GRAND
FORKS, N.D. – UND Athletics and
the Ralph Engelstad Arena are proud to announce a brand new addition to North
Dakota men’s hockey games: a mobile app developed specifically for game
days. For the past two years, UND and REA have been working together with
Emotion Media Inc. to build and test a mobile application to add to the
tradition of great experiences at UND men’s hockey games and “The
Ralph.” The new “UND GameDay app” is now available for fans to download
from the Apple App Store and the Google Play store.
This is a first-of-its-kind
interactive experience designed for live in-venue entertainment. Fans who
check in to their seat will be able to participate in interactive games,
contests and polls during timeouts and intermissions. The app also
features up-to-date line charts, game notes, exclusive deals, schedule,
National Collegiate Hockey Conference standings and more.
As adoption of the UND
GameDay app grows, the app’s most innovative feature, known as “Light Up The Stands®”, where fans will participate in creating a truly
unique pre-game experience, will be activated.
“The new UND GameDay App is
intended to enhance the fan experience and engage the fans in a true in-venue
entertainment experience,” said REA General Manager Jody Hodgson. “The live
event experience continues to evolve and we believe our new app is a great way
for fans to participate in the game and stay connected with everything
happening in the arena on game night. Our goal is to provide our fans with
a world-class event experience and we think the new app is another tool that we
can use to try and achieve our goal.”
“Connecting the fan’s
mobile device to in-game production introduces a whole new layer of
entertainment possibilities for fan engagement,” said Emotion Media, Inc.
President Kemal Leslie. “Fannex began its pursuit in this area with a
proprietary innovation called "Light Up The Stands®” designed to bring fan mobile screens together like
pixels to create graphical effects in the stands. We needed a sports and
entertainment partner that was willing to develop and learn with us how best to
approach this exciting objective. We found that partner in UND and the Ralph
Engelstad Arena. Their exceptional willingness to help lead the way allowed us
to demonstrate this innovation on March 8th of this year with the participation
of 300 UND students. UND Gameday is the product of this collaboration and
includes up to date informational content alongside of interactive
entertainment. The fan is an important part of leveraging its power and we look
forward to seeing what new heights we can take it too together. We are
proud to have UND and REA as our partners in developing revolutionary
interactive live entertainment that we can take across the landscape and to the
rest of the world.”
Emotion Media
Inc. (EMI), is the Winnipeg-based developer of the Fannex Entertainment
System and the UND GameDay app, and is a client of the Manitoba Technology
Accelerator. Fannex is a mobile technology platform that allows sports and
entertainment venues to engage attending fans and energize their entertainment
experience through their mobile devices. The flagship of the platform is
the patented Light Up the Stands® feature which treats each user’s phone as
a pixel in an animated visual display. For example, during player
introductions, fans at hockey games can hold up their phones and pixelate their
team’s logo in the stands. The Fannex effect makes this possible by
integrating the screen displays of the phones and creating an animated mosaic
from the colors displayed. Fans can also play interactive games that
incorporate the venue’s video screens and sound system with their mobile device
during time outs and intermissions.
UND opens the
2014-15 men’s hockey season on Sunday, Oct. 5 with an exhibition game against
the University of Manitoba at Ralph Engelstad Arena.
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