MLBAM: Miami’s Marlins Park will have new Wi-Fi for All-Star Game

As part of its continuing effort to help major league baseball teams outfit their stadiums with fan-facing Wi-Fi, MLB’s advanced media department said that Miami’s Marlins Park will have a new Wi-Fi network fully operational by this year’s All-Star Game, to be held on July 11.

In a recent interview with MSR, Joe Inzerillo, executive vice president and chief technology officer for BAMtech, said the new network at Marlins Park will be “fully operational by the All-Star game.” Inzerillo said that by mid-season this year, there will be 23 MLB stadiums with networks built by or upgraded through the ongoing MLBAM plan to bring wireless connectivity to all league parks, a $300 million effort started several years ago.

Previously, Marlins Park had a Wi-Fi network built on Meru gear. Right now specifics of the network aren’t known, but most of the MLBAM network deployments have used Cisco gear for Wi-Fi. The Marlins also previously had a neutral-host DAS run by ExteNet Systems.

Minnesota Twins’ Target Field: Photo Essay and Wi-Fi tests

Great sight to see when you get off the plane in Minnesota.

Great sight to see when you get off the plane in Minnesota.

During Mobile Sports Report’s visit to Minneapolis earlier this summer, we had a free afternoon so we took the public tour of the Minnesota Twins’ Target Field, home of the 2014 MLB All Star Game. Though it was a kind of drizzly day we still got a lot of looks (and tests) of the thing we came to see: The park’s new Wi-Fi and DAS networks, which were operational and since it was an empty house, probably running at full capacity for all our tests.

After a short (~30 min.) light rail trip from the airport to downtown, we dumped our bags at the hotel and hoofed it over to Target Field, staying dry by cleverly using the city’s skywalk pathways. Once at the stadium it was just a short wait for the 3 p.m. tour to start, so we cruised the Twins’ gift store where the full-body Twins jammies made us think of cold September nights.

Tech you can and can’t see

Target Field from a nearby walkway. Notice the freeway running underneath.

Target Field from a nearby walkway. Notice the freeway running underneath.

I’d never been on one of these public tours before, but our group of 7 dudes learned a lot of lore from our excellent guide Rick, who had his stats down cold. The big glove outside the stadium, he let us know, is 522 feet from home plate, the longest home run recorded by Twins legend Harmon Killebrew. That home run was hit in 1967 at the old Metropolitan Stadium, where the Mall of America now stands.

Rick started out our tour by informing us that the $600 million Target Field, which opened in 2010, has a whole lot of technology under the field, pipes that heat the field and carry water away from it; there’s no dirt on the playing field, just sand underneath a very thin covering of grass. Baseball capacity now is 38,868, Rick said, though on opening day the park had 40,000+ there. That’s great stuff, man, but what about the Wi-Fi? Though I couldn’t get a Wi-Fi signal outside the gates, once inside the network was clearly humming: As Rick took us through the press box, where there were Ethernet cords in front of each seat, I wondered how necessary those were with a reading of 59.26 Mbps down and 62.67 up as I sat in a front-row seat.

Twins jammies for those cold Minnesota nights.

Twins jammies for those cold Minnesota nights.

As one the MLBAM-led technology deployment deals (in part to get ready for the All Star Game demands) the Wi-Fi inside Target Field is mainly Cisco gear, at least those that you can see. The familiar white boxes (now with MLBAM ID stickers) are fairly ubiquitous. Since we weren’t able to get ahold of the Twins’ IT crew before our visit I’m not sure what the final AP or DAS antenna count is these days. But if you know where to look, and we do, you can see a lot of antennas around.

Dealing with outside-the-park interference

One of the interesting things we learned in our profile of the park prior to the All Star Game was that since the stadium is right downtown, the Twins and the major carriers had to figure out how to keep macro antennas on buildings outside the ballpark from bleeding into the stadium’s DAS. According to another source we spoke with in Minnesota, this year was the first year that Target Field’s DAS didn’t need any more alterations; as you can see by one of pictures here of the Ford Center, which is across the street from the back side of Target Field, there’s a lot of RF on rooftops in the near vicinity.

Inside the press box. Grandpa, what's that cord for?

Inside the press box. Grandpa, what’s that cord for?

Down near field level, the Wi-Fi was still cranking in the mid-40s, an excellent score for a place that’s normally hard to cover. Looking around I didn’t initially see any APs, with none on the wall facing backwards as some stadiums do it. Then after some more inspection I saw the source of the bandwidth, some well-covered railing APs mounted on the railing behind the 10 or so rows of near-the-field seats. On our way out I saw some of the distinctive AmpThink-designed sideways railing enclosures, for the open-bowl seating not covered by overhangs.

Though ideally we’d love to come back on a game day, from the looks of the physical placements we were able to see and the tests we took, it seems like both the cellular and Wi-Fi networks at Target Field are high performers, good news for Twins fans who need connectivity. And if you need to drown your sorrows or celebrate, there is also an in-stadium beer network, which supplies suds from main keg rooms through conduits that are definitely more tasty than copper or fiber. Prosit!

Credit all photos: Paul Kapustka, MSR

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Target Field in panoramic view.

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A silhouette of a Wi-Fi antenna. MSR geek art.

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A Wi-Fi AP and some kind of gun antenna. Anyone know what that is?

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You bought it, you put your name on it.

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Another panoramic view, showing how close downtown is.

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The Ford Center is across the street from the back of the park. We’re guessing those macro antennas on top had to be tuned to keep their signals from interfering.

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Not Wi-Fi, but a network worth building for thirsty fans.

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Anyone want to test download speeds of these pipes?

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Great quote overheard in Minnesota: “It takes a lot of wire to make a park wireless.”

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Tour guide Rick getting set to take his “team” out on the field. BUT NOT ON THE GRASS!

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The railing APs that cover the field-level seats.

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An AmpThink railing enclosure. Rick didn’t know what those were, but he does now.

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Nice hardware in the Twins’ high-rollers club area.

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Our tour didn’t get to see inside, but we can guess what’s behind that door.

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If you can hit one here, the Twins want to talk to you.

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That’s about as close as MSR will ever get to being in “The Show.” Until next time!

Stadium Tech Report: Minnesota Twins tap InSite and TE Connectivity to get DAS ready for All-Star Game

Target Field, the downtown home of the Minnesota Twins. Credit: Minnesota Twins

Target Field, the downtown home of the Minnesota Twins. Credit all photos: Minnesota Twins

Even at a new stadium, getting the wireless network right is a constantly changing target. And for 4-year-old Target Field in Minneapolis, that meant an upgrade to the DAS not too long after the facility opened its doors.

“Nobody will ever have the perfect [network] install, and that’s part of the fun of it,” said John Avenson, vice president of infrastructure for the Minnesota Twins baseball club, in a phone interview with MSR. “The problem is not solvable as in, one year and you’re done. You need to be continuously improving.”

For the Twins, improving cellular connectivity was especially important since this year the club and the stadium will host baseball’s midsummer classic, the All-Star game. Thanks to help from InSite Wireless and DAS gear from TE Connectivity, Target Field’s DAS should be able to handle not just the overall growth in Twins fans’ wireless needs, but also the extra demands of a special event and all the selfies that go along with it.

“Fortunately, InSite and the carriers have been able to react quickly, and we should be ready for the test of the All-Star game,” said Dan Starkey, director for ballpark development and planning, in the same interview. “We’ll be ready to fully test the system.”

Wi-Fi and DAS, a perfect double play

Dan Starkey, director for ballpark development and planning

Dan Starkey, director for ballpark development and planning

As a new facility, Target Field was ahead of the curve when it came to Wi-Fi. On opening day the park had free Wi-Fi service for fans, with 225 access points initially available. “Back then that was a big number,” Avenson said. And while some carrier execs have been voicing an opinion that DAS is all that’s needed in a stadium, Avenson isn’t convinced.

“At this point you need both Wi-Fi and DAS,” he said.

Though the Twins do a good job of promoting the Wi-Fi service, most fans in stadiums everywhere usually default first to a cellular connection, either because they don’t know about the Wi-Fi, or don’t want to be bothered with the process or aren’t sure how to connect. Since people still think they should be able to send pictures or watch videos over a cellular connection, even at a crowded ballpark, that means the DAS – the Distributed Antenna System – needs to keep pace with all the smartphones and tablets being used.

“Some fans put their phones away [when they come to the stadium] but the younger crowd does not do that,” Avenson said. “Nothing interrupts their need for a good [wireless] experience.”

AllstarlogoAccording to Avenson, even before the facility opened the IT team new that they wanted a neutral host partner to lead the DAS effort.

“It just made sense to us,” said Avenson of having a neutral host DAS supplier, since as he said, carriers can be like siblings who have to share a bedroom. “InSite really enables the carriers, so they don’t have to fight with each other [over technology deployments].

Verizon Wireless and AT&T, the two biggest cellular carriers in the U.S., were on the neutral host DAS at the start, and were later joined by Sprint and T-Mobile. And even though the park is fairly new, Avenson said everyone involved realized quickly that wireless demands were growing, meaning that an upgrade was needed sooner rather than later.

According to the team, the most recent upgrades were to add MIMO capability for 1900 and AWS 2100 MHz bands, as well as adding four additional sectors in the bowl for AT&T. The new DAS can also support newer 4G LTE technologies, the Twins said.

“It’s just part of the evolution of DAS,” said Starkey. “Once we realized we needed additional coverage and capacity, InSite and the carriers acted quickly.”

Suite view of Target Field

Suite view of Target Field

The downtown difference

Like many other stadiums and large public facilities, Target Field had to be creative in finding space for the DAS head end equipment.

“In 2008 and 2009, we thought we’d fit it [the DAS head end] in a corner but it grew to a larger space and then that wasn’t big enough,” said Avenson, who added that AT&T and Verizon each have 10 to 12 cabinets of back-end gear for their DAS operations. “When the building was being built in 2008, the architects were not aware that we’d be needing more space. It’s amazing how much space and power a DAS takes at the head end.”

Adding to the complexity of the Target Field deployment is the fact that the field is in the middle of downtown Minneapolis, with large office buildings peeking over the roof of the stadium. According to Avenson, carriers and the team had to perform a series of reconfigurations to antennas both inside the park and out, so that the macro metro cellular network didn’t interfere with the DAS network inside the stadium.

“When the macro network wants to invade [the stadium] you have to push the macro network out,” said Avenson. “If you’re Miller Park [the baseball field in Milwaukee] and you have a big parking lot around the stadium you can control your own destiny. Parks in the middle of cities have a much different challenge.”

Editor’s note: This profile was originally published on May 1, 2014. It is also included in our Stadium Tech Report for Q2 2014, which you can download for free from our site.

Topps Uses Technology to Reach Out to Fans

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Do you remember baseball cards? Many of my friends collected them when younger but as it became overly commercialized with too many companies selling too many versions, so that what was once a childhood rite of passage slowly became an overly complex market that collapsed in on itself.

According to the piece that ran in Bleacher Report a few years ago the market topped out at $1.2 billion in 1991 and then collapsed to its current position of under $300 million. It has been trying to reinvent itself ever since.

Well credit Topps, one of the original powers in this category to adopting new technology to help promote a very non-technology offering, pieces of cardboard with baseball players stats on one side and their picture on the other.

The company has incorporated two short range communications technologies in a display at the 2013 MLB All-Star Fanfest with QR (quick response) codes and NFC (near field communications) incorporated into huge cards of the games All=-Stars that were on display at the event.

The first of the technologies, QR codes, for those of you that do not know are those boxes that look like an overgrown bar code, could be scanned by fans attending the event with mobile devices equipped with a scanner, and in doing so put themselves in the running for prizes such as card sets, Topps’ new Big League Minis and autographed memorabilia. Alternately a fan could use the NFC function of their mobile device, if so equipped.

The interactive effort, spearheaded by partner Scanbuy, is part of a larger effort by the card company to appeal to younger fans that are tech savvy. It will be interesting to see if the company publishes the final results and if we will see a new generation of cards with embedded technology.

MLB Home Run Derby App has Real Prize

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Leading up to the annual Major League Baseball All Star game is the Home Run Derby and the league is made alterations to its mobile game based on the event with a contest that can send a fan to the World Series.

The updated mobile game “MLB.com Home Run Derby”, produced by MLB Advanced Media, the league’s interactive arm, is a free app that is available at both the App Store and Google Play and available for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and select Android devices.

The latest version now includes this years’ eight players that will participate in the event, which is scheduled for this evening as well as include all 24 players that participated in the event in the years between 2010 and 1012. The ball park has been altered so that it now is a recreation of Citi Field, the park where this years’ derby and All Star game will be staged.

However for fans playing the mobile game there is a bonus. Fans with a valid account in MLB.com Home Run Derby playing the game, up until July 18 at 11:59 pm EDT that wins five multi player matches will be automatically entered into a sweepstakes for the chance to win an all-expenses paid trip for two to Game Two of the 2013 World Series.

So see if you can have Prince Fielder defend his individual title that he earned last year at the event or if one of the seven other players participating will wrest the title from him. The other sluggers are David Wright, Robinson Cano, Chris Davis, Yoenis Cespedes, Bryce Harper, Michael Cuddyer, or Pedro Alvarez

Vote For MLB All-Stars- And Triple-A All Stars as Well

Right after the MLB season started I was at the league’s site and noticed that you could already start voting for the All-Star game, and the one moment I gave it any thought was that it was way too early for me to even start considering voting.

I am in the ‘what have you done this year’ group of voters, one of a number of major groups I see voting. There is also fans I know that only vote for players on their team, ones that vote for last year’s performance, and a few rare ones that only vote for a player in either the NL or AL.

It is now getting to the point that I will vote and have really appreciated the fact that I can do it online for two reasons. I no longer live in a town with a major league team and the closest is a two hour drive. The second is IBM punch cards went out with the VAX.

What I have not realized until a MLB Advanced Media note came my way that you can also vote for Triple-A All Stars. I suspect the voting in this contest will be much more team-oriented since if you do not live in a town with a AAA team it is unlikely that you have watched any of the players perform, although games are shown on MLB’s network.

The fan voting will represent 1/3 of the total vote with other votes being cast by by members of the media and each club’s field manager, coaches, and general manager.

However this is a good move by MLB in trying to bring more attention to its minor leagues. It certainly looks like it is trying to make the Triple A All Star game, which will pit players from the Pacific Coast League against players from the International League, into a must see event. While I doubt it will ever reach the NFL’s minor league games’ popularity — i.e BCS college football, this is a good way to increase interest in baseball.

The Triple A All-Star game, which has been played for the last 24 years, will be played at Coca-Cola Field in Buffalo, N.Y., home of the Buffalo Bisons, on July 11 at 7:00 p.m. EDT

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