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Bat Around™ Gamifies the Batting Cage Experience for Baseball and Softball Enthusiasts and Newcomers

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New batting cage software and app combine the thrill of swinging a bat with a live video game experience, bringing a new level of fun to the sport

NEW YORK, Jan. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Batting Challenge Holdings, Inc. officially debuts Bat Around™, a new batting cage software and app that gamifies the batting cage experience for teams, players and novices, at the American Baseball Coaches Association conference in Nashville, Tenn. Jan. 5-8, 2023. Bat Around is part baseball and part video game, inspired by some of the greatest hitters in Major League Baseball history, including David Eckstein, Fred McGriff, Matt Holliday, Luis Gonzalez and more.

 

With Bat Around, we are introducing a whole new level of excitement to baseball and softball.

The game is for all ability levels and brings fun and competition to batting cages. The beta version of Bat Around is powered by HitTrax and is available at batting cage test locations in Colorado, Florida, Georgia and New York. The Bat Around app is now available for download through the App Store and Google Play for iOS and Android phones.

“We get so consumed with teaching people a swing and chasing metrics that we forget the game is supposed to be fun,” said Clint Hurdle, Bat Around co-founder and former MLB manager and player. “With Bat Around, we are introducing a whole new level of excitement to baseball and softball, reinforcing strategy and overall hitting skills through a game that is fun to play for anyone wanting to swing a bat.”

“Bat Around is a new player in the “sporttainment” industry and is perfect for growing usage at batting cages, challenging existing players and introducing new people to the game,” said Matt Farrell, CEO of Batting Challenge Holdings. “We’re looking forward to expanding Bat Around’s availability across the U.S. to batting cages and entertainment venues.”

The game is designed to help teams make batting practice more fun and purposeful through competition, allow players to try news skills or improve existing ones, and encourage novices to grab a bat for the very first time and take a swing. It is an exciting way to connect with people and the ball to have a good time while improving skills.

Bat Around is inspired and advised by some of the greatest hitters in Major League Baseball, including:

Sean Casey—3x MLB All Star, TV personality on MLB NetworkJeff Cirillo—2x MLB All Star, 1,598 hits, 343 doubles (5x 30+)Darnell Coles—World Series Champion, Washington Nationals hitting coachDavid Eckstein—World Series MVP, 2x MLB All Star and 2x World Series ChampionLuis Gonzalez—World Series Champion, 5x MLB All Star, 2,591 hits, 596 doubles, 354 home runsTravis Hafner—250 doubles (5x 25+), 213 HR (4x 24+), 731 RBI (4x 100+)Matt Holliday—7x MLB All Star, 4x Silver Slugger, National League batting and RBI champFred McGriff—2023 Baseball Hall of Fame electee, 5x MLB All Star, 3x Silver Slugger, 2x HR Champion, World Series ChampionJuan Pierre—2,227 hits and led National League 2x in hits, World Series ChampionRyan Spilborghs—Career .272 and popular TV/radio broadcasterKevin Young—Two seasons 40+ doubles, three with 20+ HR and two 100+ RBI

This list of clutch hitters comprises the Bat Around Hitting Legends Council, who advise on the game and will be featured throughout the app, providing pro tips to players.

“Bat Around makes batting practice better because it takes the tradition of just swinging and turns it into a game and a competition that everyone loves,” said David Eckstein, two-time MLB All Star and World Series MVP. “With this game, we have the opportunity to put a bat in everyone’s hand, and they are going to enjoy hitting!”

When playing Bat Around, hitters move through six rounds of play, keeping the practice fresh and fun, while developing different hitting skills and game strategy. The initial six rounds include:

Liñas – barrel it up and hit a line drive to centerAround the World – hit two balls to left, two to center and two to rightLunchbox – go to work and move runners in various situationsGamer – the pressure is on to score runs in three minutes or three outs, whichever comes firstLaser Show – just hit it hardWalk-Off – the dream scenario of bases loaded, two outs, bottom of the ninth

Other features of the game include the Bat Around Metric, known as BAM™, measuring overall skill. Players will see their stats in the app and can track how they performed in each skill. BAM is also a handicap system allowing people with different ability levels to play each other and compare stats.

The game is accessible to all levels, and hitters can play off a tee, soft toss, front toss, pitching machine or live pitching on three skill levels.

The Bat Around app features your stats, including your BAM, and a digital player card that allows users to create their own digital baseball card that can be shared. Pro tips can be accessed through videos from the Hitting Legends Council, whose members have more than 25,000 collective professional hits. A future version of the game will feature leaderboards showing how players rank against others.

“Bat Around brings out fun and competition,” said Fred McGriff, who was recently elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame class of 2023. “When you see kids and adults step into the box, they are immediately energized, have fun and enjoy the competition.”

Bat Around is featured for the first time at the American Baseball Coaches Association conference in Nashville, Tenn. Jan. 5-8, 2023. Show attendees can see and demo the game and app at booth number 75.

To learn more about Bat Around, visit www.letsbataround.com or follow us on Instagram at @letsbataround.

About Batting Challenge Holdings

Batting Challenge Holdings, Inc. is a New York-based company specializing in sports technology mixed with innovative games. Follow Batting Challenge Holdings on LinkedIn.

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SOURCE Batting Challenge Holdings, Inc.

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PhotonPay Recognized as Global FinTech Trailblazer with Dual Prestigious Service Awards

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PhotonPay has earned dual industry honors from EqualOcean and Jiemian Cailian Intelligence Institute for its next-generation financial operating system powered by stablecoin.

HONG KONG, June 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — PhotonPay today announced its recognition as “EqualOcean 2026 GoGlobal FinTech Service Enablers Top 10”, and its selection as “New-Quality Service Provider of the Year” by Jiemian Cailian Intelligence Institute. Conferred during major industry summits in Shanghai, these dual honors underscore PhotonPay’s pivotal role in accelerating the next generation of global commerce and systemic economic enablement.

The selections were finalized through exhaustive, multi-month evaluation frameworks — incorporating the data-and-expert review of Jiemian Cailian Intelligence Institute, alongside EqualOcean’s rigorous screening of over 500 international applicants. By assessing candidates on deep structural capability, regulatory adaptability, and systemic empowerment, these evaluations validate PhotonPay’s position as a foundational layer of global financial orchestration.

Globalization has evolved. Instead of just shipping goods via linear supply chains, businesses now operate complex, multi-market ecosystems. Navigating fragmented regional regulations and shifting trade patterns introduces significant operational friction. To scale effectively, enterprises require global financial networks that are resilient, compliant, and deeply integrated.

PhotonPay delivers this agility through a unified financial operating system powered by stablecoins, which has served over 200,000 enterprises globally. Whether managing digital ads spend, global logistics payout, e-commerce collection, or global payroll, businesses use PhotonPay to consolidate fragmented capital workflows. By combining traditional clearing networks with emerging stablecoin rails, the platform reduces conventional banking friction, mitigating FX volatility and accelerating fund velocity.

Underpinning this operational efficiency is a robust global compliance architecture, fortified by over 15 critical financial and payment licenses across key jurisdictions. PhotonPay leverages AI to automate risk management. By acting as an intelligent layer over the core infrastructure, these AI tools scan shifting local regulatory matrices, handle high-frequency AML/CFT screening, and detect fraud in real time — allowing businesses to transact globally with confidence and security.

“Global commerce thrives when financial friction disappears,” said Lewison Chen, Founder and CEO of PhotonPay. “We don’t view payments as isolated transactions, but as the essential infrastructure that drives business scale. This recognition reinforces our commitment to building an intelligent financial operating platform that helps enterprises navigate global markets with agility.”

Moving forward, PhotonPay will continue deepening its global compliance network and scaling its digital financial infrastructure. By bridging TradFi with emerging technologies like stablecoins and agentic commerce, the company aims to simplify international liquidity and empower more businesses to achieve borderless growth.

About PhotonPay

PhotonPay is a stablecoin-powered financial operating system built for the stablecoin era. Designed for modern enterprises, PhotonPay enables businesses to send, receive, convert, and settle funds across both fiat and stablecoin rails through a single, compliance-first integration, spanning 200+ countries and territories.

For more information, visit [www.photonpay.com].

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SOURCE PhotonPay

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Manz Asia Successfully Delivers World’s First 310mm × 310mm Panel-Level Packaging ECD Production System

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World’s first 310mm × 310mm panel-level packaging (PLP) Electrochemical Deposition (ECD) production system delivered to customer lineOmni x-series covering 310mm, 510mm, and 700mm platforms, enabling a broad range of panel-level manufacturing applications.Supports FOPLP, CoPoS, and TGV applications for AI, HPC, and advanced memory markets

TAOYUAN, June 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — A leading semiconductor advanced packaging equipment manufacturer, Manz Asia, has successfully delivered the world’s first 310mm × 310mm panel-level packaging (PLP) Electrochemical Deposition (ECD) mass production system. The system expands Manz Asia’s advanced packaging portfolio and showcases its integrated in-house expertise in process innovation, equipment engineering, and high-volume manufacturing.

The new ECD platform is designed with high flexibility to support both glass and metal square carriers and integrates wet chemical process modules for Redistribution Layer (RDL) fabrication. It is engineered for FOPLP-, CoPoS-, and TGV-based advanced packaging architectures. The 310mm × 310mm format offers advantages in scalability, panel utilization, and production yield, positioning it as a key enabling technology for panel-level packaging to support AI, high-performance computing (HPC), high-bandwidth memory (HBM), and high-speed interconnect applications.

Advanced packaging is increasingly converging with leading-edge semiconductor process technologies, with manufacturing capacity progressively concentrated in Taiwan. This shift is accelerating integration across process nodes and packaging architectures in the global semiconductor supply chain. Leveraging strong in-house R&D capabilities and close collaboration with leading IDM and packaging customers, Manz Asia continues to accelerate technology iteration and volume production deployment, strengthening its position in the global panel-level packaging equipment ecosystem.

The ECD system seamlessly integrates a full suite of wet chemical process modules, including cleaning, developing, etching, and stripping, and supports both spin and spray processing modes, creating a comprehensive 310mm × 310mm panel-level RDL manufacturing solution under the “Omni 310x” platform.

The Omni x-series now spans Omni 310x (310mm × 310mm), Omni 510x (510mm × 515mm), and Omni 700x (700mm × 700mm), forming a scalable platform architecture for panel-level mass production. The modular system design enables flexible configuration across different device architectures, process flows, and production capacity requirements, supporting development, qualification, pilot production, and high-volume manufacturing. It strengthens Manz Asia’s competitiveness in the global advanced packaging equipment market.

Robert Lin, CEO of Manz Asia, said the successful deployment of the Omni 310x into customer production lines reflects growing market demand for advanced packaging platforms that combine flexibility with production readiness. “As advanced packaging becomes increasingly central to AI and high-performance computing (HPC) architectures, capabilities such as process control, scalability, and seamless integration into high-volume manufacturing environments have become key competitive differentiators,” he said.

He added that Manz Asia will continue to advance its technology roadmap as a global-class equipment supplier, further strengthening its integration of ECD and wet chemical process technologies to improve manufacturing efficiency, yield stability, and production ramp-up. “We aim to accelerate the deployment of next-generation packaging technologies in FOPLP, CoPoS, and TGV, while reinforcing supply chain resilience across the semiconductor ecosystem,” he said. “Through a multi-platform strategy spanning 310mm, 510mm, and 700mm, we provide a consistent technology pathway from process development to high-volume manufacturing, enabling customers to scale efficiently and predictably. The Omni x-series roadmap is designed to support sustainable and scalable capacity expansion for next-generation semiconductor packaging applications.”

About Manz Asia

Manz Asia delivers semiconductor equipment and solutions built on core technologies in Electrochemical Deposition (ECD), wet chemistry, digital printing, automation, and software integration. Our expertise covers advanced packaging (FOPLP / CoPoS) and IC substrate processing (glass and organic core), supporting customers from R&D to high-volume manufacturing. Through system solutions, contract manufacturing, and sales representation, we help customers accelerate time-to-market, boost yield, and stay competitive in the fast-evolving semiconductor industry.

www.manz.com.tw/en

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SOURCE Manz Asia

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Midea Launches “Agentic Factory Overseas Expansion Solution,” Marking a New Stage for Chinese Enterprises Going Global

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FOSHAN, China, June 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — On June 9, 2026, Midea Group launched its “Agentic Factory Overseas Expansion Solution”.Building on the transformation of its Jingzhou washing machine factory, which received the world’s first WRCA Agentic Factory certification in August 2025, Midea has launched a modular, standardized, and field-validated solution. It includes cross-cultural employee training and cross-border supply chain traceability, and has been deconstructed into 12 rapidly replicable modules for global factory deployment.

According to Deloitte, 55% of Chinese enterprises hope to seek growth through overseas expansion. Midea has identified three persistent challenges: long-distance cross-border supply chains, inconsistent quality standards across export markets, and multinational workforce management difficulties caused by differences in language, culture, and labor regulations.

The solution has been validated at Midea Thailand Refrigeration Plant. Through 72 AI applications and 13 major agents across 25 scenarios, the factory reduced end-to-end order lead time by 43%, lowered customer complaint rates by 32%, and shortened employee training and certification cycles by 62%, demonstrating that China’s intelligent manufacturing capabilities can be replicated globally.

For workforce training, Midea introduced an AIGC + VR multilingual training system, reducing new employee training from eight days to three days. For quality control, Midea launched a VOC-to-VOP seven-step quality solution powered by an expert knowledge base of more than 12 million quality-related cases, enabling customer complaints to be traced to production lines and root causes within seconds.

For supply chain resilience, Midea developed a cross-border supply chain AI agent that monitors 35 core nodes in real time, reducing exception-handling response time from 48 hours to within 12 hours and keeping raw material on-time arrival rates above 96%. Together with Annto’s integrated KD logistics solution, the material kitting rate can exceed 99%.

At the Thailand factory, the finished product defect rate has been reduced by 50%. Midea Cloud,KUKA, Annto, Hiconics, CLOU Electronics, and Midea Building Technologies further support cost reduction and efficiency improvement through automated production, reusable packaging, and integrated energy-saving solutions.

Midea also introduced the “Midea Go-Global Partner Program.” According to Simon Zhang, Vice President and Chief Digital Officer of Midea Group, the program is not merely about standardized equipment, but about turning Midea’s accumulated experience into practical guidance and implementation support.

This co-building model has already delivered results. Wuhan Honghai Technology completed its 2024 Thailand capacity expansion from infrastructure construction to production launch in five months with Midea’s support, and its Thailand business volume increased by 1.6 times in 2025. Xiamen Hexing Packaging, an 18-year Midea partner, has expanded from a domestic supplier into a global partner, establishing factories in Southeast Asia and North America and joining Midea’s global strategic partner whitelist in 2025.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/midea-launches-agentic-factory-overseas-expansion-solution-marking-a-new-stage-for-chinese-enterprises-going-global-302800087.html

SOURCE Midea Group Co., Ltd

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