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The Sydney Cricket and Sports Ground Trust’s Steve Waugh augmented reality (AR) experience has won the 2018 Australia and New Zealand Sports Technology Awards (ANZSTA) Social and Fan Engagement award.

Presented in Melbourne last Thursday evening, the inaugural ANZSTA awads celebrate excellence and innovation of Australia and New Zealand based organisations in the application of data and technology.

In late 2017, the Trust partnered with Steve Waugh, Avanade and the Nine Network’s Wide World of Sport to create an augmented reality experience to celebrate 15 years since Steve Waugh’s Perfect Day infamous last-ball century at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

In a first of its kind by any Australian stadium or sports body, the Steve Waugh AR experience allowed fans to immerse themselves into one of Australian Test cricket’s most memorable innings. Thousands of cricket fans enjoyed the HoloLens experience throughout the 2018 Sydney Test.

The experience features commentary by Steve Waugh, together with animated simulation of his shots recreated in the Avanade studio, blended with short grabs of footage of his innings provided by the Nine Network’s Wide World of Sport.

The Trust also produced the Steve Waugh SCG AR app experience so that fans who couldn’t get to the SCG could still view Steve on a smartphone via the app store. The app utilises the camera in a smartphone to place Steve Waugh within the user’s environment in augmented reality.

Commenting on the initiative, Waugh stated “recreating the significant moments from the Perfect Day 15 years ago was much harder than I imagined.

“To mirror the exact trigger movements that accompany each shot was difficult to achieve as they were instinctive and not manufactured.

“I was unaware that I was actually doing some of these little adjustments until I studied the footage of the innings and then to try and replicate them was a real challenge.”

The experience also allows fans an opportunity to learn more about Steve’s Baggy Green, his bat, and his famous red handkerchief, leading the former Australian captain to recall “it was fun reliving the excitement of the day and I hope many people can now share with me the joy of scoring a century for Australia.”

The project is an exciting next step in the SCG Trust’s digital transformation, which started in 2014 when the Noble Bradman Messenger Stand became the first spectator facility in Australia to offer free Wi-Fi.

Jane Coles, the SCG Trust’s General Manager - Membership, Marketing & ICT, commented “the Steve Waugh AR is an exciting addition to the SCG Trust’s commitment to fan engagement, which in recent years has provided a fully-connected solution for its venues including high definition superscreens, free Wi-Fi, IPTV, app, and an award-winning Venue Operations Centre.

“The SCG Trust is proud to be leading the way in Australian sports venue technology and using these new initiatives to celebrate our proud heritage such as Steve Waugh’s famous innings.”

This is the second award presented to the Sydney Cricket & Sports Ground Trust in the last three months, having won the Venue Technology Award for its Venue Command Centre and digital upgrade at the prestigious global Stadium Business Awards in June 2018.

The Trust was also a finalist at the recent Mumbrella Sports Marketing awards.

Images: The SCG Trust's ANZSTA win (top) and the Steve Waugh AR experience (below).

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