FROM THE ROOF RAFT – VenuesNow

BETTER MIND: The new Spirited cocktail stands with autonomous technology have been a success in their first two months of operation at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. (Courtesy of the venue)

Technology stars gather at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium

ATLANTA, Georgia — AMB Sports and Entertainment has developed Constellation, a new technology platform to integrate multiple technical systems at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and plans to commercialize it at other major league facilities in the future.

Representatives from AMB Sports, the operator of NFL and MLS venues, explained the company's proprietary technology and the reasons for the need for it during a panel discussion at the stadium in mid-July.

The working title of the platform is “Constellation.” The investment is currently in the mid-six-figure range, officials said.

“We see the value for ourselves and we believe others will see the value,” said Gordon Barfield, vice president of business innovation at AMB Sports. “We'd love to sell it to other teams, but we're not there yet. Teams are trying to get to the same end result in different ways. As far as we know, we're the only ones doing it the way we do. That gives us a lot of flexibility to bring in new vendors if needed.”

AMB Sports has been at the forefront of developing a completely seamless experience for football fans through the use of facial recognition technology in the ticketing and catering areas. As the group continues to roll out these systems throughout the building, the need arose to consolidate everything into one coherent unit.

Essentially, Constellation is tying together existing technologies in the stadium, working with vendors such as Coca-Cola, AT&T, Ticketmaster, mobile transit app Waze, biometrics provider Wicket and point-of-sale and payment processor Global Payments to ensure more efficient and cost-effective operations. The Delta fly-thru lanes and the new Spirited self-service cocktail stands are two examples of facial notification systems integrated into the Constellation platform.

“The idea is to connect a number of different systems together,” Barfield said. “In stadiums like ours, we can have 20 different systems for fans. They're fragmented, and the result is a disjointed experience when you come into the building. You try to use a ticket and the ticket system doesn't communicate with you. The same goes for parking and ticket offices. Nothing really communicates with each other. We connect the 'stars,' which are the different systems.”

The process of creating Constellation began two years ago when AMB Sports' technical staff were deeply engaged with cutting-edge technology in sports and entertainment. At the time, they weren't intentionally trying to develop a holistic solution, but as more technical services were introduced at the stadium, they recognized the need to bring them together in a cohesive package, in part to have the flexibility to swap out systems when necessary and avoid the complications that would otherwise be involved.

At Mercedes-Benz Stadium, for example, the outlets use five different systems depending on whether it's general concessions or fine dining. Replacing an old corporate partner's technology with a newer product can be a nightmare, Barfield said. Integrating Constellation makes that transition much easier without having to buy a single vendor. That was one of the driving forces behind developing their own technology, he said.

In addition, Constellation consolidates all sales data from multiple systems into one comprehensive report. Under the old model, AMB Sports collected five separate reports from the five point-of-sale providers.

“It was more about the business challenges we see and the resources we have available right now,” said Karl Pierburg, senior vice president at AMB Sports and chief technology officer. “Gordon and I are sitting right next to each other and we were bouncing ideas off each other and thought we can probably leverage this. We can do something agile, which is the whole goal, which is to be the connective tissue. We're not creating a menu in the system, we're just connecting, leveraging existing functionality and it's coming together pretty well.”

The column by Don Muret, editor-in-chief of VenuesNow, appears in the September issue of the magazine.