Stadiums Counting crowds Figuring out how and where people move inside a stadium not only bolsters fan safety – it stimulates the possibilities for revenue
J ust as Professor Still had a a turnstile queue, Zachary Klima experienced an epiphany in the beer line at a Detroit Red Wings game – and missed the winning goal. “I had the thought: ‘Wouldn’t it be great to know what all the wait times are in the concession queues or retail lines? Who in their right mind wouldn’t want to know that information?” The company he created as a result, WaitTime, developed four moment of clarity about crowd management when stuck in
algorithms for the measurement and behaviour of crowds: queueing, stanchion, massing and entry/exit. Unlike more complicated systems which use LiDAR or smartphone information to track movement, WaitTime’s technology analyses video imagery, employing ordinary camera feeds to record how a crowd moves in real time. FOUR ALGORITHMS WaitTime’s queueing algorithm uses cameras with a bird’s eye view of locations where queues naturally
WAITING GAME Advanced tech is used to determine how long you might queue for (right)
form – concessions, bathrooms, ingress or egress points – to generate 24fps graphic overlays showing the number of people in line and rate of service. Deployed in major venues like the entrance to the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia, it provides real-time intelligence on exactly how long it takes a fan to get from the back of the queue to the front. This is applied to unstructured crowds that form more organically, without external boundaries to keep them in place. On the other hand, WaitTime’s stanchion algorithm measures crowds that are confined by barriers or rope. These are epitomised by the lines at service points – concessions or retail –
VIEW FROM THE TOP WaitTime's stanchion algorithm tracks users in confined queues
70 FEED:XTREME SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022
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