary Member for Life by the PGA Southern California Section, Desert Chapter. Adams served as Chairman of the Board of Adams Golf until June 2012 when the company was purchased by TaylorMade-Adidas.
Introducing the Stability Shaft from Breakthrough Golf Technology. Breakthrough Golf uses scientifically advanced multi-material design with geometries never before used in a putter shafts. The Stability shaft has a unique look and a more solid feel than a traditional steel putter shaft.
CEO, Barney Adams states, “When I first learned about the product I knew that it could be significant. It’s a step forward in golf equipment technology. What has been rewarding for me is that the Stability Shaft works better for amateurs. Pros are great putters and while the shaft does help them, it’s the inconsistency of the amateur that it corrects most”.
The performance of the shaft was exhaustively tested with hundreds of putters using state-of-the-art high-speed cameras, robots, SAM Putt Lab, Quintic Ball Roll software and Trackman4. The result was to re-invent the putter shaft from the ground up.
There are four parts of the Stability shaft that work in concert to greatly improve putting performance. BGT calls this ‘Advanced Materials Integration’™:
Eight layers of high modulus carbon fiber specifically layered, wrapped and widened, with a no-taper design to greatly reduce torque.
Through ‘Finite Element Analysis’ a lightweight 22g aluminum insert was developed and precisely located to reinforce flexural rigidity.
A 7075-aluminum connector that helps to stiffen and reinforce. This versatility allows attachment to virtually any tip diameter of any putter, regardless of the bend profile.
The stainless-steel tips have extremely consistent wall thicknesses for superior strength and are coated with a smoke PVD finish to add protection from corrosion and rusting.
Designed to improve any golfer’s game. The Stability Shaft delivers the face more squarely at impact for improved accuracy, solid feel and has a lower launch for a predictable roll, resulting in better distance control.
You’ll get a higher ‘Smash Factor’, hit the clubface more consistently and ultimately make more putts. It’s a perfect synergy of technology and materials to improve putting performance.
The Stability Shaft has a MAP price of $199.99 and is available from golf retailers in the US and Canada.
Founder Barney Adams, who has always had the unique ability to see what is truly missing in Golf equipment decided to focus on the putter shafts since there had been no significant innovation for decades.
A team of award winning engineers was assembled and no shaft company on the planet delivers innovation in golf shafts like Breakthrough Golf Technology.
For more than 50 years, the putter shaft hasn’t changed — it essentially has remained a steel pipe. Yet putter head designs have evolved and gotten dramatically heavier. The result; Shafts that are neither stable nor strong enough to keep these advanced putter heads from oscillating, twisting and turning during the stroke. In fact, the strongest part of the putter shaft is right underneath the hands, where it does the least good; the weakest part is near the head. So why would any golfer having a better option trust their putter to a cheap steel shaft? After all, they use their putter nearly twice as much as any other club.
