FC Barcelona is an icon: a symbol for locals in Catalonia and the best football team in the world for millions of fans across the globe. But Barça doesn’t only lead on the pitch. As part of the Smart Espai Barça initiative, the club is collaborating with SinergiaLabs to better engage the always-connected fans. Now when supporters visit Camp Nou, FC Barcelona’s home arena greets them with contextual experience based on Estimote Beacons.
We sat down with the team behind implementing beacons at Camp Nou, lead by Jordi Sabater, Dani Plana and Odón Martí, to talk about the project, its future, and challenges they faced.
Can you tell us more about your collaboration with FC Barcelona?
FC Barcelona is building a Stadium 2.0 project and we are collaborating with them to bring the best experience to fans. SinergiaLabs is a consortium of three companies and we have used Estimote Beacons to refresh the home turf of one of world’s most beloved teams with a new digital facade.
What’s the experience you have designed for the FC Barcelona app?
The principal app for FC Barcelona contains information about what is happening with each of the professionals teams of FCB including football, basketball, hockey, handball, and more. Beacons have been installed at the stadium’s entrance. Currently, the app welcomes thousands of visitors and fans every day. It also triggers specials promotions depending on the user’s location. The app even allows you to buy tickets for Camp Nou museum tour.
How did you like working with Estimote Beacons, Cloud, and SDK?
Working with the SDKs was very easy. First, we downloaded the Estimote app to better understand the possibilities and get accustomed to how beacons behave. Once the testing stage was completed, it was easy to make sure everything worked correctly. We followed by leveraging the API to understand the battery performance and to gather analytics.
We’ve built our own content management system to manage notifications and content. It allows to decide in which moment of the day and in which zones of the stadium the notifications should be sent. Additionally, it includes a heatmap with real-time information about all interactions of fans with the beacons.
How did deploying the beacons go?
After running the internal tests we headed to the stadium to proceed with the installation. We started with maximum range for all beacons, but the signal bleed between zones made us rethink the strategy. A bit of calibration was required here and there. We also learned how beacons perform outdoors. We first installed them in winter, when temperatures were around 0º Celsius. Months later Barcelona was hit by record heat waves and temperatures went up to 52º Celsius. Luckily, in both scenarios beacons worked perfectly.
We also worked a lot on positioning the beacons. In one case, we placed a beacon on a concrete column in the basketball court. It reflected the signal so strongly that it reached 150 meters in the opposite direction. We needed to adjust the signal strength to make it work properly.
Can you tell us more about the team behind the project?
SinergiaLabs is a joint-venture of three companies, IMAT Comunicación, Morning Labs and Comunicacion Activa that is focusing on the best mobile solutions using beacon technology.
Our background is wide, covering marketing and communication, technology and mobile consulting, so we can offer an integral service to our customers.
Jonathan Duque, Director of Customer Success at Estimote