The scoreboard has always been the center of attention at a live event. Now the screen can do a lot more than show the score. Here’s what modern fan engagement looks like and what it actually requires to run at a high school, minor league, or venue level.
When people talk about fan engagement at live events, they usually mean one of two things: either what happens on the jumbotron between plays, or the general concept of keeping the crowd interested when nothing is happening on the field. In practice it’s both, and the technology available to do it well has changed considerably in the last few years.
For most of the history of professional and college sports, in-venue fan engagement meant crowd noise during pre-game, a kiss cam or t-shirt cannon during timeouts, a dance cam between quarters, and whatever trivia the operations staff could put on a slide. At the high school and minor league level, the standard was even simpler: play music, maybe do a scoreboard giveaway, and hope the game was entertaining enough on its own.
The limitation was always production complexity. Good fan engagement at a professional venue required a dedicated operations team, expensive software, and infrastructure that smaller venues couldn’t afford or staff. High school stadiums got PA systems. The fans on the field got nothing that the scoreboard wasn’t already showing.
The shift happened when smartphone penetration reached the point where every fan in the stands had a capable camera and a data connection in their pocket. That changed what’s possible at a live event, because the fan is now part of the production in a way they weren’t before.
A fan camera feature lets attendees submit selfies from their phones directly to the production system. The operator selects submissions and puts them on the big screen in real time. It sounds simple, but the effect in the stands is significant — people love seeing themselves on the jumbotron, and the act of participating keeps them engaged with the venue experience rather than looking at their own phone for distraction.
A step beyond a fan cam is an AI-powered photo transform. Fans take a photo that gets processed through an AI image model and returns as something else — a player in uniform, a painted fan with team colors, a mascot version of themselves. The transformed image goes to the jumbotron and back to the fan’s phone. The social media reach of this one feature is significantly higher than a standard fan cam because the result is worth sharing.
This one requires some explanation because it sounds more complicated than it is. Fans open a URL on their phones at the start of the event and the system controls their phone flashlight. During a designated moment — player introductions, halftime, a major play — the system sends a signal and every participating phone flashes in a synchronized pattern. At scale, a stadium section of phones all lighting up in sequence is a visual moment that’s hard to replicate any other way. It requires zero app download, just a browser link.
Live polls during timeouts or between quarters — “Who wins the second half?” or “What was the play of the game?” — give fans a voice in the broadcast and give the operator real-time results to display on the board. It keeps people engaged during dead time and gives the host something to talk about beyond the scoreboard.
The technology side of fan engagement has become more accessible, but running it well at a live event still requires a few things that aren’t obvious from the outside.
A reliable connection at the venue. Fan-submitted content from hundreds of phones goes nowhere without adequate bandwidth at the event site. This is often the first constraint that limits what’s possible at high school venues with weak venue WiFi.
A production interface that runs in real time. Fan submissions come in fast. The operator needs a queue management system that lets them approve, select, and push content to the board without a delay that kills the moment.
An experience that works without an app download. Requiring fans to install an app before they can participate cuts adoption dramatically. A progressive web app or browser-based interface that works immediately when someone scans a QR code is the right approach for a live event context.
Someone running it who knows what they’re doing. Fan engagement features are only as good as the operator timing them correctly. A poll launched at the wrong moment, a light show that fires during a live play, or a fan cam that nobody at the venue knew to promote — these are operator problems, not technology problems. The tech enables the experience; the person running it determines whether the experience actually happens.
ClickingSpree built In-Venue Live for exactly this — AI photo transforms, synchronized light shows, live fan cameras, and real-time polls broadcast to the jumbotron. Built for high school stadiums, minor league venues, and arenas of any size.
See In-Venue Live Talk to Us