At this year’s University of Minnesota Homecoming game vs. the Northwestern Wildcats, the Gophers successfully completed a truly unique panoramic picture. Using Blakeway Worldwide Panoramas, they took the largest ever photo of TCF Bank Stadium from the inside, panning 360 degrees. This photo, labeled a “gigapixel”, is 12 billion pixels in size making it incredibly clear and detailed when one zooms in or out.
During the game, Blakeway’s photographer took a high definition photo of the entire stadium. The idea was to capture the essence in the stadium and give fans an opportunity to find themselves. After the photo is taken, the gigapixel platform is customized for the team to post on their website, in this case: GopherSports.com.
Making the gigapixel even more interesting is that fans from the game are able to tag themselves in the photo and share on various social media sites. They were also given the option to enter in a contest to either win a panoramic print of the stadium, or two tickets to a Gopher’s game. Minnesota instilled a “Where is Waldo” concept for the chance to win tickets to a game by asking fans to find Minnesota’s mascot, Goldy, hidden somewhere within the photo. Knowing this could be somewhat difficult, it was made similar to the “Hot or Cold” game. If fans are close to the icon, the Minnesota fight song plays louder and if further away it gets lower.
Based out of Minnesota, Blakeway has done panoramic photos for sports stadiums for over 20 years, usually print pictures, but they just started to do these “gigapixel” panoramas this year. In a way, the gigapixel is its own interactive social media engagement platform aimed at engaging sports fans. Blakeway has done gigapixels for the Cincinnati Bearcats, Arkansas Razorbacks, California Golden Bears, Notre Dame Irish, West Virginia Mountaineers, Indiana Hoosiers, and now the Minnesota Golden Gophers.
Growing in popularity, gigapixels are being sought out by more teams wanting to take advantage of the impressive panoramic effect, and to interact with fans who attend games.
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