Watching women ice skaters compete at the Winter Olympic Games at PyeongChang 2018, I’m struck by how much the Games can accomplish. They bring peoples’ hearts together when other means, such as politics, can’t.

This time, the Olympics provided a chance for North and South Korea to interact. It all started with the Opening Ceremonies when athletes from North and South marched behind one banner. The two Koreas also put together a joint women’s ice hockey team. While the combined team didn’t win, I saw the hockey game as an encouraging sign of change on the Korean peninsula.

Like many others, including passionate and active millennials in South Korea, I hope to see Korea become a united country. In a Washington Post op-ed, one commentator advised Korea watchers to temper our optimism. “Sport can go only so far in diplomacy.” I disagree and remain positive. Sports can go an Olympic distance in diplomacy and understanding.

The Olympics now and then

Consider what happened in the 1980s. Back then Seoul won the chance to host the 1988 Summer Games, and it glittered with signs of economic progress. I remember as roads were paved and stations built on the growing subway system to serve rising skyscrapers, boutique shops and restaurants.

The development stood in stark contrast to my young childhood memories of abandoned and burnt-out houses. In “Give South Korea a Gold,” Time.com columnist Fareed Zakaria wrote about the progress. “Half a century ago, South Korea was one of the poorest countries on the planet, and nobody would have predicted that it would conjure up an economic miracle. In 1960, its per capita gross domestic product was $158, slightly less than Ghana’s…The country had no natural resources, no geographic advantages, a largely illiterate population and an infrastructure that had been battered.”

Viewing an economy through sports

Not long before the Olympic Games in Seoul began, I moved from Seoul to New Jersey to work for Panasonic. As the Opening Ceremonies offered up spectacle, culture and traditions of Korea, I gathered with friends in NJ to watch. That same year Panasonic became an Official Worldwide Olympic Partner because it shared a philosophy with the competition, in that both were dedicated to “promoting a more peaceful world through sport.” Following the Seoul Games, Panasonic continued to play an important role in the Olympics. It supported every Olympic Games since 1988 and is geared up for the summer games at Tokyo 2020. In 2006, Panasonic became the first Official Worldwide Paralympic Partner in support of the Paralympic Games.

As we watched the athletes compete back in 1988, I remember how proud I was that the land of my birth was hosting the Olympics. Some 159 nations participated and over 8,000 athletes took part. Korea has a 4,000-year long history, and now Koreans were showing the world what they could do. Commentators talked about the games as a “culmination of South Korea’s efforts to be recognized as a serious economic power and global political player.” I saw how the Games were so much more than sport.

In this important time in history, the whole world is hoping that the Games will achieve the ends for which Panasonic supports them—promoting peace through sport.

At InfoComm 2017 in Orlando, discussions to center on giving tech-savvy, fast-moving consumers new ways to shape their entertainment.

When cult-classic television mystery series Twin Peaks launched its revival in May after a 25-year absence, one thing was clear: Audiences wanted a new role.

After all, in 1992 when Twin Peaks went off the air, mobile phones were clunky devices, almost the size of a bread loaf, going for about $1,400. Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg had just turned age eight, and Apple was pushing its Newton MessagePad for the first time.

Twin Peaks harbinger

A quarter of a century later, watching a television series is no longer a passive, one-hour-a-week activity. Audiences actively leverage technology at their fingertips, and experiment with emerging innovation, to shape the way they see shows and other entertainment. In the months leading up to the Twin Peaks’ revival, fans began sharing their own theories across all social media channels, engaging in complex games played online and real world, in which people collectively solved a series of puzzles, riddles, and treasure hunts and doing the same kind of detective guess work as the show’s characters.

Sophisticated, fast-moving Consumers

Staying ahead of these engaged, powerful consumers with new technology and ideas falls to multimedia professionals, who will be sharing experiences and emerging technology at InfoComm in Orlando this year.

With new display technologies, for instance, businesses can create media that integrates into the personal experience of a consumer’s everyday life. In the case of projection technology or panels for digital signage, we don’t just hang panels on the wall anymore. We want to create an experience around that image using the wall, panel, projector or mapped object as a canvass to tell a story that also connects to the personal experience of the guest, the observer or customer.

Establishing uniquely personal moments

This means we have to tie a consumer’s personal experiences together with their media. This can be achieved through technologies such as their phone using apps like LinkRay or their web experience tied in with their location. By gathering data such as location, age and preferences, the technology can aid, even modify the content they’re watching to create a new experience.

At Panasonic, we call this “connected solutions,” but it is really connecting the guest or customer to the media in a way that is relevant to them.

From static placard to tailored experience

Take, for instance, the opportunity for a museum to expand a visitor’s experience by analyzing that visitor’s data to provide axillary information on a piece of art based on that person’s age, background and particular interest in early 20th century folk art. By customizing this information, the museum has the opportunity to engage the visitor far beyond the standard placard on the wall next to the artwork, which is a much more passive experience. For an organization, the benefit of this engagement can be everything from brand awareness to increasing commerce.

The excitement for these new developments is the way in which it allows for an entirely new type of creativity to drive the technology into customization. New relationships are forming between fans, technology and the story writers—the hidden figures who create the games, the tales and the experiences. Integrating all of these elements creates new possibilities for the viewer, and fresh challenges for the makers behind the scenes, who are no longer penning anecdotes on placards, but engaging in a kind of dance with the consumer as the story evolves.

Baseball has long had the distinctive honor of being labeled as “America’s pastime.” The newest stadiums are being designed for those raised in an Internet Age, and also for fans who appreciate the sport’s traditions.

Relevant and varied content is now part of American sports culture, with people looking for unique experiences and seeking to be excited by the action on the field and by new forms of audiovisual entertainment. Fans who use Instagram and Uber as verbs now expect the same mobile connectivity and convenience from their ballpark as they do from their rideshare.

Total connectivity in a classic ballpark feel

The Atlanta Braves franchise understands this well, and welcomes fans way before the opening pitch. ESPN visited the Braves’ new stadium at the home opener against the San Diego Padres: “People mobbed the new bars and restaurants of The Battery, showing up early and staying late. Any reviews of the new park wouldn’t be complete without mentioning The Battery, a mixed-use development that combines a high-end hotel that looms over center field, bars, restaurants, retail, office buildings and apartments.”

Digital technology throughout the park and the mixed-use development creates an overall connected sensory experience. Kiosks prominently situated in the “lifestyle destination” of The Battery are programmed with stats, standings, new apps, offerings from local restaurants and info about special programs such as the Braves Kids Club—offering visitors an experience that flows from one venue to the next.

Tech on display and behind the scenes

The 41,500-seat SunTrust Park has 800 Wi-Fi hot spots, and another 300 in the Battery. More than 250 miles of fiber optic cable supports the stadium and the mixed-use development, and the two-sided kiosks are just one more element to engage fans and other folks visiting for the experience. The Braves’ control room staff programs content for the “BravesVision” video board, which is 121 feet wide and 64 feet tall, as well as about 18 other high-resolution LED displays including a 90-by-27-foot out-of-town scoreboard off left field, two bullpen displays, more than 700 feet of digital ribbon fascia, and special displays for the Kids Zone and Tech Club.

Miss a play or a promotion? There are at least 1,110 large flat-screen pro monitors to catch up. Behind the scenes, there’s a scalable security management system and security camera equipment to ensure the park and surrounding area are safe and enjoyable for all.

And while technology keeps people connected from The Battery to the ballpark, the feel is classic ballpark, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred told the media on opening day.

With a sold-out seating capacity of nearly 70,000 at its home stadium, the Philadelphia Eagles knew they needed a Wi-Fi network that could handle thousands of fans all trying to capture, share, connect and build on their own game experience.

“Upgrading Lincoln Financial Field’s Wi-Fi network is all part of our team’s ongoing commitment to providing the best in-game experience for our fans,” said the team’s vice president of information, John Pawling, in a prepared statement.

When it came time to choose, the Philadelphia Eagles picked Panasonic’s new Everest Network Solution because it was confident the platform would help the team support the high on-demand traffic of mobile users and to enhance the overall stadium experience for guests.

“Our hope is that by staying ahead of the curve and collaborating with global leaders like Panasonic, we will have the ability to take the fan experience to the next level,” Mr. Pawling said.

Validation through testing

Before the Philadelphia Eagles decided on the Everest Network Solution, it was battle tested by some of the world’s most demanding mobile users.

As an event that boasts the latest and greatest in upcoming products from software developers and publishers in the video game industry, it’s a safe bet that a majority of those attending the Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3) are tech lovers eager to socialize the newest developments.

But, with more than 50,000 attendees all linking up to the events Wi-Fi to share images and videos, networks can become overloaded and unreliable. In past E3 events, gamers, streamers and bloggers were frustrated with slow, intermittent Internet connections. Everything changed when 50,300 descended upon the Las Angeles Convention Center in June 2016 and were surprised to find a network that could handle so many users.

Everything changed when 50,300 descended upon the Las Angeles Convention Center in June 2016 and were surprised to find a network that could handle so many users.

Twitter user @ReadySebbyGo expressed his surprise:

The first time I came to E3 in 2009, you could barely publish words on the WiFi. Things have changed! pic.twitter.com/KyL3nsXtVG
— Seb Ford (@ReadySebbyGo) June 16, 2016

The difference, whether attendees knew it or not, was that the E3 2016 was the site of a trial run for Panasonic’s Everest Network Solution, specifically designed to serve high-density venues including sold out arenas, teeming stadiums, and packed exhibition centers with ultra-high density Wi-Fi.

Along with E3 2016, the technology has been tested in a five-game-stint at an NFL stadium, and sold out concerts at Newark’s Prudential Center and Las Vegas’s Mandalay Bay Events Center arenas. Everest access points have been operating flawlessly in one of NYC’s busiest areas for five months—among the most demanding wireless environments in the world.

Finally, Everest has been tested by leading independent telecommunications industry expert Miercom. The purpose of the testing, which compared the performance of Everest access points to AP’s from many well-known manufacturers, was to confirm Everest’s superior client capacity and throughput.

Of the tests, Miercom CEO Rob Smithers said: “We conducted the tests over a three-month period, comparing these to AP’s from well-established Wi-Fi manufacturers, and found the subject access points to outperform the competing vendors’ products in every test we conducted. Our independent testing confirmed Panasonic’s four-radio solution hands down provides the greatest scalability and performance for high density environments compared to all of the dual band two radio solutions on the market.”

A new fan experience

Emerging ultra-high density networks such as Everest offer increased throughput, the greatest number of simultaneous engagements per access point and a significant reduction in hardware and installation costs.

Ultra-high density Wi-Fi is something large venues—and their patrons—are demanding, as a connected social experience helps make stadiums the best place to watch the game. That digital transformation means more expansive networks.

Everest was designed to address the needs of the most demanding venues and ticket-holders as simply and cost-effectively as possible: The system requires just one third the wireless hardware of traditional systems and its access points mount on structures rather than under seats or in railings. This makes it much quicker and less expensive to install.