Bryan Bedford
Global Industry Director, Sports, Media, Entertainment, Retail & Hospitality | Cisco Systems
For 25 years, Bryan Bedford has enjoyed a prominent position at the intersection of sports and technology.
For roughly half that time frame, Bedford has been employed with Cisco Systems. His current title is global industry director for sports, media, entertainment, retail and hospitality. It’s a long one, but Bedford covers a lot of ground as Cisco expands its reach in providing technology solutions for arena and stadium infrastructure beyond Internet Protocol Television networks, wireless connectivity and security systems.
Cisco, which generated about $54 billion in revenue for fiscal year 2024, has acquired hundreds of firms over the past decade, which has enabled it to make a big push into powering software and mobile application performance as it relates to concessions, point-of-sale and mobile ordering, Bedford said.
Now, as artificial intelligence crosses over to sports and entertainment, Bedford is communicating with Cisco clients to inform them what it all means for teams, venues and their employees, and how the technology affects their job skills.
As building managers navigate through automation in general, resulting in a reduced workforce, coupled with a continued labor shortage, it’s provided a real-world case for how technology can be used to help ease the burden and stress caused by a lack of resources, Bedford said.
For Cisco, the AI movement represents a new chapter of its presence at public assembly facilities over the past 15 years that have seen the company be first to market in Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) and developing stadium access points to accommodate mobile devices. It’s one of two vendors providing IP production for videoboards and control rooms.
“We get to introduce a whole new level of solutions to this industry in a trusted way that we’ve never done before,” Bedford said.
In addition, Cisco is introducing new products tied to increased bandwidth and speedier connections for new WiFi spectrums 6E and 7 after the upgraded wireless systems were approved by the Federal Communications Commission earlier this year.
“The same thing is happening on the signage side,” he said. “We know we want to do some different things that move the industry and haven’t been done before, patents to introduce that allow us to change the way that sponsorships and ad revenue are delivered in-venue.”
Over the past year, Cisco won marquee projects at the Intuit Dome, Allianz Arena in Germany, the Paris Olympic Games and partnerships with the NFL. A big score was being selected as the official network equipment partner for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
“Teams and venues have become commercial real estate endeavors and all of that is changing the way people think about technology,” Bedford said. “It’s influencing the business of sports. For us, it’s about how to centralize it, make it cohesive and not make it three different ‘islands,’ because a lot of these things pull us together in many ways.” — Don Muret
