Stadiums of the Future with Architect Benjamin Brillat (Re-release)

What will stadiums look like in the future? Neil deGrasse Tyson, Chuck Nice, and Gary O’Reilly investigate stadium technology and “future-proofing” in Los Angeles’s SoFi Stadium with Chief Infrastructure Architect at IBM Sports, Benjamin Brillat.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Welcome to StarTalk, your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide. StarTalk begins right now.

• 0:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is StarTalk Sports Edition. I got Gary O'Reilly with me. Gary?

• 0:20Gary O'Reilly?

  Hey Neil.

• 0:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, Gary, you're gonna take us someplace. Let me dredge my memories from a cup, pre-COVID I think this was.

• 0:29Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah, just rewind two years.

• 0:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Was there a world before COVID? Did the world exist?

• 0:36Gary O'Reilly?

  It feels like a lifetime ago, but only two years ago. And this is, as I say, it's something that we're looking at and it's our trademark. We look at things in a very StarTalkian manner. And this is a perfect, perfect show for us to introduce in the February of a new year. So back in February 2020, we released a show called "Stadiums of the Future." Now, it's interesting because the stadium we picked hadn't been constructed yet. It was still in the process of finding itself. Now, that stadium is the SoFi Stadium and that will be the venue for this year's big game.

• 1:18Gary O'Reilly?

  The NFL's big game, the 56th time it's taken place. And we're not allowed to say the S-word, they get all upset. Now, the thing is, if you remember Neil, we actually sent you there in a hard hat and a high-vis vest to go and find out what it was like to see this thing emerge and what the logistical challenges were and how it came to be and the people that were behind bringing it. This is a very StarTalkian approach to sports and a stadium because there's no athletes, there's no head coaches, there's no TV dramas. There's just the guys and the girls that bring this thing to fruition. So, if you remember, the SoFi has this gigantic transparent roof

• 2:02Gary O'Reilly?

  and it doesn't have that bigger profile out of the ground because it's been sunken because it is directly underneath the flight path to LAX.

• 2:12Gary O'Reilly?

  So go on, Neil, give me a thought of what it was like to walk into that arena as it was being constructed.

• 2:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, I remember that. First, there was the bit of pride when you speak to the engineers for what it is they were designing for it. What kind of technologies would enable and empower not only future teams who play there, but future visitors? So it was a delight. I was geeking out, basically. And I'd forgotten that, yes, this stadium is sunken into the ground. Kind of like, I think the Rose Bowl is partly underground as well in Pasadena, if memory serves. And so that gives it a much lower profile on the horizon. Otherwise, it just kind of sticks out, you know, like a sore thumb. But the fact that it has a lower profile, and you're right, it's on the takeoff and landing path of LAX.

• 3:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So they were, I was gonna say they were considerate for this. That's not just being considerate, that's being safe, all right? There's probably some legal limits surrounding that as well. But just to look at how they were attempting to future-proof this stadium. And I was there not knowing that it would one day carry the big game. What do you mean, the bowl that is super, that game?

• 3:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, no, so I was delighted and I asked, I think, all the right questions. And we had a good time feeling the enthusiasm.

• 3:40Gary O'Reilly?

  As well as sending you out into the great wild of the SoFi Stadium, we had a guest, and this guest is from IBM Sports. He's the chief infrastructure architect at IBM Sport, a guy called Ben Brillat. And he was involved in the construction of the Mercedes-Benz Dome in Atlanta. If you know the Atlanta Dome, it has this sort of tethelated lotus flower roof that opens up. It's magnificent. And he he explained to us to to do this, and the same with the so far, you have to be thinking five, 10, maybe even 15 years advance for technologies that are going to emerge,

• 4:21Gary O'Reilly?

  but that you are able to adapt to. Otherwise, you have to, you've got a stadium that doesn't work. I mean, there are stadiums now that have probably been constructed in the early 2000s, but as far as technologies that we have now in the 20 in 2022 is more or less obsolete.

• 4:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, so there are two, so Gary, there are two challenges there. So one of them is, yeah, you want to future-proof everything you do in all construction. But future-proofing involves projecting, and the scientific word for that is extrapolating. When when data are informing your future expectations, it's called extrapolating. So you have a plot of the way things are trending, and you say, now, let me continue the slope of that line that of these parameters that I plotted and go into the future and have this this thing I'm building today be able to accommodate this growth curve. That works to a point. Problem occurs, and you're right, Gary, it's typically a 15-year horizon.

• 5:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  People can be good if you if you invest brain energy projecting five to 10 years out. 15 years, you know, it begins to happen. You get discoveries and inventions that come out of left field or come in from the end zone. Whatever reference, whatever sports reference.

• 5:37Gary O'Reilly?

  Which ever works.

• 5:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Whatever reference you're comfortable with, but it comes from a different place. It comes from a place that's not even on the plot on the chart that you were using to make those predictions. And that, those are game changers for everything. So, you know, I don't know what a good example would that be. Okay, here's one. How are you gonna, this is not a big challenge because we had accommodated it, but it's an example. You want a future kitchen, and you say, well, what kind of modern stoves are we going to have? Okay, they might be electric, so let me put the stove near a power plug. That'll future-proof it. Okay, maybe there's some other electricity that needs to go. Let me make a conduit there to, and you do all of this, and then a microwave oven shows up. Who ordered that?

• 6:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You know, that's not an extrapolation of a modern oven that involves heat and flames or coils. It's a whole other technology. So where do you put that? So, modern kitchens, of course, are designed to fit those comfortably and nicely. That was not much of a stretch as far as construction goes, but you can imagine something that would be completely transformative that would make SoFi Stadium look like something like Wrigley Field.

• 6:50Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah, I mean, the thing is, they will want to leave intentional space to accommodate anything new and the hardware that needs to be in place for that new technology to be productive. I mean, the other thing they did was they earthquake-proofed, because it's downtown L.A. and things shake and wobble on occasion.

• 7:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Shake and bake, yeah.

• 7:11Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah, they earthquake-proofed the whole stadium. Now, this is a big deal. This is a four billion, beginning with a B, billion-dollar project. I mean, it is an entertainment.

• 7:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But just to be clear, I'm an astrophysicist. You don't have to extra explain the number billion to me?

• 7:26Gary O'Reilly?

  No, no, no, it's just in case people don't understand my version of English and they think I'm saying four million and it's actually billion. So, it's so interesting. If I remember rightly, we also then take that, as you say, extrapolate what might be coming along before we've quite got there, but using what we know now. We thought maybe augmented displays for people in stadiums could be something in the future. So if you imagine you've decided you want to be a defensive end, you could end up having a sensory experience that feels like hitting a quarterback.

• 8:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, or before you get there, just imagine you buy a stadium experience from the NFL or from the home team or from SoFi Stadium, and they'll sell you the ticket at the 50-yard line 20 rows up. And then you go into your augmented reality room in your home and you experience the entire game from that seat.

• 8:29Gary O'Reilly?

  Wow.

• 8:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And then you don't need ticket price. Then you have to go to the game and then take that up a notch. Okay. So now you're saying, why be in the stadium at all? Why not be on the field? And you could be sort of a, an avatar on the field as players are running by you. Because if you censor, if you have censors that monitor everything about all the players, which IBM currently does, or has the power to do. Uh, if you do that, and I know where all the players, I know what their heartbeats are. I do, because the coaches want to know that. When is it, when are you going to bring them out? When are you going to put them back in? When have they recovered their oxygen levels? You, I have all that information. And information is power. Information is money, right? So, so now you put me on the field.

• 9:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'll be, I'll be eating, eating Cheetos, if, sitting on the line of scrimmage, while the whole game is going on around me.

• 9:20Gary O'Reilly?

  You'll be eating crisps and sacking quarterbacks. It'll be a dream come true.

• 9:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But you're, but you're saying you want to also include the physical experience of getting hit. And I'm, so does a person pay extra for that?

• 9:32Gary O'Reilly?

  Well, I, probably, the, the answer to that is simply yes. Anything like that, it's a yes. So that, but that's it, Niels. You see, the thing is, this is where we take the show. And as I referenced before, it, only StarTalk will do this. Only StarTalk will think this way.

• 9:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's very trademark of us.

• 9:50Gary O'Reilly?

  Towards the subject matter.

• 9:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes, yes.

• 9:52Gary O'Reilly?

  And so this is why we're re-releasing this particular show from two years ago to, to stand on the shoulders of this big game. But to give our audience an understanding of the environment they're in that will sit nicely next to the performances, hopefully, of the players.

• 10:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Beautiful, beautiful. So good work there, Gary. And I look forward to checking out the episode again.

• 10:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Today's topic, modern stadium design and the tech that informs it.

• 10:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So who do I have here? I've got Ben Brillette. Did I pronounce that right?

• 10:35Speaker 02

  You did, thank you.

• 10:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ben, welcome.

• 10:36Speaker 02

  Thanks very much.

• 10:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You work for IBM?

• 10:37Speaker 02

  I do.

• 10:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You design stadiums? Wait, you've got a title here. Global Chief Architect for Sports and Entertainment Services. That's a lot of syllables to say you design stadiums.

• 10:48Speaker 02

  Well, I design technology for stadiums.

• 10:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, gee.

• 10:51Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 10:51Chuck Nice?

  Right, yes.

• 10:52Speaker 02

  Yes, I don't wanna, I don't wanna cause any fights, uh, so.

• 10:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah, okay, alright. So we got, we'll get back to you in a minute. Gary? Yes. Always good. Hey, good to be here. Gary O'Reilly. Chuck? Hey. You're my people. Yes, that's correct. My sports people. Yes, we are. My, my, my, my, my sports people. So recently I visited the SoFi Stadium, just outside of Los Angeles.

• 11:11Speaker 02

  Absolutely.

• 11:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They're in the middle of building it.

• 11:13Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 11:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I'm looking at the numbers at $5 billion.

• 11:17Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 11:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Since when do stadiums cost that much? Dude. Recently? Recently?

• 11:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Since 20 minutes ago? Just saying. Uh, 70,000 seats, opening summer 2020. And didn't look like they're gonna be.

• 11:34Chuck Nice?

  You're saying they're not making it?

• 11:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm, I'm saying.

• 11:36Chuck Nice?

  You're saying.

• 11:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I was there, I flew over it, it didn't look like, but anyhow.

• 11:40Chuck Nice?

  They, I'll tell you this much, they better be ready by August of 2020 because they already said goodbye to the old stadium last year.

• 11:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, yeah, otherwise they're playing.

• 11:48Chuck Nice?

  For the football teams.

• 11:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They're playing, they're playing pickup game in the parking lot.

• 11:51Chuck Nice?

  Oh, that'd be hilarious.

• 11:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Wouldn't it?

• 11:53Chuck Nice?

  Oh my God, just like you could tailgate and watch the game at the same time.

• 11:57Speaker 02

  And be in it.

• 11:58Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 11:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And be in it. Hey, you missed it, take it back.

• 12:02Chuck Nice?

  Little help? Yeah, that's great.

• 12:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So that stadium houses the LA Rams and the Chargers.

• 12:08Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 12:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And so, uh, Ben, so we'll just get a little more, we'll get back to that. I got footage of me visiting it. But Ben, how long has, has IBM had such a thing?

• 12:19Speaker 02

  IBM engagement started really with the Atlanta Olympics in the 90s.

• 12:23Chuck Nice?

  Oh wow, you guys been in the space for, in that space for a while.

• 12:27Speaker 02

  That's right, I mean.

• 12:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, wait, so you were the chief technology architect for the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta?

• 12:32Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 12:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But that was way after the Olympics.

• 12:34Speaker 02

  Absolutely, absolutely, so totally different design.

• 12:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They didn't have the benefit of your brilliance?

• 12:38Speaker 02

  No, although some of the fiber infrastructure actually ended up being reused.

• 12:42Chuck Nice?

  Oh really? You mean recycled and reused, or?

• 12:45Speaker 02

  Nope, nope, it was still there, still good.

• 12:47Chuck Nice?

  And you just asked, okay, well, way to save them some money.

• 12:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, so how are you combining this sports and tech at IBM? Because in these stadiums where big muscle football players play, it don't look like you have ever played football in your life.

• 13:01Speaker 02

  No, I have not.

• 13:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So how, how do you land in that pot?

• 13:05Speaker 02

  Yeah, so IBM is approaching technology in stadiums really from two sides. The first is sort of the digital, where we're doing AI programs, and how can we help coaches make better decisions about players? How can we analyze? Yep, how can we analyze data, be able to take a coach and put them virtually after the game in a VR room, standing next to their player and say, can I understand better why he missed that, or why he made that? Can I watch this from a 3D perspective, things like that?

• 13:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Why not put him in during the game? Wouldn't that be cool? You have a holographic coach on the field.

• 13:40Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 13:40Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 13:41Gary O'Reilly?

  I think that tech is almost around now. You can virtually, with only a few seconds delay, you can put someone back into the space and analyze that play almost real time.

• 13:49Speaker 02

  And that's where I come in, actually, is that the limitation now is the technology and the data bandwidth available on the field. How can we get enough antennas, enough kinds of radios to be able to move that information from the field to the stadium?

• 14:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In real time.

• 14:04Speaker 02

  In real time.

• 14:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  To make real time decisions.

• 14:06Speaker 02

  Exactly, and so I'm involved in all of the physical infrastructure, the antennas, the cellphone radios, the wifi access points, the security cameras, all of the physical tech that makes the digital tech possible.

• 14:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So I just got, I just got to tell you, I'm really feeling good listening to you, because I led a geeky life, but it was early enough in the geek timetable that we all, not I, because I was bigger than others, but most of my geek friends all got beat up by, by the football players.

• 14:39Speaker 02

  Right.

• 14:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, until. The football players needed the geeks to help them with their computer homework.

• 14:45Speaker 02

  There you go.

• 14:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay?

• 14:46Speaker 02

  Right.

• 14:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So the balance of power changed. And so now you are enabling professional sports.

• 14:53Speaker 02

  Absolutely.

• 14:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And now you are like a patron saint of what enables them to do what they do. You have, now you have sports people as your protectors.

• 15:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, we want that data. We want them healthy. We want to know where they were. We want to know that predictive insights in the injuries.

• 15:08Chuck Nice?

  That means he's never gotten a wedgie. That's, well, that's, but.

• 15:11Speaker 04

  Well, that, that may be true.

• 15:13Chuck Nice?

  I mean, you bring a football player.

• 15:14Speaker 04

  However, this isn't the show to explore that. It's the one thought that's crystallized in my mind.

• 15:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All me, all my people got wedgies.

• 15:22Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 15:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Coming out.

• 15:24Chuck Nice?

  I think what Neil is saying is before you leave here.

• 15:27Speaker 02

  I, I mean.

• 15:28Chuck Nice?

  Uh, yeah, just watch yourself.

• 15:30Speaker 02

  I got a linebacker on speed dial.

• 15:32Chuck Nice?

  There you go. But that is a cool thing, because you can just be like, yo, bro, one line of code, and I can make it so that you.

• 15:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  One line of code. Oh, that's, that'd be a great name of a company, One Line of Code.

• 15:44Chuck Nice?

  One Line of Code.

• 15:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, man.

• 15:45Chuck Nice?

  That's all the difference.

• 15:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, what point are you, are you brought in? So I'm rich and I want to build a stadium. At what point do I call you?

• 15:52Speaker 02

  The earlier the better.

• 15:53Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 15:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Uh.

• 15:54Speaker 02

  So we started in Atlanta when it was still a hole in the ground, uh, literally, still there, because the technology, particularly as we start to talk about, of course, Atlanta's a 4G stadium, but as we look at 5G, more.

• 16:08Chuck Nice?

  Damn.

• 16:10Speaker 02

  More and more antennas means more and more wires to the antennas.

• 16:13Chuck Nice?

  That's right.

• 16:14Speaker 02

  And so we actually have to bury conduit in the concrete before it even gets poured. So you have to have a design for that ready to go, right from day zero.

• 16:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Enough conduit to future-proof it. So we got, we got some footage of me at the SoFi Stadium.

• 16:28Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 16:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Outside of, outside of Los Angeles. The LA, the, the Chargers and the Rams.

• 16:33Chuck Nice?

  Correct.

• 16:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Both will play there.

• 16:35Chuck Nice?

  That's right.

• 16:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And obviously, unless they play each other.

• 16:38Chuck Nice?

  Not on the same day.

• 16:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Unless they play each other.

• 16:40Chuck Nice?

  There you go.

• 16:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Then they do play on the same day, in the same stadium.

• 16:44Chuck Nice?

  That'd be kind of cool. I'll go to that game.

• 16:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You'll go to that game? Alright. So, um, so I, I visited it, and one thing I couldn't help notice is just the enormous roof. A lot of thought went into that roof. So let's check out this high-tech roof. What is that transparent roof made of?

• 17:02Speaker 05

  It's called an ETFE system.

• 17:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  How transparent is it?

• 17:05Speaker 05

  About 60% from what I understand.

• 17:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, so what you're saying is it'll block out about 60% of sunlight that could come in?

• 17:13Speaker 05

  That's what I understand.

• 17:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Either reflect it or do something else with it?

• 17:16Speaker 05

  That's correct.

• 17:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 17:17Speaker 05

  So those are 60 foot by 60 foot grid areas.

• 17:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I see him.

• 17:20Speaker 05

  And then what we do is we build that frame on the ground outside the building. And as we load this diaphragm in place, we go ahead and put those in and we pull the ETFE system over.

• 17:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  How long does it stay transparent?

• 17:33Speaker 05

  It'll stay transparent from the time we finish the project on.

• 17:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Not as long as birds poop on it. You got a way to clean that off?

• 17:39Speaker 05

  There is a way to clean it.

• 17:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  How you do that?

• 17:41Speaker 05

  And they'll go up there.

• 17:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I don't see any way anybody's going up there to clean bird poop.

• 17:44Speaker 05

  There is access up there and there is a gutter system up there to go ahead and allow for washing down and also for rain.

• 17:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, so you can hose it off?

• 17:52Speaker 05

  That's one thing we can do as far as the birds though is also use a falcon ear. So you can actually have falcons that come around here to keep birds away. Does that help? I'm trying to be as smart as this man.

• 18:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's very National Geographic, right?

• 18:06Gary O'Reilly?

  All right, you glad you turned up for this show? All right, so there's a little insight, I want to say window, but I've done it now, on to what's going on in this 21st century stadium. What else could we build into a roof like that? Because that's a massive expanse.

• 18:24Chuck Nice?

  And by roof, he means bird toilet.

• 18:27Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah, so I mean, are we going to have solar panels? Because California, I think every new construction has to have solar panels.

• 18:35Chuck Nice?

  Thank God.

• 18:37Gary O'Reilly?

  Can we use it like a TV screen? Can we project things out? What could we do to play with this and make it just more than just a roof?

• 18:44Speaker 02

  I mean, you'd love to, right? The technology for solar panels. I mean, the problem is the weight today, right? Can you make it light enough to be able to cover the surface and still have it span that enormous distance which it now spans? We've moved from stadiums where you used to have, you know, limited sight view seats to stadiums where there's no such thing in the entire place because these roof materials have gotten so light that now everyone can see from everywhere. So the more technology you want to put up there, of course, the heavier it is. We actually had problems.

• 19:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But just to be clear, heavier roofs require more structures to hold it up that would block your view.

• 19:18Speaker 02

  Potentially.

• 19:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I light roof, you don't have to hold up the roof.

• 19:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, you can stand further away.

• 19:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Stand further away, so that's what you meant.

• 19:24Speaker 02

  Fulcrum.

• 19:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  When you, okay, I was just trying to follow that.

• 19:26Gary O'Reilly?

  So it becomes a span.

• 19:27Speaker 02

  Exactly, so how much distance are you trying to span? How light do you need that material to be in order to make the span so that you don't have a blocked view?

• 19:35Gary O'Reilly?

  How does a roof like that affect what you would be able to do in the stadium?

• 19:39Speaker 02

  You know, it's interesting, the, in Atlanta, and presumably they'll have the same problem in Los Angeles as well. The fact that these materials are now plastics, you know, if we look at an older building, like if we're in the the lower levels here, uh, concrete, rebar, iron, uh, the RF energy of the city.

• 19:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Radio frequency.

• 19:59Speaker 02

  Yes, the radio.

• 20:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  To be clear.

• 20:00Speaker 02

  Uh, doesn't make it into your basement here, right? Whereas when you build out of these new materials, these hyper-thin plastics, transparent materials, uh, one of the challenges we're actually having is that all of the RF energy of the city is penetrating into the building now, so.

• 20:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And you don't want that.

• 20:19Speaker 02

  You don't want that.

• 20:19Chuck Nice?

  Does that create interference?

• 20:20Speaker 02

  Absolutely, yeah. How can you deliver cell service to 80,000 people sitting in a space which need low signal strength? Because they're not that far from the antenna.

• 20:30Chuck Nice?

  But wouldn't you want to not provide them cell service? Wouldn't you want to block their cell service and provide them your own particular frequency? Because then you can determine what they're going to watch, see, hear, and how they're going to interact with the stadium and other people? Because you're the puppeteer, uh, electronically at that point.

• 20:53Speaker 02

  Absolutely, absolutely, that's.

• 20:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Who do you work for? What do you, are you an IBM operative on the?

• 20:59Gary O'Reilly?

  Captain Verizon.

• 21:00Speaker 02

  Well, it sounds like you work for a DAS company, a distributed antenna system, which is the local cellular system in a stadium. And the problem with that is, we want to run our DAS in a stadium and not have it leak out into the city? And not have the city leak in. So these new materials are really creating challenges in how we can do that successfully.

• 21:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Can't you put wires in it and turn it into a Faraday cage?

• 21:23Speaker 02

  Yeah, you, you could, but again.

• 21:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You know about Faraday cage?

• 21:26Chuck Nice?

  Please, we would like to know about a Faraday cage.

• 21:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It has nothing to do with prisons or anything.

• 21:31Chuck Nice?

  Oh, thank gosh.

• 21:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Uh, Faraday is credited with this, so, um, if you have something that conducts electricity, like wire, or any kind of metal. And you surround yourself in it.

• 21:41Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 21:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Then electromagnetic energy cannot penetrate that surface. Because it tries to get through and it gets conducted into the surface and it never goes inside. And if, so for example, you can walk out in a lightning storm and if you're surrounded by one of these cages, lightning will hit, it will never go inside your bubble.

• 21:58Chuck Nice?

  And the aliens can't read your thoughts.

• 22:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That too. Hence the aluminum foil.

• 22:04Chuck Nice?

  Exactly. It's just nothing more than an aluminum foil hat. That's really what it is.

• 22:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's exactly what it is. Okay, sorry, go on.

• 22:12Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 22:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Pick it up.

• 22:12Speaker 02

  So with these new materials, the, it's just become very difficult to create the separation that we need to deliver that kind of service. So that's meaning new antenna designs, new antenna placements, more antennas. In fact, in Atlanta, we have a first of a kind deployment of the cellular phone antennas are actually under the seats in the upper levels of the stadium.

• 22:34Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 22:35Speaker 02

  Because what we want is very low signal power. So only go a few meters to the nearby seats.

• 22:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And it sterilizes your gonads. I'm gonna feel a little warm right now. What am I doing? Oh, that's so that you get strong signal.

• 22:50Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 22:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Don't you want that? Tickets have just gone down at Atlanta.

• 22:55Speaker 02

  We did a lot of testing. Yeah, a lot of engineering went into making that.

• 22:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, another interesting fact that we don't think about much here on the East Coast, but on the West Coast, it is in every design point. What do you do about earthquakes?

• 23:09Chuck Nice?

  Ooh.

• 23:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Can you earthquake proof a stadium?

• 23:11Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 23:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So at the SoFi tour that I took, I had to ask him about it. Let's check it out.

• 23:17Speaker 05

  This bowl structure is a separate element to the roof structure.

• 23:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right.

• 23:22Speaker 05

  And it's separated by what's called an MSC wall, Mechanical Stabilized Earth Wall. So it's panels that go in. So if you were to walk through the rest of the stadium, you'd go to a back area that has about 12 foot of gap in between so that this stadium can change.

• 23:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It can move independently.

• 23:38Speaker 05

  It can move independently. And then the blade columns support the roof structure that actually go to butterfly caps and struts and to dead men. And that acts independently with ice. At the top that can move up to eighty-one inches.

• 23:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So you can sustain an earthquake, it sounds like.

• 23:55Speaker 05

  Yes, we can.

• 23:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's that's code for this stadium can shake and bake.

• 24:00Speaker 05

  It can shake and bake.

• 24:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's got a little bit of a little bit of movement to it.

• 24:04Speaker 05

  It does.

• 24:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And you got it.

• 24:06Speaker 05

  And you wouldn't even know because as you walk in, we have a moat lid. So there is a moat that goes all the way around that most people don't know.

• 24:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  A moat.

• 24:13Speaker 05

  A moat.

• 24:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  M O A T.

• 24:15Speaker 05

  M O A T.

• 24:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  With crocodiles.

• 24:16Speaker 05

  Exactly. It could be. It could.

• 24:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because, I mean, the history of learning about earthquakes and other sort of issues is you don't want movement over here to have to be felt in the rest of the structure.

• 24:28Speaker 05

  No.

• 24:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right? Because that could take down the whole structure.

• 24:31Speaker 05

  Correct.

• 24:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So everything can have some independence.

• 24:33Speaker 05

  Right.

• 24:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And then it just lives as almost an organic element.

• 24:38Speaker 06

  And you have these almost like these cut lines.

• 24:40Speaker 05

  Yes, expansions.

• 24:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah, the usual. There'll be thermal expansions and things. So Ben, you working in the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta just a few years ago, did they have to put in any sort of disaster proofing? If not earthquakes, some other kind of protection?

• 24:56Speaker 02

  I mean, it has to be built for the environment it's in, right? So Atlanta is a very wet, very windy place. You know, the movable roof is there because Atlanta has quite a lot of days when it's rainy. So the tech-

• 25:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You can't play football in the rain anymore.

• 25:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In my day, you couldn't even see the gridiron. That's how much snow would be on the field and they'd still play.

• 25:17Gary O'Reilly?

  Right. How many fans were there?

• 25:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I don't know.

• 25:19Gary O'Reilly?

  It's about the fans. The fans don't want to sit there.

• 25:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We played football with a baseball bat. That's right. That's how tough it was.

• 25:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Sorry. Continue.

• 25:29Gary O'Reilly?

  I know you're not apologizing to me.

• 25:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's right.

• 25:31Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. So all of the facilities are instrumented throughout. So within the roof, within the columns that support it, the structural steel, the structural concrete, there's instrumentation throughout all of it, which today is more wires that we have to bring to be able to measure the stresses that are on a given piece of steel.

• 25:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  When you say instrumentation, you mean diagnostic tools?

• 25:55Speaker 02

  Absolutely.

• 25:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So you always know the structural health of your facility?

• 26:00Speaker 02

  Yeah, so in Atlanta, there are pedals that open and close to move the roof. And you want to know the health of the pedal system. So all of that is instrumented so that you know that it's in balance and all of the motors are operating correctly.

• 26:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so you're not, so you wouldn't be taken by surprise?

• 26:15Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 26:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  If anything was about to fail?

• 26:17Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 26:18Gary O'Reilly?

  Thinking about what you said about footballers can't play in this rain, da-da-da-da-da. So when you or someone like you is involved in design in a stadium, who are you looking to please? The owners? The coaches? The players? The fans? Yourself?

• 26:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Why would that be mutually exclusive?

• 26:38Gary O'Reilly?

  No, I'm just wondering. Is there, you know, the owner says, "I want it done this way", and the owner's the guy with the paycheck, therefore the owner gets what he wants? Or is there...

• 26:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Even if that might conflict with something else?

• 26:48Gary O'Reilly?

  Correct.

• 26:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Got it.

• 26:49Speaker 02

  I think it starts with the fans, right? Because...

• 26:52Chuck Nice?

  Because they're paying.

• 26:53Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 26:53Chuck Nice?

  They're paying the owners.

• 26:54Speaker 02

  They're right, right. They are the source of...

• 26:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The owner works for the fans.

• 26:57Chuck Nice?

  That's right.

• 26:57Speaker 02

  That's right. They're the source of revenue for everything else that comes after it. And what you want to deliver is a great experience for them. And with stadiums, huge stadiums, they're getting bigger, they're getting more complex, because you have to compete with the fact that it's not that expensive to buy an 85-inch television with 4K Ultra HD and put it in your man cave.

• 27:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's what I did.

• 27:17Chuck Nice?

  All right, hey man, you're working against yourself there, Ben.

• 27:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's what I did.

• 27:21Gary O'Reilly?

  No, that's got to be the thought process of every owner.

• 27:24Speaker 02

  Yeah. How do we get you out? We want you out of your house.

• 27:28Chuck Nice?

  Right on.

• 27:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, you can give crappier television coverage. So I missed that, where you gotta be at the game.

• 27:34Chuck Nice?

  That's true.

• 27:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We're gonna show the replay only at the game.

• 27:37Chuck Nice?

  There you go.

• 27:38Speaker 02

  Well, we want to do both, right? We want to have you have fun on the days you can make it, have fun on the days you can't make it. You want to have everything, bringing together best possible experience. But the stadium itself is really competing for that. Let me get you out of your house in Atlanta or in Los Angeles to come in to the stadium.

• 27:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We gotta take a quick break. When we come back, more on the innovative designs of modern stadiums on StarTalk Sports Edition.

• 28:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Startalk, we're back. Startalk Sports Edition. Gary O'Reilly.

• 28:31Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 28:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Former footballer.

• 28:33Speaker 02

  Apparently.

• 28:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You keep telling yourself that.

• 28:36Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 28:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Chuck.

• 28:37Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 28:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Who do we have here? Ben.

• 28:40Chuck Nice?

  Brillat.

• 28:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Brillat. Thanks.

• 28:42Chuck Nice?

  I B M.

• 28:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  None of us even knew that such a person as you existed. The tech geeky person who empowers modern stadiums to do and be what they need to be to satisfy the fans, the owners, the players, all of the above.

• 28:58Chuck Nice?

  The great and wonderful Oz of stadiums.

• 29:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's what that is!

• 29:01Chuck Nice?

  That's what you are, man.

• 29:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's what that is!

• 29:04Speaker 02

  I mean, we hope it's that way, right? If it... we don't want to be too noticed, right?

• 29:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Man!

• 29:09Chuck Nice?

  Right on.

• 29:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, as you know, we're featuring my footage from my visit to the SoFi Stadium under construction.

• 29:15Chuck Nice?

  They're not even built.

• 29:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Outside of Los Angeles. It's great because one of the landing routes and takeoff routes from LAX goes right over the stadium, so you just look out the window there, it's very cool.

• 29:24Chuck Nice?

  That is cool.

• 29:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's why I know it didn't look like they'd be ready when they said they'd be ready, I'm just saying. I'm just saying.

• 29:30Speaker 02

  A lot of late nights coming up.

• 29:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There's the exterior design, but there's also what's going on on the inside. And as you said, the user experience comes first. That resonates with what I learned from the designers of this stadium. Let's check it out.

• 29:44Speaker 05

  The Oculus will actually start over here in this corner.

• 29:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So what is the Oculus?

• 29:47Speaker 05

  So the Oculus is actually the TV screens and/or scoreboards, everything that'll be announced.

• 29:53Speaker 06

  The world's largest scoreboard.

• 29:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And where's it gonna...

• 29:56Speaker 06

  Jumbotron.

• 29:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Is it gonna be in the middle or somewhere else?

• 29:57Speaker 05

  No, it actually follows the line of all this. So right where that green box is, that hydraulic box, imagine about eight feet away from that, we start building sections of it. And we start building sections and we stack sections on it.

• 30:11Chuck Nice?

  Such as this one too, on this side as well?

• 30:13Speaker 05

  All the way around the entire bowl.

• 30:14Chuck Nice?

  Uh huh.

• 30:15Speaker 05

  And then we go ahead and put a strand jack similar to this assembly up here. And we introduce load, we pulled out, it pulls on the roof. It weighs 2 million pounds when it's completed with components. We assemble it here, we commission it here, and we take it all the way up.

• 30:30Chuck Nice?

  And you hoist it up.

• 30:31Speaker 05

  And we hoist it up. So when you're standing on level eight, you see that guy there in the yellow?

• 30:34Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, I see him.

• 30:35Speaker 05

  That's level eight, and then level nine above. You'll actually be staring right out at that Oculus.

• 30:39Chuck Nice?

  Got it.

• 30:40Speaker 05

  So you're gonna have those types of seats in those views.

• 30:42Chuck Nice?

  But he can still see the field.

• 30:43Speaker 05

  Still see the film.

• 30:43Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 30:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Still see the field.

• 30:44Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 30:46Chuck Nice?

  So that was access for the cheap seats.

• 30:48Speaker 05

  The cheap seats.

• 30:49Chuck Nice?

  Helping those guys out.

• 30:49Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 30:50Chuck Nice?

  It seems to be there's an arms race with stadiums now for the world's biggest, uh, like Jumbotron or fan screen. Jumbotron, that's so 80's, dude. I know, I haven't been to a game in a long time, can you tell?

• 31:04Speaker 02

  Absolutely, I mean, Atlanta's the current record holder, so there...

• 31:08Chuck Nice?

  They're trying to beat Atlanta.

• 31:10Speaker 02

  Absolutely.

• 31:10Chuck Nice?

  Over at SoFi.

• 31:11Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 31:11Chuck Nice?

  Oh, oh, oh, see, he's like... Yeah, and you were. You're feeling it. He's right. His face got a little red. He puffed up a little bit. Yeah, he got a little puffed. A little chest beating going on right there. I got you. So now, this will definitely be the world's largest screen, or fan screen in the world, after it's done?

• 31:30Speaker 02

  Yeah, so the new Oculus here has screen services.

• 31:33Chuck Nice?

  Here in SoFi.

• 31:34Speaker 02

  In SoFi, has screen services on both sides of the circle. So, it's not just a single ring, there's display elements on both sides of the circle that's hanging down.

• 31:45Chuck Nice?

  Ooh, so it's a double-sided screen? It's inside, outside, it's a Kandinsky painting of jumbo screens, oh! Kandinsky, man, damn, Chuck. He's on something today. Man, Chuck! So... I don't know who said that.

• 32:02Chuck Nice?

  All right, let's play the game here. What other tech could you introduce to improve something like this Oculus? What could then take it to another level? Because this seems, as Chuck says, a bit of an arms race.

• 32:17Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, the Holy Grail really is to have VR players on the field, right?

• 32:23Chuck Nice?

  Oh, my.

• 32:24Speaker 02

  Projected augmented reality more than VR, really.

• 32:26Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 32:27Speaker 02

  But augmented reality players projected onto the field. We're still some ways away from that.

• 32:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But what would?

• 32:32Chuck Nice?

  Oh, that would be so cool.

• 32:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I don't get it.

• 32:34Chuck Nice?

  So check it out. So an instant.

• 32:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I ask him, please.

• 32:36Chuck Nice?

  Oh, I'm sorry. So.

• 32:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Who am I?

• 32:39Chuck Nice?

  I know who you're interviewing there.

• 32:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Do you work for IBM? No.

• 32:43Speaker 02

  Well, I mean, let's just take this example. If you are an Atlanta fan and your team is playing in Los Angeles, you want to be able to go to Atlanta and watch that game on that field in front of you in your home stadium.

• 32:57Chuck Nice?

  As a matter of fact, they do that now.

• 32:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, so I could be in the field. They don't see me, but they run through me.

• 33:03Speaker 02

  Well, you could have that, maybe. You could also have just an away game played at home.

• 33:08Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 33:08Speaker 02

  You could have.

• 33:08Chuck Nice?

  So like they have viewing parties now for the playoffs?

• 33:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 33:11Chuck Nice?

  Like your team goes to another city, right?

• 33:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So you all put on VR and you're all in their stadium.

• 33:15Chuck Nice?

  Now you're in.

• 33:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In their place.

• 33:17Chuck Nice?

  But you're in your stadium, watching the game on your field.

• 33:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh.

• 33:20Chuck Nice?

  Yeah. So here's the thing, as a stadium owner, you got to love this because that means everybody's got to buy hot dogs and their soft drinks.

• 33:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's true. And not watching on the 85 inch.

• 33:31Chuck Nice?

  And not watching. They're actually watching the field, just like a regular game.

• 33:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Give them a reason to get out of home and come to the stadium. No, get out of home and go to the bar and put on your.

• 33:41Chuck Nice?

  Because you know, the truth is, no, actually Neil makes a really good point. The truth is, if you bring that technology to a stadium, it will only be a very short period of time before bar owners bring that technology to their venue.

• 33:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They get a miniature version of the stadium, right, baby?

• 33:58Chuck Nice?

  A miniature version and then basically you'll be watching.

• 33:59Speaker 02

  More work for me.

• 34:00Chuck Nice?

  You say that works for you too. He's like, hey, guess what? I'm good. Right.

• 34:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Wait, so is that real? Is that, I mean, we're really going there?

• 34:07Speaker 02

  Not yet, not yet. The display projection technology is the problem.

• 34:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Pokemon Go.

• 34:12Chuck Nice?

  That's right.

• 34:12Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 34:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  If they can just show up in places.

• 34:14Speaker 02

  So, so we could do it today with looking through your phone, right? But that's not the best experience.

• 34:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, it's not.

• 34:19Speaker 02

  You want to be able to look at it in a seamless way. So there's a couple of barriers, one of which we're about to solve with 5G, which is the ability to get that data out of the field, real time, uh, recording, uh, what they're really called voxels, uh, volumetric image data, so that you can project from any position.

• 34:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So three dimensional pixel.

• 34:38Speaker 02

  Three dimensional pixel and get that out of the current stadium. So 5G will help with that. Where we're falling, uh, a little short still is in the display technology. So right now you need something like maybe Google Glass.

• 34:49Chuck Nice?

  Right, I was gonna say.

• 34:50Speaker 02

  Um, an augmented reality display to look at it. Eventually we'll be, be able to project it in fog or something like that. You know, that technology still weighs off, but I mean, they're working on it.

• 35:02Chuck Nice?

  Man, that is so cool. I mean, like. How big are you? But in a way though, but let's, let's, let's, let's, let's play this out just for a second now. Cause see, if I'm an NFL player and I'm smart and I hear you say what you just said, you're no longer my friend that helps me. You are now my competition and now we go back to where jocks beat the hell out of geeks.

• 35:27Chuck Nice?

  Okay? Because.

• 35:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The biggest regressives.

• 35:29Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 35:30Speaker 02

  All right.

• 35:31Chuck Nice?

  Because let's be honest, what you just said there, um, is one step away. Instead of an augmented reality, which is basically the real time transmission of data.

• 35:43Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 35:44Chuck Nice?

  To, why do I need that? I'll just create the data myself and transmit it so that you're seeing a game that is really an algorithm that even though it may be predetermined, it's still a game that happens, right? And you can watch football. Nobody gets hurt. Nobody gets, it's AI football.

• 36:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Isn't that just John Madden football?

• 36:06Chuck Nice?

  AI football. Well, it is.

• 36:07Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 36:07Chuck Nice?

  No, it's not John Madden because see John Madden, you're playing, whereas this would be, would be an indeterminate algorithm that where, where, where, so none of the outcomes are predetermined. And you would see a real game.

• 36:21Speaker 02

  All right, we're gonna pick that.

• 36:21Chuck Nice?

  We'll put Watson up against Siri, right? Right.

• 36:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So in this next clip, I snared one of the engineers to ask him, is there any other technology that the public doesn't see that might be going on, on the field? With like the players or the coaches? Let's check it out.

• 36:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In modern times, football teams keep track of their players. And with high-tech monitoring systems and GPS, how far they've moved. Will there be any sort of high-tech sensor systems?

• 36:51Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 36:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That can be invoked at field level?

• 36:55Speaker 06

  It's actually not GPS-based, it's arm-based.

• 36:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 36:58Speaker 06

  So we have a ring of basically sensors around. So when the players walk out of the dressing room, they have a chip in their pads that gets turned on, basically, when they exit the locker room. And then, within the playing surface, basically, they track the movements. They can then figure out things like velocity and top speed.

• 37:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, but that's not unique to the stadium? If everyone has a chip in the modern NFL?

• 37:27Speaker 06

  The league basically mandates that system.

• 37:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Plus for the health and well-being of the players, too, right?

• 37:32Speaker 06

  You can track how far they run, how fast they run, how much they're on-field, etc.

• 37:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That means you can also measure how fast they decelerate in a block. Like, you're running, and I run at you, and I got your speed, all of a sudden, bam! You go from 20 miles an hour to zero in...

• 37:51Speaker 06

  In a meter or whatever.

• 37:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, right.

• 37:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So Ben, why are they using RF technology if 5G is basically available?

• 38:00Speaker 02

  So it depends, what is that sensor trying to accomplish? So, on a high school field, you have GPS. You're out in the air, you can see the satellites, the GPS trackers that will fit in their pads.

• 38:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  More importantly, the GPS satellites can see you.

• 38:13Speaker 02

  The GPS. No, but that's okay. And indoors, now you have, again, the roof, which is blocking those signals. You need to provide some sort of local system that can now provide that location data.

• 38:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay. So 5G is not a local system?

• 38:29Speaker 02

  Well, 5G is a local system and they're.

• 38:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I mean, even within a stadium, local?

• 38:34Speaker 02

  Absolutely. So to that technology of DAS that I mentioned earlier, we have to build our own 5G network inside of a stadium to meet the density of people who are there, you know, 80,000 devices in, well, we might even call 160,000, uh, if you got a watch and a phone, right? Uh, devices in a small space. Now you need dedicated electronics, uh, dedicated antennas and radios just for that stadium by itself. But that tracking versus making phone calls, all different kinds of 5G that are starting to come to life and the density, the number of devices as we look at IoT and really those sensors are IoT, uh, is just gonna balloon as we start.

• 39:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What IoT stands for?

• 39:15Speaker 02

  Internet of Things. So.

• 39:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's what that, that's what that abbreviates?

• 39:20Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 39:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Internet of Things.

• 39:22Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 39:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Things should never be abbreviated. That word is not important enough. Thanks for clearing it up.

• 39:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Internet of stuff, I don't know what it is.

• 39:32Gary O'Reilly?

  As I, as I sit here and listen to you explain that, Ben, my, I'm looking at my mo, my cellphone is dating and out of date within two years.

• 39:40Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 39:41Gary O'Reilly?

  So how do we future-proof? What's coming that we can do? That you are, that you're gonna be able to jump on and utilize?

• 39:50Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 39:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, how about 7G, 8G, 10G?

• 39:53Speaker 02

  It'll all be there. The, the way that we future-proof in our architecture is we say we don't have a crystal ball. The only thing we can do is put more pathways for more antennas. Uh, make sure that you have the ability to put, today you have one antenna in this room, tomorrow you have two, four years from now, you have four or five.

• 40:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I got, I gotta, I gotta interrupt you. Okay? And Back to the Future 2, which took place in 2015 or 16, I forgot, somewhere in our past right now. Back when it was made, people had fax machines, okay? That was the thing. Oh, that's cool. That's how you send. So they imagined in that distant future.

• 40:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That households would have multiple fax machines. Of course. So when Marty was fired from his job, it was sent to him by fax and every fax machine in his house out came the thing, you're fired. And you say, wow, that's the future. Right. We'll have more than one fax machine. So isn't that a little bit short sighted to say, let's just put more of what we already have?

• 40:58Speaker 02

  No, we're not so much putting more, we're putting more capability, but just the path. We don't know what kind of cable will go in it. We don't know what kind of antenna will be there.

• 41:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So you assume it needs a path?

• 41:07Speaker 02

  You need to have a spot to put it, right? And that's becoming particularly challenging because architects also want their stadiums to be beautiful, right? You want to experience the technology, but not have to see it. So you need to really design in from day zero, the ability to put all of this electronics there and be able to hide it.

• 41:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Tell me about helmet cams. That would be another, I'd be first, it would be interesting just to monitor helmet concussion, the forces that operate on a helmet.

• 41:36Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 41:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You should be able to do that. If my iPhone can measure accelerations, no matter what I'm doing, a helmet could do that too.

• 41:42Speaker 02

  Absolutely.

• 41:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay. So, but not only that, just point of view cameras. Like suppose I'm going to experience a game as a, as a, as a fan and I could flick on, let me see what the quarterback is looking at. Let me see what the center, let me see what the wide receiver, and that's their camera.

• 41:56Speaker 02

  Mm hmm.

• 41:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What's, what's?

• 41:57Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 41:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  How about that?

• 41:58Speaker 02

  So with, with 5G, we will be able to do that, especially in a sport like football where you have a lot of room to put the heavier batteries and the, the camera sensors, things like that.

• 42:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They're like, oh, this is too heavy.

• 42:10Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 42:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But.

• 42:11Speaker 02

  Well, that's a baseball player. Right.

• 42:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  As a soccer player.

• 42:16Speaker 02

  The good news.

• 42:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You guys, when you get clipped on the side, oh. Oh, man, that's it. I can't get up. The weight's too much. I'm falling, I can't get up. You soccer players, what the hell is wrong with y'all?

• 42:28Speaker 02

  Well, we got good news for.

• 42:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We're precious.

• 42:30Speaker 02

  We got good news for soccer football.

• 42:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Have you?

• 42:32Speaker 02

  Is that with.

• 42:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Is my team gonna win?

• 42:34Speaker 02

  Well, with the 3D, with the 3D volumetric pixel imaging, it's now possible computationally to recreate any view from an array of, say, 32 cameras. Around the stadium.

• 42:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is like bullet time.

• 42:47Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 42:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Like in The Matrix where you can get any camera angle.

• 42:51Speaker 02

  Yeah. So you, as a viewer, could pick, you wouldn't even have to be limited to a specific helmet cam. You could pick the view right in between the two helmets and have that computed for you dynamically from the images that are already taken.

• 43:03Chuck Nice?

  That's pretty wild.

• 43:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's badass right there.

• 43:06Chuck Nice?

  See, now, once again, it seems like you're working, okay, so this would be, see, that's something that you want to keep to an in-stadium experience, right? Because to be able to come and look on your phone and see a completely different game than you're actually watching on the field.

• 43:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right. Why be limited to some cameraman who's parked on some spot on the sideline?

• 43:27Chuck Nice?

  You can actually curate your own game in real time as you're sitting there. Let me see that replay, you know? That's kind of cool.

• 43:35Speaker 02

  Yeah, you could end up, you know, with Twitch-style re-edits of the game.

• 43:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We got to take a break. Can you hang around for like the third segment?

• 43:43Speaker 02

  Absolutely.

• 43:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because normally we just sort of, you know, chew the fat, but I want to chew the fat with you in the room.

• 43:48Speaker 02

  Sounds great. Thanks.

• 43:49Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, that'd be cool.

• 43:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right. This is StarTalk Sports Edition. We'll be right back.

• 44:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We're back. StarTalk. We have a special guest brought in from central Pennsylvania, where this dude lives. Nobody's out there. Well, no, he's here.

• 44:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  He was the only one there. Now he's here. Ben Brillat. Thanks for hanging out. Normally, we just sort of chew the fat this segment, but I want you there. Thanks. While we chew the fat. Sounds good. So I'm just, I'm curious about something. I'm looking at the rate at which stadium design is changing, and that always tells me things. It says if the rate is changing rapidly now, we can praise any newly opened stadium.

• 44:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But if the raid is fast, it means in five years, that's gonna be an old stadium.

• 45:00Chuck Nice?

  Just like technology itself.

• 45:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Technology itself.

• 45:03Chuck Nice?

  You're actually-

• 45:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, so how you feel about this?

• 45:06Speaker 02

  I mean, it's good news for me, right? Uh, the more tech changes-

• 45:10Chuck Nice?

  Job security.

• 45:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, job security, yeah. Uh, but now, do you build that into your design?

• 45:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 45:15Speaker 02

  Cause, cause you have to.

• 45:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, he said he future proofs by putting, uh, conduits and, and places where you would put stuff.

• 45:21Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 45:22Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, there's capitalization terms for all of these things. You wanna be sure you get your money's worth out of it. You need to be able to-

• 45:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Especially when it's five billion dollars worth of your money.

• 45:30Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 45:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But go ahead.

• 45:31Speaker 02

  Uh, but it is a big challenge. What can you do? How far into that crystal ball can you see? And, you know, we make our best attempts at it, but, you know, something's-

• 45:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Gary, reflection.

• 45:39Gary O'Reilly?

  Okay, so, we, we touched on augmented reality. Now, I'm just thinking, if we really throw it a long way away, do we actually need stadiums? Because you're gonna sit there with your VR goggles, and I'll give you an immersive suit so as you can actually feel the hits yourself, while you're sat there.

• 45:56Chuck Nice?

  That's too much.

• 45:58Gary O'Reilly?

  Well, you can dial it up-

• 45:59Chuck Nice?

  That's too much.

• 46:00Gary O'Reilly?

  With Disney pens, you dial it up or you dial it down?

• 46:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, dial it down, yeah.

• 46:03Gary O'Reilly?

  So do, are we then-

• 46:03Chuck Nice?

  Can I dial it down to a, um, relaxing massage?

• 46:06Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah, if you want.

• 46:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Negative three.

• 46:10Gary O'Reilly?

  We, we talking about, we gotta get people out of their homes. We need to, you know, our competition isn't this, this, this. It's getting people away from their TV sets and into the arena. But, is it just gonna come down to, let's save the money and put it all into the fan experience?

• 46:25Speaker 02

  You know, you'd, you'd think that would have happened with video gaming, but what has actually happened is that e-gaming is now become-

• 46:33Chuck Nice?

  A spectator sport.

• 46:34Speaker 02

  A huge spectator sport segment.

• 46:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Watching other people play their e-game.

• 46:39Speaker 02

  But in a stadium. You go to a stadium to watch on the big screen, video games get played.

• 46:44Chuck Nice?

  It's true.

• 46:45Gary O'Reilly?

  Don't look at me like that. It's not me doing it.

• 46:47Chuck Nice?

  We're all sitting in this room looking at each other the same way.

• 46:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's like, what?

• 46:51Chuck Nice?

  Which is, what the hell is wrong with these people? But, it's a huge thing.

• 46:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Is that Gen X? Is that Gen Y? Is that millennials? Let's get to the bottom of this.

• 46:57Speaker 02

  Yeah, it is.

• 46:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Who's doing this?

• 46:59Speaker 02

  Yeah, the, the, the under twenty-five set, yeah.

• 47:02Chuck Nice?

  It is, yeah. My son is totally into it, and I was completely-

• 47:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  He's twelve.

• 47:06Chuck Nice?

  And, right, and I was completely against it. Until I found out that these so-called e-athletes, many of them have seven-figure deals. Yep. And now he gets home and I'm just like, "You better get upstairs and play that video game." Get those thumbs moving. Get those thumbs moving, boy. What's your problem? Don't read a book. That's right. Are you reading?

• 47:30Chuck Nice?

  Oh my God, are you reading? What the hell is wrong with you?

• 47:35Gary O'Reilly?

  Oh, fans, the whole thing here now. Oh, we, we, stadiums were built to honor the gladiators and the athletes. Now, we are seeing a shift away to the fan, the spectator, the person who provides the income as being the point of view that is the most interesting. Where can we take that? Where can IBM, where can the stadium builders and architects of the future take that?

• 48:03Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, the fans, what we're trying to do with technology is deliver a better game through improved insights into how the players are moving their physio mechanics, the coaching calls.

• 48:17Chuck Nice?

  Physio mechanics?

• 48:18Speaker 02

  I hope so. I just said it.

• 48:19Chuck Nice?

  Okay, I like learning new words, but, okay, all right, all right.

• 48:24Speaker 02

  And help the coaches to be able to make the best decisions that they can, help the players to be able to get the most that they can out of their own body to put it into an ever more entertaining game, right? So I think everybody is benefiting. You know, we talk about the greatest players of 60 years ago versus, you know, sort of your mid-tier players today. The mid-tier player had so much more information available to them to help them train exactly the right muscle, rest on exactly the right rest day. You know, the, the level of play is just going up, up, up.

• 48:54Chuck Nice?

  All right, so let me ask you this. With that in mind, talking about the fan, let's talk about the owner for a second. Because here's the way I'm thinking. I spent all this money. I got this high-tech stadium.

• 49:07Chuck Nice?

  How am I gonna make even more money off of all of this 5G capable technology?

• 49:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, what's the business model?

• 49:14Chuck Nice?

  Where's the business model?

• 49:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  How's the money come back into his pocket?

• 49:17Chuck Nice?

  I need that money to come back to me. So am I gonna be charged to see like certain replays that nobody else can see? Or, I mean, what, cuz you know no fan-

• 49:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What kind of paywall are you gonna put up?

• 49:28Chuck Nice?

  There's no fan experience that's complete without an owner saying, nah, you gonna have to pay for that.

• 49:34Speaker 02

  I mean, all of that is possible, right? You can have, you know, premium subscriber level features. You can have entry features. You can have features you can only get if you are actually there. That happens today a lot because of TV licensing agreements. We can do more when you're physically in the stadium than we can outside.

• 49:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Can I give an example of that? A really lame but heartfelt example. When I was nine, we went to the Bronx Zoo. And we, we were very frugal as a family. I saw other rich kids. They could buy the elephant key. There's a plastic key and the elephant's nose sticks out. And at every cage, back when animals were in cages, there was an information recording. And you put the key in and turn it, and you get a narration about the animal.

• 50:19Chuck Nice?

  Right, but you had to buy that key.

• 50:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You had to buy the key!

• 50:22Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 50:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And we didn't buy the key, so-

• 50:24Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, I would just stand next to the rich kids.

• 50:31Chuck Nice?

  Mommy, why does this black kid keep following me everywhere? I'm sorry.

• 50:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So I, so I, I felt, I didn't feel like I was a part of the experience. And it didn't feel good to me, even though I paid, we had paid admission to the zoo itself. It was, I, I felt left out.

• 50:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 50:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Just because I couldn't afford it. And that was a visitor experience in 1968, 67, that was its version of what you're describing.

• 50:57Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 50:57Gary O'Reilly?

  Okay, so picking up on your elephant key analogy.

• 51:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  By the way, I still own that elephant key. Just want you to know.

• 51:02Chuck Nice?

  For real?

• 51:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  For real, I'll bring it in.

• 51:04Speaker 02

  You did get one.

• 51:05Gary O'Reilly?

  The elephant in the room.

• 51:08Gary O'Reilly?

  The elephant in the room or the stadium, gambling.

• 51:13Gary O'Reilly?

  When you've got all of this ability to stream and do stuff.

• 51:17Chuck Nice?

  Oh my god.

• 51:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There's a lot of money.

• 51:18Gary O'Reilly?

  Pop, pop, pop. Yeah?

• 51:19Chuck Nice?

  So now you're talking about...

• 51:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There's more money gambling than any of it. Than any of it.

• 51:23Chuck Nice?

  Oh my god, Gary, you are brilliant. How do we get in on this right now? Because I'm telling you...

• 51:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Shut off the cameras, we'll find out.

• 51:31Chuck Nice?

  Let me tell you something, real time betting? While you're in a stadium? That's a money maker.

• 51:37Gary O'Reilly?

  Shake it.

• 51:39Speaker 02

  It, it happens a lot more overseas than it does here. We have stronger laws.

• 51:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Anti-gambling.

• 51:44Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 51:44Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 51:45Gary O'Reilly?

  But if I've spent five billion dollars to create my stadium entertainment palace, I'll be pushing really hard to get the gambling laws changed in the state of which I'm...

• 51:55Chuck Nice?

  Oh, without a doubt. Yeah.

• 51:56Gary O'Reilly?

  For sure.

• 51:57Chuck Nice?

  Every state, yeah.

• 51:58Speaker 02

  I mean, we're seeing data that comes just for fantasy football, right? So fantasy football, fantasy baseball, the decision-making data that's available to you for your own fantasy league is, would probably knock the socks off of a coach from, you know, 1955 to have access to the kind of information that you're...

• 52:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, 1975, 1985, the kind of data they have.

• 52:19Gary O'Reilly?

  So going back to your point of what else happens, how does, how does the owner, you the owner, make money? I put a massive big complex of theaters, show movies, I have shopping malls.

• 52:32Chuck Nice?

  I was about to say that. How, why aren't stadiums, when we were about to come out of it, why don't stadiums have, um, multiple use built into, it's like the stadium sits empty for most of the time?

• 52:45Gary O'Reilly?

  But this is the whole deal with SoFi.

• 52:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, SoFi...

• 52:47Speaker 02

  SoFi is a great example.

• 52:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so, okay, but, alright, so SoFi, so a professional football schedule today, it's 16 games if you don't go into playoffs, correct? Okay, so, most football, pure football stadiums are used 16 weekends out of 52.

• 53:02Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 53:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Period. Then I noticed 10 years ago, 20 years, they tried to turn them into, uh, conferencing centers and things, get a little extra money on the side, but still, what are you doing?

• 53:12Chuck Nice?

  Hold your event here.

• 53:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Maybe hold a rock concert, okay? So with SoFi... It has two teams interlaced, so now it's thirty-two weekends.

• 53:22Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 53:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's way better than sixteen out of fifty-two. But still, you got another twenty weekends where nothing's happening. Is the business model so lucrative that you can go unused for twenty weekends?

• 53:34Speaker 02

  No, you need to drive that attendance up and the use of your facility. So in Atlanta, they have also Atlanta United, the MLS soccer team.

• 53:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Mercedes?

• 53:42Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 53:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Facility?

• 53:43Speaker 02

  So the Atlanta United MLS soccer team has games that are played there also.

• 53:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Your people.

• 53:48Speaker 02

  So that has really driven up, yep, really driven up the usage of the building.

• 53:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And then all the immigrants come in, they get something to watch, right?

• 53:56Speaker 02

  Right.

• 53:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because all the immigrants play soccer.

• 53:57Speaker 02

  Absolutely.

• 53:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Every last one of them.

• 53:59Gary O'Reilly?

  They've put seventy thousand fans in the Atlanta stadium for MLS soccer.

• 54:05Speaker 02

  Absolutely.

• 54:05Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah.

• 54:06Speaker 02

  It's a huge drop.

• 54:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And not an American among them.

• 54:08Speaker 02

  It's a huge drop.

• 54:08Gary O'Reilly?

  There's more.

• 54:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm just kidding.

• 54:09Chuck Nice?

  Nah, no, but in a way, you're right. When the World Cup is on and you walk around Manhattan.

• 54:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It is so, people are so indifferent to it.

• 54:16Chuck Nice?

  It's like, people don't care, and then you look in every bar, and it is filled to the brim.

• 54:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right.

• 54:21Chuck Nice?

  You know, and none of them are Americans.

• 54:25Speaker 02

  Atlanta's culture is changing with the Atlanta United, actually.

• 54:28Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah.

• 54:28Speaker 02

  The Atlanta United are driving fans into that sport at a rate that is just crazy. Yeah, I mean, you walk by bars in Atlanta, and there is an Atlanta United flag. There are kids going to watch Atlanta games.

• 54:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right, so America might come around on this.

• 54:43Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 54:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The soccer thing.

• 54:44Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah, you're getting there. But I think the footprint of the SoFi Stadium, I think, is greater than Disneyland in.

• 54:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, including parking.

• 54:52Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah.

• 54:53Chuck Nice?

  Are you for real? If this multi-use district, what else is there? What else is in that stadium?

• 54:59Gary O'Reilly?

  They're building in the multiplex movie theaters.

• 55:02Chuck Nice?

  Hotels.

• 55:03Gary O'Reilly?

  There's the hotels, there's the shopping.

• 55:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, that's what you mean.

• 55:05Chuck Nice?

  So the idea is, right, it's making a destination, area. The area becomes a destination. Got you.

• 55:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And then the game is just one other thing you do.

• 55:13Speaker 02

  Yep, something to do that you can walk to, yeah.

• 55:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Wow.

• 55:17Chuck Nice?

  Okay, cool.

• 55:18Gary O'Reilly?

  Because there's a finite amount of people that can go and watch a game. But they want to come and enjoy the experience, so you will build fan parks outside.

• 55:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I have an obscure, geeky, sciency comment, if I may.

• 55:31Speaker 02

  I'm ready.

• 55:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay. If you're charging a battery, either an electric car or any kind of rechargeable battery.

• 55:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The, if it's dead and you start charging it, like the first twenty percent happens very quickly. And then as the battery gets more and more charged, the rate at which it reaches the top gets slower and slower and slower. So that last five percent takes almost as long as the previous, all the time it took to get to that ninety-five percent. Okay, do you know why?

• 56:01Speaker 02

  No!

• 56:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 56:02Speaker 02

  I'm about to find out.

• 56:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The analogy is a stadium parking lot. Because in a dead battery, you have all these electrons in the wrong place.

• 56:14Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 56:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, they done served you. Now you gotta punch them back so that they can serve you again. They gotta swim upstream and they gotta park on the other side of that battery. But they can only park in pre-designated places.

• 56:28Speaker 02

  Oh, so that...

• 56:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So if you're the first electron upstream, you park anywhere. I'm by the door! Yay! So in a stadium, if I'm early at the stadium, I can park anywhere. I can park within seconds.

• 56:42Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 56:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The later I come, even if there is a parking spot for me, it'll take me longer to find it. So that when the parking spot is almost entirely full and only five slots left, it could take me a half hour to find a parking spot. After looking for those spots. That's why it takes longer to charge the last part of a battery than the first part. Because of the parking lot problem.

• 57:05Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 57:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Have you solved the parking problems?

• 57:07Speaker 02

  Yeah, we, we have. Uh, smart parking systems. Smart parking? Yeah, and it turns out... Assigned parking? Predetermined assigned parking? We have assigned parking predetermined. We also have smart parking systems. If you've been like in Heathrow Airport, uh, with red and green lights over every single parking spot. So you can look down a hallway and see if there's a green light. Oh, what a hidden spots! Yeah, signs that tell you how many are left on each level. Turns out this is a huge source of pollution in cities too. So there's companies working... But not just in parking lots, period. Yeah. In every metro place. Driving around looking around parking lots.

• 57:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Eighty percent of all cars that are in motion that are not taxis are looking for parking.

• 57:44Speaker 02

  Yeah, so this, this company's trying to solve this now to be able to help you. Uh, there's some new deployments out in Europe of smart parking systems in cities so that you can know where to go.

• 57:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That you could just see above all the car and the green one is right there.

• 57:55Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 57:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And that's some little car that's hidden behind the SUV.

• 57:59Speaker 02

  Exactly. Are you angry when that happens?

• 58:01Chuck Nice?

  I always flatten their tires.

• 58:04Gary O'Reilly?

  So now, how many people are now looking for a space? And there's only one green light?

• 58:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, then, no.

• 58:11Gary O'Reilly?

  And then they all converge on the same space.

• 58:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The lights break out. Right. How fast can you drive up to that?

• 58:18Gary O'Reilly?

  See, this is LA, so Larry David's gonna be the, gonna be there. You know that.

• 58:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Larry David.

• 58:23Gary O'Reilly?

  You know, he's gonna be there with his little electric car.

• 58:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Of curb your enthusiasm, yeah.

• 58:27Speaker 02

  So we can actually fol- using cameras, we can actually follow your car through the parking garage and provide you individually appropriate signage at every turn for where you should go to your parking.

• 58:37Gary O'Reilly?

  Can you talk to the car at turn left, you idiot?

• 58:39Speaker 02

  Well, you can change a sign that they can read.

• 58:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Talk to the thing and I'm gonna sit back. And that, you know, that's exactly, that's where it's actually going. Let the car park its own name.

• 58:47Speaker 02

  There you go.

• 58:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 58:48Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah.

• 58:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Dude, that is super cool.

• 58:49Gary O'Reilly?

  I'm watching the game, you park yourself.

• 58:50Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 58:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right, so final thoughts. Chuck, what do you have?

• 58:53Chuck Nice?

  Um, you know, I'm gonna go to a game, uh, and, and probably be disappointed because none of the cool crap we're talking about is gonna be there.

• 58:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's not yet.

• 58:59Chuck Nice?

  It's not happening yet.

• 59:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  He'll call, get his phone number, he'll call you.

• 59:02Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 59:02Speaker 02

  Absolutely, we'll go together.

• 59:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Gary?

• 59:04Gary O'Reilly?

  I think it's great. I think it's brilliant because everybody wins. The players are gonna win, the coaches, IBM could become the best football coach ever, right? All the biodate, all the telemetrics, all the players are gonna win and the fans are gonna get better experience. So it's a win-win-win. Brilliant.

• 59:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, what thoughts do you have at night before you go to sleep about all this?

• 59:24Speaker 02

  I wanna make sure that my son, when he goes to have, he's four now, when he goes to a game, that he will be able to have the experience that he is imagining when he gets there. So, his world, his world already, he can talk to the house, right? And have the lights turn on, he can type because he just talks to his computer. The information, the world is at his fingertips.

• 59:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Is your four-year-old child?

• 59:50Speaker 02

  Yeah. Fifteen years from now, when he's there.

• 59:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Your four-year-old child's running the house with his apps.

• 59:54Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 59:55Gary O'Reilly?

  Alexa, change the locks.

• 59:59Speaker 04

  Ha, take that dad. Try to get in the house now.

• 1:00:06Speaker 02

  He hasn't found that command set yet.

• 1:00:09Gary O'Reilly?

  You better get some really good parental guidance.

• 1:00:16Speaker 02

  You know, the world that he imagines is different than I can imagine, and I want him to have a great experience that keeps his attention and keeps him going.

• 1:00:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Here's what I look forward to, because I think about this all the time.

• 1:00:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'd like imagining tomorrow's technology for many reasons, but including the fact that if it's good enough, it will make everything I think is modern today look old. So in the future, I want the technology to not even be anything you are projecting for it. I want it to benefit from innovations, may I say, out of left field. Something you didn't even know was on its way in, that lands in your lap technologically, and you say, oh my gosh, that's a game changer. And with that, there's a future experience for the player, the visitor, the coach, that today we can yet imagine.

• 1:01:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Sweet.

• 1:01:15Speaker 02

  It'd be great.

• 1:01:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Revenue sharing.

• 1:01:17Speaker 02

  Looking forward to it.

• 1:01:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's what I... That's a cosmic sports perspective. Dude, thanks for coming.

• 1:01:23Speaker 02

  Thanks very much.

• 1:01:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Chuck, Gary.

• 1:01:25Speaker 02

  Pleasure.

• 1:01:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Always good. I'm Neil deGrasse Tyson, your personal astrophysicist. This has been StarTalk Sports Edition, and as always, I bid you to keep looking up.