4 | T T to page 6 REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT NZCIS T T Karen Phelps Innovation the cornerstone of success NZCIS took out the Emerging Gold Services and the Supreme Award at the 2023 Wellington Gold Awards as well as the Diversity and Inclusion Award at the 2023 Wellington Regional Business Excellence Awards. The New Zealand Campus of Innovation and Sport (NZCIS) was first conceived in 2016 to become the home to several Wellington professional sport teams. However since then NZCIS has evolved into something so much more, says NZCIS Performance Institute General Manager & Director Jamie Tout. The campus now supports not only professional sports teams but also community sport, commercial businesses and education facilities and offers accommodation, conferencing and food and beverage services. In recognition of its success NZCIS took out the Emerging Gold Services and the Supreme Award at the 2023 Wellington Gold Awards as well as the Diversity and Inclusion Award at the 2023 Wellington Regional Business Excellence Awards. Jamie says that innovation is the cornerstone of NZCIS’s success and is prevalent in almost every aspect of the campus. For example the campus is connected by 32 kilometres of LAN cabling, which supports the data trays that surround the four full sized FIFA and World Rugby approved playing fields. It’s also utilised in the Player Monitoring System (i.e. GPS) which sees over one million data points generated every 90 minutes per player and connects the 200+ TV screens found on campus, providing real time athlete performance data back to the teams coaches and strength and conditioning staff. However according to Jamie innovation is not just about technology – it’s also in the design and the flexibility of spaces. The development of NZCIS involved consulting with 35 international sports organisations including Para Sport NZ and D-Sport NZ, Manchester United, New York Giants, Chicago Bulls, New York Yankees, West Coast Eagles, Paris St Germain, Manly Sea Eagles, UFC, NZ Rugby, San Diego Padres and Red Bull. He says the resulting facility matrix has now become highly sort after by other organisations as a blueprint to build new or renovate existing health, wellness and sports facilities globally. Jamie says that NZCIS is proud to have achieved many world firsts. For example, the Sara(h)s Altitude Studio, an environmentally controlled (altitude, temperature, and humidity) Watt Bike cycle studio. “In terms of the size of the room, environmental perimeters and the number of bikes, there is nothing like it anywhere else in the world,” says Jamie. “From the moment people walk in, we can make this feel like their home. We can project the team’s logo, sponsors, messaging or data across both the NZCIS facility and premier village accommodation”. “The room is 140sqm, holds 40-watt bikes (the largest number of bikes in an altitude-controlled room in the world), can reach up to 3000m in altitude, has a temperature range of 6 degrees up to a sweltering 40 degrees and can achieve 20-70% humidity. “We can share the data from each individual bike straight back to the coaches’ computers as well as the big screens. It also comes with an amazing sound system and LED lights.” In addition to Sara(h)s Studio, four of the village apartments are also altitude controlled to 3000m, allowing two athletes per apartment to train and stay at altitude. Jamie says that training and resting at altitude can greatly enhance an athlete’s performance if travelling between hemispheres as well as drastically increase their return to recovery post competition or injury. In another world first Jamie says it is rare to find truly accessible pools: “What makes this space unique is the 300kg accessible pool railing system and hoist, which connects four different aquatic environments, a dryland space and accessible change room, underwater treadmill and endless swimming/running pools, plus the hot and cold plunge pools. “The hoist system provides independence and opportunities not seen before for our injured or disabled athletes to use hydrotherapy, underwater treadmill, endless running/ swimming, return to play activities, cold/ hot plunge, and underwater filming, to super-charge recovery and rehabilitation.”
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