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14 minute read
Summary
On this special edition, the Collab Collective’s Craig Durr goes inside Spotify Camp Nou in Barcelona to explore Crestron’s technology deployment across Espai Barça, FC Barcelona’s major redevelopment project. Craig speaks with Brad Hintze, EVP of Marketing and Customer Success at Crestron; Antonio Ortega, Regional Salesman; and Miguel Castro, Lead Integrator, about the people, technology, and planning behind one of the world’s largest connected sports and hospitality environments.
Their discussion covers:
- Espai Barça’s Vision: Crestron becomes the official smart hospitality technology provider, connecting more than 200 spaces throughout the massive redevelopment project
- 365-Day Hospitality: Technology transforms premium spaces beyond match days, supporting corporate events, entertainment, community activities, hospitality, and year-round experiences
- Consistency Across Collaboration: Standardized meeting experiences, wireless content sharing, Microsoft Teams integration, and Automate VX support collaboration across diverse stadium spaces
- Player Experience: Crestron technology gives FC Barcelona players intuitive access to personalized music through Bluetooth connectivity, supporting preparation before games
- Centralized Control and Management: XiO Cloud and Virtual Control monitor more than 3,000 devices, supporting centralized management, phased deployment, and future development
- True Blue in Action: Crestron’s True Blue philosophy combines people, professional services, technology, and support throughout planning, deployment, and future project phases
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Transcript
Craig Durr: Hey, how are you doing? It's good to see you again. Let's see, the last time we saw each other was in Barcelona, Spain. And that was for the Crestron True Blue Summit, remember? Spotify Camp Nou, we're talking about a world-class location for a world-class event. They had customers, partners, and product announcements. We talked about content, collaboration, and control. It was a full-fledged, beautiful event.
But I have to tell you, I've been talking to the team at Crestron, and they tell me, “If this was a movie, that was only the trailer.” They have a big story to tell, and this is just the beginning. I was talking to them, and if you want to tell a big story, you have to come to a big city. So, we came to Vegas. Come with me, and let's hear some more.
Craig Durr: Now, picture this: Espai Barça. We're talking about the entire campus of Spotify Camp Nou. And Crestron is there in full force. Every room, every device- all Crestron technology. But to pull off a world-class job like this, you need a really fantastic world-class crew. Come with me.
The first member of this crew is the vision. That's Brad Hintze. He's EVP of marketing and customer success. You know, the true ethos of the company, True Blue. He starts with the people, then moves to the strategy, and then finally the technology. It's always in that order.
Next, it's Antonio Ortega. He's the orchestrator. Antonio is the regional salesman for Crestron. His job is to make sure to connect the strategy with the customer, and the integrator is helping him out.
And that brings us to Miguel. Miguel Castro, he's the builder. He's the integrator on the street. Feet to the ground, he's the one touching every room, every device, every box… You want to know where it is? You ask Miguel.
I'll tell you what. Why don't you come meet the crew? We'll tell a story. And you know, every good story starts like this: Once upon a time…
Craig Durr: Brad
Brad Hintze: Hey, Craig.
Craig Durr: Hey, thanks for having me again.
Brad Hintze: Thanks for walking all this way to see us.
Craig Durr: It was worth the walk. Hey, you know, we're going to talk to the people, the story behind Espai Barça, but let's help out the audience. There's some people that might not understand what this means. They might know FC Barcelona. We were recently there for ISE. Tell me about Espai Barça. Bring it down.
Brad Hintze: Espai Barça is their redevelopment project around the Spotify Camp Nou Stadium and the area around it. Again, this is a massive investment, 1.4 billion euros to expand and upgrade the Spotify Camp Nou Stadium and the area directly around it just to benefit the fans, the local community, and to really create this experience that can draw people in.
Craig Durr: And you guys are not just there as a vendor. You actually have a partnership with them, and it's got a great title. What is that?
Brad Hintze: We are the official smart hospitality technology provider. And it really gave us an opportunity to partner closely with them, understand what they're looking for, really on how they can cover and leverage technology across all of the spaces to create one unified ecosystem, deliver a really compelling customer experience, and do it every day and not just on a match day.
Craig Durr: And we're talking over 200 connected spaces?
Brad Hintze: 200 connected spaces- all the way from the VIP suites, the presidential club, all of the VIP hosting areas, the locker room, their meeting rooms… So really quite a wide range of spaces where they're leveraging Crestron.
Craig Durr: And the thing that I love about this is what you educated me and the audience on last time, which is understanding True Blue. This really is the whole ethos of coming together. This is before you get to the technology and the spaces. It starts with the people. Tell me about this.
Brad Hintze: Well, look, at the end of the day, you can't deliver a project like this without the support and the commitment, and knowing that, “Hey, by the end, we're going to be successful.” And so, True Blue is our overt commitment to all customers where we complement our fantastic technology with the people and the support to make sure that you really hit those goals that you're looking for.
Craig Durr: That, I think, is what really brings it home because what does that mean for a place like Espai Barça? They have a great thing they say. They call it the 60-40 rule. What does that mean?
Brad Hintze: Well, when I met with the project manager the first time, he shared this insight that I thought was really interesting. Today, 60% of the people that show up, they're not the hardcore fans. No, they're there for an entertainment experience. Much like we might go to a movie, people are choosing instead, let's go to this sporting experience. And so, their priority, and especially when you're looking to return an investment of 1.4 billion euros, is how to create a really compelling experience for them while also serving those hardcore diehard fans as well.
Craig Durr: And this is more than just match day technology. This makes this into a 365-day event space.
Brad Hintze: Yeah, taking 22 match days-ish a year, depending on the playoffs and making this into a really usable space where you can drive that ROI 365 days a year.
Craig Durr: This is a great example, but you know, not everyone out there owns a stadium. So, how does this translate to the enterprise or to the university?
Brad Hintze: Yeah, not everyone has a stadium-shaped project, right? But when you look at the technology and many of the problems they're trying to solve, they're exactly the same for an enterprise, for education, and for government. How do you deploy it at scale? How do you share content? How do you collaborate? How do you make it really easy to use the space as well?
Craig Durr: This sounds fantastic. Now, I'm looking forward to what we're about to do here. Let's talk to the people behind this project and find out how it all came together.
Brad Hintze: Let's go do it.
Craig Durr: Okay, great. I can't wait to meet the team.
Brad Hintze: Okay, here we go. The builder and the orchestrator.
Craig Durr: How are you doing? Good to meet you. I can't wait to hear this story. Are you guys ready to dig in?
Miguel Castro: Yeah, absolutely.
Craig Durr: Let's do it. Come on. Let's hear it.
Okay, the first category: hospitality. This is where we take this space and we go beyond 22-match days, and we go to 365 days a year. We're talking premium spaces. We're talking about an experience that expands to fans, partners, dignitaries beyond just those 22 days. This is where hospitality really shines and people get to learn what Espai Barça is all about.
All right, Miguel, we're at the pitch club. Why don't you tell me about this?
Miguel Castro: Yeah, this is one of the most important places in the project because it's right close to the pitch. Fans can enjoy a lot because they can see the players going to the pitch before the game. We have a lot of speakers everywhere, and we can play live music before the game and during the game, and this is a really nice place.
Craig Durr: Next you go from the pitch club to what you call the main hubs and the mini hubs. Now, tell me what about these spaces?
Miguel Castro: The idea was to have the same concept in terms of technology, but we can have a different experience depending on the on the pitch club or the main hub or the lateral main hub.
Craig Durr: Got it. So this is where you were talking about how it's not just about 22 days a year but it becomes 365 days a year.
Brad Hintze: Yeah, I think that on a match day, they can deliver a different level of experience for the different kinds of fans. This is where that 60-40 split comes to play.
You may have some of the 40% that are super diehard. They want to be in the pitch club, but then you'll invite some of those others that are really in for an exclusive kind of an experience. So, you've got music, you've got hospitality, you can see the players. It's a really cool atmosphere, right? And then you go to the main hub, it's a different kind of atmosphere. So, you're serving all of these different customers. But then the important part is on a non-match day that can all flip to be a corporate event, right? A sales presentation, customer appreciation event, could be a community event as well. And so, this is how they're using those same spaces, but showing different content, different kinds of engagement.
Craig Durr: I love it. I have to tell you, in this 60-40 split, I'm on that 60% side, but I still want to be right down by the pitch right now.
Hey, Antonio, you were there to see the customer reaction with the finished product. This finished experience, that's a great word to use. What did they see?
Antonio Ortega: Well, for them, it's a big step because it's easy to use. They can turn as you said from a match day to a corporate event in a matter of, you know, and everybody knows how to use it. So for them is maximizing their facilities.
Craig Durr: That's fantastic. Now this isn't the only hospitality space. We also have the presidential box. Let's go talk about that one. Now, the presidential box is something that's more of the premium experience. Tell me about what's taking place in that presidential space.
Antonio Ortega: Well, this is the most premium space in the stadium. So obviously the people that are going to be in this area are high in corporate members. They are here to negotiate, to have high value conversations, and that's why we've provided the best technology, the best result for the club to impress them and to have a great experience.
Craig Durr: And what is the scale and scope of some of the technology that you've put in place here? I mean we're talking… you said sound, you're talking control.
Miguel Castro: Yeah, this is one of the most complex parts of the project because there are a lot of people involved because of the people that are going to use it, and as you can see, we have two different levels, and the audio design is really important. We have more than 50 sound speaker touch panels everywhere just to enable them to change the way they work with the audio, the level,, you know everything that comes.
Craig Durr: I love it because the touch panels make it just seamless transition between one event to another experience. This is really where that whole True Blue ethos comes together, right?
Brad Hintze: It's really about starting from the beginning, asking questions… what do you want to achieve, right? And then getting in and designing the system through those professional services, that design input, and then making sure sitting there on the first few match days and the first few corporate events, making sure it works all that way. So that is really end-to-end that kind of True Blue.
Craig Durr: If you need somebody to sit in and test on those first couple events, you can do it. I raised my hand. This is everything about hospitality. This is a core DNA for Crestron, right? It's great. We're here in Las Vegas. You've got hospitality clients up and down the street here, right?
Brad Hintze: Yeah, I think that if you go and pop into any of the properties, you'll find the same technology deployed in different ways, whether it's a sports book, hotel suites, all kinds of restaurants. So, you have here a kind of a microcosm of exactly what we're talking about.
Craig Durr: The content and control come together. This is fantastic. Let's talk about collaboration spaces. I think we got some examples behind us. Let's go.
Okay, next up: collaboration. This is where the people who run the venue actually meet to do their jobs. We're talking meeting rooms, boardrooms… These spaces are even available for outside clients to use as well. But this is where things like consistency at scale become important. People come here to collaborate, whether it be a hybrid meeting or in person, they need to be able to share and do control. This is where the story really translates from hospitality into a collaboration enterprise space.
Gentlemen, this is collaboration. This is a space near and dear to my heart. Miguel, tell me about it. What was important in putting together meeting rooms for this customer?
Miguel Castro: Yeah, we have standard meeting rooms in the stadium so the people can have meetings through Teams or other platforms, and they can also share their content wirelessly with our media system.
Craig Durr: Now, we're talking about one of the key ideas here is probably consistency, right? You want to have that same end user experience across all these rooms, right?
Antonio Ortega: Yeah, that's the idea. Basically, we want that any user, any room they use has the same approach, and they don't have to be a super technical person to be able to have the best experience.
Craig Durr: And this is something that can scale. We're not just talking about huddle rooms or meeting rooms, but they have a beautiful corporate boardroom as well, right?
Miguel Castro: Yeah, one of the most important places in the stadium is where the most important decisions are made. In the boardroom, we will have the Automate VX System with intelligent uh video cameras. We can track the speaker with ceiling mics, everything that we need for the perfect experience.
Craig Durr: This is like the perfect 1 Beyond use case coming forward right now, right?
Brad Hintze: Yeah, and they benefit from the standardization. So if somebody walks in to use a medium conference room or they go into the boardroom, they know that they can start that meeting experience. But then when you add Automate VX in the multi-camera in the boardroom, you get a whole new level of experience. So while you have unique kinds of meeting experiences, the platform and the way they use it is consistent.
Craig Durr: So this Snowflake room is now the same consistent experience although it's delivering for these high impact experiences, right?
Brad Hintze: Absolutely. That's right.
Craig Durr: That's fantastic. I love it. This is a great example of not only how it translates to one customer but to a vertical to other customers as well.
Brad Hintze: Yeah, in this case, any enterprise, any government, any educational institution will have very similar spaces, right? But at the same time, they have the same needs for how they support them at scale. How do they make sure that it's really easy to use at scale while also delivering the right audio and video experience for all of those specific spaces?
Craig Durr: This is great. Let's go ahead and learn some more about what the players are seeing when they're actually in their locker rooms. How about we do that?
All right. Hey, this one is a fun one. We're talking about playtime, action, focus... This is where the Crestron technology actually touches the players themselves. This is where they might prepare for a game, getting ready to go out on the pitch to entertain 105,000 people. It is called Spotify Camp Nou. These players want to stream their music, personalized list. This is focus time to get them ready to entertain the crowds. Let's learn more about this one.
All right, gentlemen. This is a fun one. I'm really excited about learning about this one. This is the play time. This is action. This is when the players touch the technology, right?
Miguel Castro: Yeah. Spotify is the principal sponsor of Barça. So, every player has their own playlist. So through this device, the Bluetooth connector, they can share their own music in the locker room.
Craig Durr: This is focus time. This is a player getting themselves pumped out, getting ready to go out and entertain 105,000 fans. This is crazy, right? It's an incredible thing.
Brad Hintze: What they're trying to do is music is already such an integral experience and part of the whole atmosphere. How do you make it simple so that any player can do it really quickly? They don't want to fumble with the technology. They want to just play whatever they're interested in at the moment.
Craig Durr: You just went ahead and showed me this technology. It's so exciting and so cool. Brad, this is something that translates into even the Crestron high-end residential experience, right?
Brad Hintze: Yeah, we have been enabling music lovers for decades actually. And it's the same technology whether it's in the home or it's in this locker room. It's all about how you get to audio very, very quickly.
Craig Durr: And get it wherever you want in the room, right? And the experience… I can only imagine what this experience is.
Antonio Ortega: Well, I mean you need to understand, as well, that this place is very important for the club. I mean, the coach goes there. He needs to give the right messages right before the game. They want to listen to their music. They want to be pumped up before they go to the game. So the experience has to be very natural and transparent.
Craig Durr: The way I hear this is I think Crestron is essential to FC Barcelona's next winning streak. That's the way I take this to be. Okay, let's go ahead and wrap this up and talk about control. How about that?
Last but not least, control. We're talking centralized connective tissue. This is what ties it all together. We're not talking about just meeting rooms. We're talking about all those hospitality spaces and experiences brought together for its simplicity in one location. People can manage, deploy, take care of this entire system. Let's learn more about it.
All right, gentlemen. This is probably one of the most important parts right here: control. This is what brings it all together, the connective tissue. Miguel, tell me what does control mean in a stadium of this size, this experience.
Miguel Castro: Yes, the challenge for this project was not only to create a design that is reliable and scalable, we have to control and monitor more than 3,000 devices all around the stadium. So that's why we have XiO Cloud and Virtual Control in the project.
Craig Durr: So this is all Crestron technology working across the meeting rooms with hospitality spaces. This is immense. This is the entire experience down to one room, one experience almost, right? I mean what did the customer think about this, Antonio?
Antonio Ortega: Well, actually, at the very beginning, it was their main requirement. How do we make this happen? We have so many devices, and we need to be able to scale them. There are many phases, so we need to be able to, in each section, deploy certain technology. So this is the key aspect of everything.
Craig Durr: That's a great idea. This really sets up Crestron to grow with FC Barcelona.
Brad Hintze: Well, it's a good place where they can scale it.
Craig Durr: So, you're not only getting value now, but then you're also ready for phase two, three, and four, and beyond, right? You know, they have a beautiful trophy room. I think we should make sure we have that one covered, too, as well.
Brad Hintze: Let's do it.
Craig Durr: All right, let's do it. Let's go ahead and wrap up the story now. Come on.
Hey, this has been incredible. I can't believe the experience you guys brought in, Antonio.
Antonio Ortega: Pleasure
Craig Durr: It was a pleasure. Miguel.
Miguel Castro: Thank you.
Craig Durr: You two are incredible. The builder, the orchestrator, I can't believe what you guys did. Thank you for sharing with me. Take care. We'll see you next time.
Brad, this is a great team you got behind you
Brad Hintze: As always
Craig Durr: I'm telling you. So, help me bring it home. What do we have going on here? This is huge.
Brad Hintze: This project is all about delivering amazing experiences in a scalable way that supports the level of investment and the work that they're putting into this while making sure that they are true to their fans and their new fans, as well.
Craig Durr: I love that. You know, one of the things that I kept hearing the entire time from you and from the team, True Blue, this ethos really does seem like the secret sauce that brings it all together.
Brad Hintze: Well, you can see how well invested they are in this project and making sure it's a success. That right there is a perfect example of True Blue, complimenting amazing products with the people to help deliver all the way from the beginning to the end of phase one and onto phase two.
Craig Durr: This is a great team, but I have to tell you something. Not everyone out there is building a stadium. So, how does this translate into other opportunities?
Brad Hintze: Well, you may not be building a stadium, but every organization wants to enable content collaboration and control in every space, in a scalable way with a partner that is there to help ensure they're successful.
Craig Durr: I love this. And what's next? We're only at phase one.
Brad Hintze: Yep. Let's look and see what phase two will be.
Craig Durr: I love it. All right, let's go ahead and tell everyone goodbye.
Hey, this has been Espai Barça. I hoped you enjoyed learning about the content, collaboration, control, and the people behind the technology. This is really the true secret sauce of True Blue.
Everyone, until next time, we will bring you some more insights from Crestron and the True Blue team. Take care.
Craig Durr: So, what do you think of this story? It's like I told you, a world-class venue and a world-class crew. Phase one, 200 rooms, 3,000 plus devices, one technology partner tying it all together. And they got it done in True Blue style.
But a job like this is never really finished. In fact, it sounds like phase 2 is already in the works, and I can't wait to see it. Until the next job, take care.
