WGST's "The Sully Show" for 10/23/15 - High Tech JAX

Rick was in Jacksonville, FL for 4 days a couple weeks ago and thousands and thousands of people will be descending in Jacksonville this coming week for Georgia vs. Florida football.

Jacksonville offers more than The Landing... . it's a cultural, business and entertainment center of North Florida and of course all the sports...  

*More than 130,000 people head to Jacksonville each year for the Georgia/Florida game and it's at least a $33 million shot in the arm for the local community.
Jacksonville also has some interesting tech to talk about.

Here's Rick and Sully talking about Jacksonville:

Have a listen:

1.  World's Largest Scoreboards at Everbank Field

The Jacksonville Jaguars may have struggled to field a competitive roster over the years, but they're sprucing up their stadium with two brand-new massive scoreboards.

After a $63 million renovation of EverBank Field, the Jaguars now have the two largest scoreboards in the world, with both measuring 60 feet by 362 feet.

Each display is long enough to reach just more than the distance from the goal post in one end zone to the goal post in the other end zone, and each display boasts more than 21,700 square feet of active display area – almost enough to cover the entire field of play when combined.

 

2.   Jacksonville's 'Stat' Programs and Data Analytics

Using technology to improve the performance of city government is not new, but two concepts are spreading with meaningful results.

These so-called “stat” programs are proliferating. Started by the New York Police Department in the 1980s, CompStat was a management technique that merged data with staff feedback to drive better performance by police officers and precinct captains. Its success led to many imitations over the years and, as the digital survey shows, stat programs continue to grow in importance. For example, Louisville has used its “LouieStat” program to cut the city’s bill for unscheduled employee overtime by $23 million as well as to spot weaknesses in performance.

Second, cities are increasing their use of data analytics to measure and improve performance. Denver, Jacksonville, Fla., and Phoenix have launched programs that sift through data sets to find patterns that can lead to better governance decisions.

This could invole utilites, public safety and it enables "real-time" decision making, or about as "real-time" as you can get for city government.
 



3.  OneSpark - Jacksonville

www.onespark.com

April 7-9, 2016

*World's Largest Crowdfunding Festival
One Spark is a non-profit committed to fostering environments of creativity and innovation through crowdfunding, and is based in Downtown Jacksonville. One Spark provides an opportunity for people with great ideas to connect with the resources they need to make them happen. Creators to present innovative ideas and projects in an energetic, festival atmosphere to over 200,000 people over three days. One Spark attendees find and help fund the projects they love the most through live, in-person crowdfunding.



4.  Omni Jacksonville Hotel

The Omni Jacksonville Hotel is the closest hotel in Downtown Jacksonville to all the action. This upscale downtown hotel near the St. John's River is across the street from the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts and a one block walk to the Jacksonville Landing shopping and entertainment center. Flat screen HDTVs, a modern deks and 24/7 room service will get you through the long Georgia/Florida weekend. Visit www.omnihotels.com to make your reservations for the Georgia/Florida weekend or any weekend/event in 2015-16.

*Omni Hotels have a "Stocking Stuffer" package and rate this fall.

15% off rates, Omni gift card and a chance to give back

Save this holiday season with up to 15% off a two-night stay, a $10 Omni gift card, turndown with festive treat on night of arrival and more! For every room night booked, guests will be given a token to donate to one of three charities.

Book by December 30 for stays November 23 – December 30.

Great views from the JAX Omni as well
 

5.  Jacksonville Zoo

http://www.jacksonvillezoo.org/

* The Jacksonville Zoo has a Facebook, Twitter and Youtube account where fans can stay informed about what is going on at the Zoo.

Open daily, the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens is the only walking safari in Northeast Florida. Visitors will see the earth’s wildlife through interactive and educational experiences. A true family adventure, the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens is growing and changing daily and is dedicated to consistently improving. The zoo occupies approximately 117 acres and has over 2,000 animals and 1,000 plants in its collection. The Zoo hosted more than 900,000 paying visitors in the last year.
 

6. Jacksonville a "Connected City"

Jacksonville is becoming a main connection point along the network of subsea and terrestrial cables that move data due to its new Network Access Point (NAP) - the telecom industry’s version of a major hub airport or a Tier1-level routing site.

The architecture has been laid in Jacksonville that allows cable landing points, wireless towers and data centers to physically connect. Two new international subsea cable stations have been installed that directly connect Jacksonville to South and Central America and the Caribbean. The AMX-1 line is operational and the PCCS line will be live soon. Both will increase data traffic capacity between the end points by at least 60 times.

Each cable line carries 328 fiber optic strands within its 1-inch diameter circumference, demonstrating the vast connectivity that runs through the Jax NAP – carrying Internet traffic from here as far north as New York and far south as Latin America, all linked by subsea and subterranean cables.

The Jax NAP:

    22 … the number of cables that will go live by end of 2015
    550,000 … the number of miles the total global cable network covers
    17,800 kilometers .. the length of the AMX-1 cable route
    6,000 kilometers … the  length of the PCCS cable route

The Jax NAP will benefit the telecom and data center industry by providing greater connectivity, conductivity, reliability and a lack of latency in trafficking large amounts of data through it.

Jacksonville’s Tier 1-level transfer station puts the city on par with Miami, home to the NAP of the Americas. Jacksonville also has been cited as the major interchange point between the continents – before Miami – largely due to the lack of hurricanes and the city’s seaboard location. Higher speed connectivity and lack of latency of Jacksonville’s cable hub might encourage some carriers to go through Jacksonville instead of Miami.

“More companies in the IT sector are interested in Jacksonville as a direct result of the NAP. The cables coming directly into Jacksonville now provide high-speed access and reliable connectivity for moving data,” said Jerry Mallot, JAXUSA President.