Crystal clear: Palace offers fans new sight loss tech

Pictured: Visually impaired fan Kevin Middleton testing out the GiveVision headset at Selhurst Park

In partnership with GiveVision and Shared Access, Crystal Palace has claimed it is the first in English football to offer such support for fans with sight loss.

The GiveVision headset is powered by a private 5G network designed and installed by Shared Access, and streams live footage directly to fans in real time. The system delivers an immersive, sharp stereoscopic feed to the working part of the user’s retina, which enhances remaining vision and allows them to follow the game closely and in high detail.

The technology will debut for the club’s match against Manchester United this Saturday, September 21, and will be available for both home fans and visiting supporters.

GiveVision is a not-for-dividend company founded in 2014 with the aim of developing assistive technologies that can transform the lives of people with severe sight impairments, while Shared Access is an independent owner and operator of communications infrastructure.

Shared Access built the dedicated 5G infrastructure exclusively for Palace, to enable the necessary speed and low-latency connectivity. Unlike public networks, this private 5G system operates on its own radio band, meaning it is immune to congestion from the tens of thousands of mobile devices typically used on match days.

The network covers the whole stadium, allowing partially sighted fans to sit in their usual seats, rather than being confined to designated areas.

Roughly one in 30 are affected by some form of sight loss in the UK – just over two million people in total.

“Crystal Palace FC are proud to be inclusive, and want everyone to enjoy the unique experience of a matchday at Selhurst Park,” commented Sharon Lacey, the club’s Chief Operating Officer.

“We are delighted to have adopted the GiveVision technology, an innovative way we hope to advance our matchday offering which builds on our ongoing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion work throughout the club and across our workforce, partner and worldwide community. To accompany the deployment of GiveVision and our work with Shared Access, we are also the first Premier League club to deploy a private 5G network to provide a seamless experience for GiveVision users.”

Stephen Anderson, a visually impaired football fan that has also tested out the headset, added: “The key moment was when I saw my first handball, with my own eyes from the other end of the pitch. You can’t put a price on that. This isn’t just some other useless product made by able-bodied people thinking they’re saving blind people from peril; it’s actually got visual impairment at the heart of it.”