MLB steps up to the plate with iBeacon-equipped At the Ballpark app
The ballpark where your favorite team plays looms large overhead, and as you whip out your iPhone to make sure you’re not late, a notification appears: “Welcome!” A few feet closer to the stadium and your tickets to that night’s game pop up on your screen. Your phone knows where you are and it, like you, is primed for some baseball.
So how does it have all that information?
The At the Ballpark app will welcome you to the stadium when you arrive.
A little-known piece of technology baked into Apple’s iOS 7 lets app developers place physical touchstones called iBeacons around specific locations. Those beacons can prompt users to take an action or provide information when they are within the beacon’s radius. iBeacons use BLTE (Bluetooth low energy) technology for micro-location information. Instead of GPS, which knows where you are in the general sense but couldn’t point you to, say, your reserved seat at the ballpark, Major League Baseball is using iBeacons to offer a hyperlocal fan experience to users of its At the Ballpark app.
At the Ballpark is already a hit with baseball fans, but the new features made possible with iBeacons are about to make it more interactive. When the new app debuts on Opening Day next year, At the Ballpark users will see the welcome notification and ticket delivery as well as a seat mapper—yes, turn-by-turn directions to your seat—and discounts on food and merchandise when you’re in the vicinity of the hot dog stand or stadium store.
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