Penske Entertainment

Accelerating fan experiences

To bring their fans — at the venue and around the world — as close to the action as possible, we worked together to take the data generated during the race and deliver it to the fans.
‘In an Indianapolis 500-mile race with 33 cars going 200 laps, we take something like 8-million data records through telemetry off the cars. Fans are very much on their A-game; they want more data, they want to know what’s going on. It’s not just watching cars go around the track; It’s how come this happened or why is this happening, what’s going on with this driver or that driver,’ says Roger Penske, Chairman, Penske Corporation.

This data forms the foundation of the INDYCAR Data Experience at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS), which provides fans with real-time data on the state of the race, presented on the IMS Media Wall, on YouTube and via the INDYCAR Mobile App powered by NTT DATA. Leveraging more than 140 separate data points, fans can track the progress of the race with insight into featured head-to-head battles, race team and pit stop performance impact, as well as highlighted race events such as the green flag, yellow flags and the checkered flag.

Learn more about the technology behind our INDYCAR solution.

Over the 2021 Indianapolis 500 race weekend, the INDYCAR Data Experience had more than 55,000 unique viewers with 7,400 hours of footage watched.

‘The goal of the INDYCAR Data Experience, whether here at IMS on our media wall, or at home through the INDYCAR Mobile App powered by NTT DATA, is to enhance our fans’ experience,’ says SJ Luedtke, VP of Marketing, INDYCAR.

For fans attending a race, we worked together with Penske Entertainment to create a Smart Venue at IMS, the largest sports venue in the world as measured by capacity and includes grounds that covers more than 1,000 acres. With the ability to host attendance of more than 350,000 at a time, artificial intelligence (AI) provides them with full visibility of the venue, with data calibrated every 30 seconds at greater than 90% accuracy.

This includes using AI-enabled optical detection technologies, combined with real-time entry gate flow rate data, to give their operations and security teams better visibility into current and possible scenarios. With a real-time view of the venue, including visitor and vehicle traffic flow and congestion and social distancing, they’re able to optimize their resources in real-time, with faster, more data-driven decisions, allowing them to focus their resources on optimizing race-goers’ experiences.

This unified, digital solution also allows them to process transactions — like digital ticketing and parking transactions — anywhere at the venue, creating an enhanced experience for fans.

These experiences are powered by NTT Smart Solutions, our secure, distributed platform that captures video and sound data via sensors and micro data centers in designated areas. Integrating this information with historical and other real-time data sources, such as traffic, weather and social media, allows them to leverage cognitive analytics to spot patterns and alert operations teams to any potential issues.

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