America’s past time has a lot to gain from the IoT, and the latest team to get into the batter’s box is the San Diego Padres. In a recent announcement, Qualcomm (News - Alert) Intelligent Solutions and OSIsoft will be working with the San Diego Padres to help the team reduce utility and water consumption and augment its sustainability efforts.
The Padres will now use edge intelligence gateways powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon processors to collect data from critical infrastructure systems and stream it in real-time to OSIsoft’s PI System in order to monitor utilities. The goal is to improve operating efficiencies and drive sustainability across the team’s Petco Park.
“We are thrilled to be working with Qualcomm Intelligent Solutions and OSIsoft on this project, with the potential to increase efficiencies, reduce operational expenses by more than 25 percent in the next five years, and support our ongoing efforts to make Petco Park a smarter, more sustainable venue,” said Randy McWilliams, senior director, facility services, San Diego Padres. “Because of this combined system, we can see exactly how much water, power and gas each operation uses ballpark-wide, and can work with our operators and tenants to manage usage and increase the reliability and overall performance of the venue.”
Ballparks represent one of the most difficult and unusual challenges for facilities managers. They are very large facilities, where the number of occupants can zoom from a handful of employees to full capacity and then back to a handful in a matter of hours. Furthermore, many of these venues were not built with sophisticated instrumentation and control systems to closely manage water or power.
Now facilities managers can more easily monitor potable water, non-potable water, chilled water, natural gas and electricity consumption from sensors throughout the park during games or other events. This also allows the Padres to help vendors understand their utility usage at a granular level and drive toward its sustainability goals.
“Qualcomm Intelligent Solutions’ approach to creating smarter cities starts with repurposing existing infrastructure, including existing water and gas systems installed in facilities such as Petco Park and other large event venues,” said Kiva Allgood, president, Smart Cities and Industrial IoT, Qualcomm Intelligent Solutions. “With our new edge intelligence solutions seamlessly delivering real-time data to the OSIsoft PI System, we can create a model for connected communication networks that can be deployed in existing large scale venues and multi-tenant facilities without the hefty costs of installing new systems.”
Take me out to the ballgame.