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Ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes in a modern airliner’s cockpit? While you’re enjoying your in-flight movie, a quiet technological revolution is underway, one that’s not only making flying safer but also reducing air time to help minimize delays and reduce each flights carbon footprint. This advancement is a new application of a long-standing technology known as ADS-B, or Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast. The new application, called SafeRoute+, is a key component of the ongoing modernization of our air traffic control system. As the vice president and general manager of surveillance at Acron Aviation, my team is responsible for designing and building many of the systems that airlines and air traffic controllers use to track planes. ADS-B is one of the key surveillance components in this effort. My background in electrical engineering and my work on flight decks and surveillance systems means I am deeply involved in understanding how this technology works and how it can be best used to improve every flight. A clear need for such innovations exists today. In 2024 alone, the U.S. recorded 1,474 runway incursionsabout four per daywhere aircraft, vehicles, or people were incorrectly present in protected airport areas. Each of these incidents represents a potential collision averted, highlighting why enhanced flight deck awareness isn’t just beneficialit’s critical. The information revolution in aviation For decades, air traffic controllers (ATC) have helped to prevent collisions between aircraft, expedite and maintain an orderly flow of traffic, and provide advice and information for the conduct of flights. Pilots, in turn, have relied on visual cues, ATC instructions, and onboard navigation and surveillance instruments to fly safely. This dynamic is changing with the widespread adoption of ADS-B technology. ADS-B Out, mandatory for all U.S. aircraft, broadcasts position data to ATC and other planes. It’s the same data that consumer tracking apps like Flightradar24 use. The major step forward, however, is ADS-B In, which allows pilots to receive and display this real-time traffic information directly in the cockpit. This significantly improves their awareness of nearby aircraft, reducing reliance on visual checks and controller updates. While this offers new pilot insight, ATC still plays a crucial role in ensuring overall safety by integrating all surveillance data from various sources to manage the entire system. Technologies like SafeRoute+ are helping to meet a key need expressed by the U.S.s aviation regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Real-world results At Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, one of the world’s busiest hubs, tests of this new application of ADS-B technology showed impressive improvements. Each arrival runway could handle four to five additional landings per hour, significantly reducing congestion. Planes equipped with ADS-B In technology reported a 20-second reduction in average flight distance and time on the downwind leg of the approach, saving time and fuel. In addition to this, the spacing between aircraft at the runway could be safely reduced by 12 seconds. Visual safety improvements of approximately 14% were observed, even in poor weather conditions. Perhaps most importantly, throughout the entire testing period, there were zero safety incidents related to aircraft separation. These improvements translate to meaningful benefits for everyone involved in air travel. Passengers experience fewer delays and contribute to a smaller carbon footprint when flying. Airlines benefit from increased operational efficiency, reduced fuel consumption, and more robust flight schedules. Airports can better handle the high traffic levels without the enormous expense of building new runways or terminals, making better use of existing infrastructure. How it works: A new perspective for pilots SafeRoute+ is Acron Aviation’s ADS-B In solution. It provides pilots with a forward-looking traffic view up to 180 nautical miles. This view enables more precise aircraft spacing, safely reducing the separation between aircraft and increasing throughput, particularly in low visibility. SafeRoute+ provides pilots with a suite of tools for proactive decision-making. These tools empower them with a clearer picture of their surroundings, creating a shared understanding between pilots and ATC that leads to safer and more efficient skies. The path forward Solutions like SafeRoute+ are not only available for new aircraft but also for existing fleets through cost-effective retrofits. For this technology to reach its full potential, we need continued regulatory support, investment from airlines, and collaboration among aircraft manufacturers, technology partners, and aviation authorities. The evidence from real-world trials clearly shows that providing pilots with better tools leads to improved system performance and safety. As our skies become increasingly busy, these technological innovations will play a vital role in safely managing growing air travel demand while helping to reduce the environmental impact. The future of aviation is about flying smarter, and ADS-B technology is a key component of this.
Category:
E-Commerce
Recent Nielsen data confirmed what many of us had already begun to sense: Streaming services surpassed broadcast and cable in TV viewership. It’s a streaming world. Broadcast television just lives in it. Nowhere is that more apparent than in sports. Next week, ESPN will launch its first direct-to-consumer app that for $30 a month will offer access to all of the legendary sports networks content and coverage. But another company has already been offering over-the-top sports streaming services to fans since 2006. Austin-based FloSports streams 40,000 live events annually across more than 25 sports, from wrestling to motorsports to cheerleading. In this piece, premium subscribers will learn: How FloSports maximizes the value in the long tail of sports fandom The final 15% rule that fosters the streamers authentic coverage Why Dale Earnhardt Jrs partnership with FloSports is a model for coinvesting to grow a franchise “We try to stay out of areas that are super oversaturated, because it’s expensive and we’re not needed,” FloSports cofounder and CEO Mark Floreani says. “So we’re not competing for the NFL, NBA, and NHL. We focus on Tier 2 and Tier 3 sports. That’s where we can make a real difference.” And real money. After breaking even in 2023, FloSports reached profitability in 2024, doubling revenue over the past two years and tracking to surpass $200 million in 2026. The company has raised $167 million since 2014, including $50 million in a March 2025 round led by the Indian technology company Dream Sports. The Long Tail Theory FloSports launched in 2006 as one of the world’s first direct-to-consumer sports streaming services (ESPN+, which offers access to select programming, didn’t launch until 2018). Its rise wasnt about a grand vision. It was about filling a need. Mark Floreani [Photo: courtesy FloSports] Floreani ran track at Texas. His brother, Martin, wrestled and was plugged into the die-hard wrestling community. That community was frustrated with the lack of coverage and attention paid to the sport they loved. He explored other circles around niche sports and found the same dynamic: frustration due to fragmented coverage, poor production quality, and no dedicated platform for passionate fans. From the beginning, we wanted to build something that we wanted as fans, Mark says. The breakthrough insight came from embracing the long tail theorythat individually small sports markets could collectively represent massive business potential. “The head of the tail is as big as the tail,” he says. “If you can actually create a process you can integrate horizontally across sports and build an authentic experience for the customers, the long tail could be a massive business.” Bootstrapping When Floreani and cofounder Ryan Ponsonby launched the business in 2006, their role model seems to have been less Bill Rasmussen (founder of ESPN) than Matt Foley (the motivational speaker Chris Farley played on SNL). They were living out of a Ford Econoline van, traveling the country to film athletes and coaches in track and wrestling. They posted everything online, and the behind-the-scenes content resonated with passionate fans starved for authentic coverage. The track and wrestling communities also embraced them, offering them meals and places to stay as they traveled. One neighbor even gave them $10,000 when they were about to miss payroll. The traction was there almost instantly. FloSports could drive 100,000 people to their site during major races, a significant achievement for a startup covering niche sports. Advertiser deals came in 2007 with Adidas and Reebok contracts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, which had FloSports following athletes around the globe and creating sponsored content. The model worked, but had a fundamental flaw: it wasn’t sustainable and was beginning to feel increasingly inauthentic. This led to the decision in 2012 to abandon advertising-driven coverage for direct customer subscriptions, which became FloSportss defining strategic moment. The Hidden Cost of Advertising “We were going off ad revenue, and we started going to places that only our advertisers wanted us to go, which is just not authentic, Floreani says. We realized that if this thing’s gonna work, and we believe in this community and this passion, we just have to ask our customers to pay for us, and then we’re going to try to produce the best content and cover the events that are most meaningful.” The pivot proved to be immediately successful. FloSports launched its first subscription event in November 2012a wrestling tournament that attracted 2,000 paying customers and generated roughly half a million dollars in revenue. “That’s when we knew we could do this,” Floreani says. Today, the company operates on a subscription-first model with over one million active subscribers paying $150 annually for full access to more than 25 FloSports channels. Subscribers who are only interested in following a particular sportsay, Division 1 wrestling or Division 3 lacrosseduring the height of those seasons can pay a slightly higher monthly rate ($29.99) and pause their subscriptions whenever they like. Students and members of participating institutions or conferences qualify for discounts. One channel (FloRacing) costs $39.99 for complete access to more than 1,200 events. While subscriptions drive the bulk of revenue, FloSports has diversified into advertising, software management systems, merchandise, and live events. The majority of its costs go toward sports rights acquisitions and its product and engineering teams. The subscription model, along with these other investments, directly serve their core mission of professionalizing underserved sports and create a virtuous cycle: passionate fans pay for authentic coverage, which funds better production, which attracts more passionate fans. [Photo: courtesy FloSports] Authenticity As the company grew and added more sports, increasing scalability while preserving authentic community connections became the primary focus. To that end, Floreani developed what he calls “the final 15%” approacha business model that standardizes 8085% of operations while customizing the remaining 1520% for sport-specific authenticity. “If we’re not authentic, we’re not gonna win,” he says. This means hiring leaders, which they call general managers, in each sport who understand the nuances that matter to each communitywhat camera angles work best, what graphics and data fans actually want to see, and crucially, what they hate about traditional coverage. [Photo: courtesy FloSports] For instance, they’ve developed AI camera technology specifically for wrestling, recognizing that an event with 50 simultaneous matches requires different solutions than motorsports’ single-focus events. The system launched this summer with 25 AI cameras that provide a viewer experience that looks like a person is manning the camera. The technology uses machine learning engineers who build software that enables virtual panning and zooming from any camera feed. The system automatically follows wrestling action and creates a dramatically improved viewing experience compared to static cameras, all using $90 cameras paired with FloSports’ proprietary software. This allows them to cover more individual matches while minimizing the need for camera operators, maintaining high-quality production while reducing costs. The genius is that the 15% authentically enhances each sport, while the 85% scales horizontally. FloSports leverages shared production trucks, streaming infrastructure, and data platforms that can serve wrestling one night and motorsports the next, spreading costs across 40,000 annual events while each sport gets coverage that feels custom-built for their community. Copartnering: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Most streaming services extract value from existing audiences. FloSports builds new ones. It’s a counterintuitive strategy born from necessity. When you’re serving smaller audiences that ESPN ignores, growing the pie becomes more important than grabbing a bigger slice. “Our mission is to grow our sports every day,” Floreani says. “We realized that if we can make money, our partners can make money, and we can invest in growing these sports.” Take motorsports. FloSports doesn’t just stream Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Late Model Stock Car Series, they write checks to boost prize purses, recently announcing they would host the highest-paying late model stock car race in the country, with $50,000 going to the winner. “Flow comes to us one day and says, ‘Hey, we want to have the biggest, best-paying late model stock race ever,’ Earnhardt Jr. recalls. That’s 100% Flow driven and motivated. They want to compete at that level, and I think it’s good for everybody.” [Photo: courtesy FloSports] The strategy extends to their co-owned High Limit Racing series with 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson. Thursday night’s Joker’s Jackpot at Eldora Speedway featured a $100,000-to-win race, produced by FloSports, and was co-broadcast on FS1 to maximize exposure. FloSports creates co-broadcast deals by pairing their owned content with network programming. For FS1, they combined High Limit Racing with NASCAR racesFloSports handles production while Fox provides broadcast reach, benefiting both parties. The numbers validate the approach. High Limit Racing has reached nearly two million viewers since the start of the year, averaging more than 200,000 viewers monthly. Earnhardt Jr. applauds FloSportss investment in motorsports while crediting the company with reconnecting fragmented racing communities in the process. “If it weren’t for Flow, he says, I really wouldn’t know what was happening at a lot of these racetracks that I’ve been aware of and followed for decades.” It’s ecosystem thinking applied to business strategy. Grow the sport, grow the audience, grow the revenuerepeat. [Photo: courtesy FloSports] The Future Belongs to the Authentic The numbers tell the story of a company hitting its stride. FloSports has become profitable, doubling revenue over the past two years and projecting to exceed $200 million in revenue next year, according to Floreani. The company also recently closed a Series D funding round that brings its total investment to over $100 million. The backing came from Dream Sports, India’s leading sports technology company, signaling global appetite for FloSports’ model of serving passionate, underserved communities. Recent strategic moves reinforce that confidence, including partnerships with the American Hockey League and Wanda Diamond League track and field, along with FloCollege’s expansion to 18 conferences covering 9,000 events, making it the largest streamer for Division II and III sports. FloSports operates over 600 partnerships, each structured differently based on partner needs. Some involve full exclusivity with FloSports handling production, while others accommodate existing local TV deals. Financial arrangements range from zero upfront costs to seven-figure annual deals, with its CAA partnership representing the premium end at seven figures annually. FloSports’ biggest evolution involves creating original content that competitors cannot replicate. High Limits has become the most watched sprint car series in the world in its first year, according to Floreani, beating competitors that have operated for decades. FloSports has also partnered with Fox Sports on “Dirt Season 2,” a five-part documentary series, demonstrating how they create premium content that extends beyond their own platform. “We know from our data what people want to watch,” Floreani says. “Let’s have this wrestler compete against this wrestler. Let’s build it up like it’s a UFC fight or a boxing match. Let’s tell the backstory and really drive the sport forward through those personalities and characters.” And while premium live events remain behind paywalls, significant content appears on social media, through broadcast partners, and on free platforms to grow overall audiences. “We understand that getting these stories out around our sports, around the events and the athletes, is good for the sport,” Floreani says. “And if it’s good for the sport, it’s good for us.” Going Mainstream FloSports is launching on Samsung Smart TVs in September, followed by Vizio and LG later this fall. Combined with existing Roku and Fire TV apps, this will put FloSports on essentially all major US TVs by the end of 2025, with Samsung providing prominent placement on its homepage. Effectively, you wont be able to ignore FloSports even if you try. To combat seasonal sports cycles, FloSports offers subscription pauses of one to six months and cross-promotes between related sports like grappling and wrestling. Its year-round motorsports content also helps retain subscribers during offseasons. For Earnhardt Jr., the impact extends beyond business metrics. “WhatFlo has done is one of the most insanely important things for grassroots and local short track racing,” he says. “There are a lot of people out there who would want to watch our races if they knew how convenient the Flow product is. We just gotta show people where we are and how to get there.”
Category:
E-Commerce
When SpongeBob SquarePants premiered on Nickelodeon in 1999, there was no indication it would become the global phenomenon it is today. At the time, the underwater adventures of a perennially cheerful sea sponge fit squarely into Nickelodeon’s canon of madcap cartoons from the 90s and early aughtsthink: Rocko’s Modern Life, The Ren & Stimpy Show, The Angry Beavers, CatDog, Invader Zim, and Aaahh!!! Real Monsters.None of those shows likely rings a bell unless you grew up in a specific generation. And yet, 25 years after its debut, SpongeBob SquarePants has reached the level of brand recognition akin to cultural touchstones such as Mickey Mouse, Looney Tunes, and Hello Kitty.Not only is the show and its characters highly recognizablethey’re cooler than they’ve ever been. Hip to be Square SpongeBob SquarePants sits at a unique intersection of digital and physical pop culture. According to the song lyric database Genius, characters from SpongeBob SquarePants have been referenced in hip-hop lyrics hundreds of times. Those same characters have dominated internet culture with a steady stream of memes and GIFs. All the while, SpongeBob has been a mainstay in fashion and art. Look to the 2013 capsule collection with Pharrell Williams’s brand Ice Cream; a 2014 collection from Moschino; and sneaker collabs with Vans (2018), Nike (2019), and Puma (2023). Visual artist and designer Louis De Guzman and reggaeton superstar J Balvin teamed up in 2021 to create SpongeBob SquarePants-themed art, apparel, and home goods. [Photo: Stella McCartney] And just this year, Supreme released racing jackets and shirts; design and fashion brand Cactus Plant Flea Market and retailer Uniqlo put out their own SpongeBob SquarePants collection; as did Stella McCartney for her kidswear line. All of this has turned a yellow sponge and all his nautical nonsense into a pop culture muse and a $16 billion global brand powerhouse. A Big Yellow T-Shirt Becomes a Hot Topic for Adults Pam Kaufman, CEO of international markets, global consumer products, and experiences at Paramount, joined Nickelodeon in 1997 as vice president of marketing and promotions. She had a front row seat when SpongeBob SquarePants hit the airwaves in 1999 to a somewhat tepid response. Pam Kaufman [Photo: Paramount] “It did okay,” Kaufman recalls. “That was during a time when it was okay to keep a show on without getting blockbuster ratings. It gave shows time to build and breathe.” Fast-forward to Seasons 3 and 4, when things started to shift. Vincent Waller, executive producer of SpongeBob SquarePants, initially joined the show in 2000 as a writer. He got into the habit of doodling characters from shows he was working on and leaving them in public places, on restaurant checks, and the like. While in Shanghai around Season 3 of SpongeBob SquarePants, he handed a kid a SpongeBob drawing, thinking he wouldn’t know who the character was. “He looks at it and he starts screaming and runs off into a building,” Waller says. “I found out later he was yelling ‘Sponge Baby! Sponge Baby! in Chinese. And then 15 kids came pouring out of the building, and I just stood there drawing these [sketches for] little kids. Stateside, Kaufman was getting calls from fans wanting merch. At the time, she led a small consumer products business that launched off the success of the networks show Rugrats. Soon, audiences were asking for goods from a certain spongea demand that Kaufman says was by no means a guarantee. “Not everything that’s a hit is merchandisable and works in consumer products. One of the biggest shows in Nickelodeon history is The Fairly Odd Parents, and that never translated to consumer productsever,” Kaufman says. “Hey Arnold!massive hit. Never translated.Back then, Kaufman didn’t see a show like SpongeBob SquarePants translating into toys because it didn’t fit the classic play pattern at the time, which leaned more toward interactivity and gaming (RoboSapien, Beyblade, Nintendo DS, Pokémon, etc.) or fashion dolls (Bratz, My Scene Barbies). ca. 2008. [Photo: chloe delong/Flickr/CC BY 2.0] The first piece of SpongeBob SquarePants merch was a bright yellow T-shirt with SpongeBob’s face on it. More notable is the fact that the shirt was sold in Hot Topic, a store known more for its goth and alternative wares. Kaufman says they were intentional in launching at Hot Topic and not a more kid-friendly retailer because they noticed co-viewing of the show among parents and children was exceedingly high. That crossover appeal was intentional. Marc Ceccarelli, executive producer of SpongeBob SquarePants, joined the show in 2010 as a writer and storyboard artist and says the main goal in the writer’s room was to mae each other laugh. “We’re basically making cartoons for a bunch of adults who still like watching cartoons,” Ceccarelli says. Pharrell Williams attends the Nickelodeon and Pharrell Williams Debut SpongeBob X ICECREAM Capsule Collection on September 10, 2013, in New York City. [Photo: Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Nickelodeon] Soaking Up Fashion and Art The world of Bikini Bottom, SpongeBob’s underwater hometown, was largely inspired by show creator Stephen Hillenburgs background as a marine biologist. His take on ocean life was highly stylized, from the retro Hawaiian aesthetic of Bikini Bottom to the show’s colorful cast of characters. “Each of the characters is really well defined and unique in a way,” Ceccarelli says. You look at a lot of shows, and they have this signature art style where all the characters kind of feel like variations of the same character. Whereas in SpongeBob, each character is designed for their personality. I think that makes the characters feel even more real and fleshed out than many other shows.” SpongeBob x Uniqlo [Photo: Cactus Plant Flea Market] This emphasis on unbridled creativity is part of the reason the show has so many fans in fashion and culture. After Williams reached out to Nickelodeon for what wound up becoming the 2013 capsule collection for his Ice Cream brand, it kicked off a still-occurring string of collabs in fashion and beyond. Last year, Xbox launched a custom-designed console. Even the United States Postal Service has gotten in on the craze with a series of SpongeBob SquarePants stamps. “We learned from SpongeBob that we don’t have to be so precious about a character,” Kaufman says. “It can translate into different art styles.” Moschino A/W 2014 at Milan Fashion Week, 2014. [Photo: Jacopo Raule/Getty Images] As flexible as SpongeBob’s intellectual property may be, Kaufman says they do reject a number of offers. Some of those do’s and don’ts, including no seafood restaurant tie-ins, came from show creator Hillenburg, who died in 2018 of complications from Lou Gehrig’s disease. [Image: USPS] “He just wanted the character to maintain its authenticity,” Kaufman says. As run-down as that word has become, it’s critical to Kaufman and her team to ensure the show maintains the essence of what Hillenburg created. SpongeBob creator Stephen Hillenburg with the voice of SpongeBob, Tom Kenny, in Los Angeles, 2002. [Photo: Kevin Winter/ImageDirect] Positive vibes only At the core of SpongeBob SquarePants is SpongeBobs unwavering positivity. The secondary characters and their unique relationships to SpongeBob lend the show a relatability despite its offbeat humor. The foundation Hillbenburg set has remained the focus, even as SpongeBob has expanded into theme parks, restaurants, Broadway, and beyond. “SpongeBobs good nature is the hook,” says Ramsey Naito, president of Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Animation. “The world and community that SpongeBob has created, Bikini Bottom, is a mirror of our own, and perhaps a more fun and playful mirror of our own. That allows us to look introspectively and see the joy of living.” [Image: Nickelodeon] Maybe that’s part of the reason why SpongeBob’s brand continues to resonate with generation after generation. For kids, there’s no shortage of ridiculous antics to keep them entertained. But for older audiences, there’s something to be said for such a perpetually cheerful and silly character existing in a real world that consistently feels anything but cheerful and silly. You hear this over and over and over again in research: I just love him. He makes me so happy, Kaufman says. Our goal has always been to put SpongeBob out there in the world in an experiential way that will make people feel fun and happy. That was the strategyto keep building experiences where people can be part of them.”
Category:
E-Commerce
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