New arena’s technology will scan audience to generate ads

At first blush, it might sound creepy and Big Brotherish — cameras documenting an arena visitor’s gender and age, then computers digesting facial images to generate digital ads, music and food selections tailored to fit the crowd’s demographic composition.

But as Scott Maccabe, CEO of Toshiba America Business Solutions, said half-jokingly, it’s the type of routine work the National Security Agency is probably already doing.

Maccabe and Toshiba Chief Marketing Executive Bill Melo discussed this next-generation “audience measurement” technology on Tuesday when they were in Las Vegas to announce Toshiba’s founding sponsorship deal with the $375 million arena being built behind New York-New York on the Strip.

Coca-Cola Co. executives joined Toshiba officials at the arena construction site as both global brands will be founding partners at the 20,000-seat venue being built by MGM Resorts International and Anschutz Entertainment Group. The arena is set to open in spring 2016.

The arena and the 2-acre plaza-park that will lead to the venue will allow Tokyo-based Toshiba to showcase its variety of digital technology and video screens. Besides paying for the founding partnership, Toshiba also paid more than $1 million a year above the founding price to be the naming rights sponsor of the arena plaza, which will be dubbed Toshiba Plaza.

Toshiba’s sponsorship deal with the MGM-AEG arena is for a decade.

The audience measurement technology is new for Toshiba, which unveiled it at the Staples Center arena in Los Angeles in November, Melo said.

Besides determining a visitor’s age and gender, the cameras also measure “dwell time,” the amount of time an arena fan is looking at a video screen in the venue, Melo said.

“We don’t record anything,” he said.

Michael Roth, a spokesman for Anschutz Entertainment Group, which owns Staples Center, said the data allow the arena to play music, show ads and offer food/drink selections customized to the crowd’s makeup.

For example, if the data show a crowd’s skewing young (under 21) and female, it doesn’t pay to show digital beer and alcohol ads around the arena, he said. But if there’s a boxing match and lots of men are in the arena, the beer spots would be rolled out, Roth said.

The Las Vegas arena will feature other Toshiba touches, such as a 209 foot-by-45 foot digital board on the venue’s exterior above the main entrance and technology that will recognize fans at the arena through their ticket or a smart watch if they post an item about that day’s event on social media.

Toshiba is spending an estimated eight figures for its digital signs at the arena, Melo said.

Besides manufacturing electronics, Toshiba makes everything from nuclear power plants to locomotive engines to rice cookers. The company generates $78 billion in sales annually and competes with Samsung and General Electric Co.

Contact reporter Alan Snel at asnel@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5273. Find him on Twitter: @BicycleManSnel