Big Ten Fans Share the Memories anks to 5 Seconds of Fame

Get on camera, brag about it to your buddies. That's the magic of 15 Seconds of Fame. Thanks to a deal announced last week, Big Ten fans are going to be doing a whole lot of bragging.

15 Seconds of Fame is the service that sports fans didn't know they needed: it captures fan moments shown on jumbotrons or broadcast feeds, then sends fans clips of their appearances. Fans can share those clips, making their 15 seconds last a little longer.

Last week, the company announced a multi-year deal with the Big Ten Network to offer 15 Seconds service to fans attending select televised games.

15 Seconds of Fame beta-tested its app at the University of Michigan.

We will be delivering the TV-broadcast feeds from Big Ten Network games to fans, explains 15 Seconds CEO Brett Joshpe. If you're a fan [and] you're on TV during a Big Ten telecast, we will be delivering those fan moments to those fans who are on camera.

The idea behind 15 Seconds of Fame was hatched three years ago when the company's sports-fan founders saw how people struggled to get their phones out and record videos of themselves shown on arenas' jumbotrons. That revealed a need that wasn't being met, they felt, and so 15 Seconds was born.

To get videos from 15 Seconds of Fame, fans first need to installed the app, which is available for iOS and Android. The user creates an account and shoots a selfie. When they enter an event with 15 Seconds service, they check in to let the service know to look for them. Or, if they don't want to check in, they can turn on geolocation so that the app always knows where they are. Signage in arenas lets fans know when 15 Seconds service is available. Fans can even download the app and create an account after they've been on camera; they'll still get their videos.

Video clips arrive through the 15 Seconds app, often within minutes. Fans can share the videos over Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Videos are MP4/H.264 1080p files and can be only shared, not saved. We'd like to be able to see if people are sharing it on social. We want to promote the 15 Seconds of Fame environment so people watch the content from within our app, Joshpe explains, adding that 95% of the company's videos are shared.

The Big Ten Network announcement isn't 15 Seconds' first time working with a Big Ten institution. It currently has a deal in place with the University of Michigan (where it beta-tested its service) to capture jumbotron content and is in talks with other schools for in-arena video. The company would like to have more deals in place when football season starts up.

The Atlanta Braves did a six-game trial of the service last year, and the Cleveland Indians will soon announce support. Multiple NBA, NFL, and NHL teams have also tried the service. Although the company is in talks with two-thirds of MLB teams, Joshpe would like to expand beyond sports. He notes that the service could work just as well at summer camps, conferences, autograph shows, graduations, and marathons.

15 Seconds of Fame monetizes its service by attracting sponsors, with most of its videos carrying branding. Joshpe hopes to attract additional sponsors for the Big Ten Network games.

Because the company is still a small concern, with about 10 fulltime employees in the Midtown Manhattan office, much of the technology is handled by vendors. The central arrangement is with Cognitec, a German company that creates face-recognition software. It's critical that 15 Seconds provide fast and accurate face scanning, and Cognitec's tech makes that happen. 15 Seconds also works with Microsoft for cloud services and Amazon for video hosting.

According to Joshpe, the deal with Big Ten Networks is proof that 15 Seconds' service works and big organizations are interested in sharing it with their customers. He is certain that his company not only will grow but will become a household name.

We want to own the live-event space. We want to be everywhere. We want to be in every professional sports venue, as many college sports venues as possible, and just live events generally. We want this product to be something that people think about before they go to a game, he says. When you think about sports, you obviously think about the content that is focused on the field or the ice or the court. We're interested in the content that surrounds that field or court or ice. We're really focused on the fans.

LINK:	http://www.sportsvideo.org/2017/04/04/big-ten-fans-share-the-memories-...
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