Super DAS: AT&T, Verizon beefed up Phoenix area with mobile cell towers and more DAS

AT&T Cell on Wheels (COW) deployment outside the ESPNZone in Phoenix. Credit all photos: AT&T (click on any photo for a larger image)

AT&T Cell on Wheels (COW) deployment outside the ESPNZone in Phoenix. Credit all photos: AT&T (click on any photo for a larger image)

While we wait for the traffic stats from the incredibly exciting Super Bowl XLIX, here’s the final installment of our Super DAS series — in which the two major U.S. wireless carriers, AT&T and Verizon Wireless, provide some details about how they beefed up coverage in and around Phoenix to handle the expected Super Bowl communications crush.

The lengths to which AT&T and Verizon went to ensure no signals were dropped are interesting from several business points of view; to be sure, no major carrier wants Twitter to erupt with reports of dropped calls from a major event. (AT&T folks still grimace when you bring up the historical benchmark for this type of problem, SXSW and Twitter.)

The flood-the-zone type of temporary enhancements now brought in on a regular basis for big events also point out the ongoing need for distributed antenna system (DAS) deployments: the basic fact of our ever more connected lives simply means that for large public venues, or places where lots of people gather at once, the legacy cellular network designs simply can’t keep up.

ESPNZone DAS gear in underground garage

ESPNZone DAS gear in underground garage

To make sure it could, AT&T said it deployed 10 cell towers on wheels (aka “COWS”) to the Phoenix area in advance of the weekend, while also upgrading its equipment at DAS installations like the one Crown Castle had at the University of Phoenix Stadium as well as at other points around town. AT&T folks were kind enough to supply us with plenty of photos of the deployments — we especially like the DAS built in an underground garage near the ESPNZone outlet in Phoenix.

Verizon also said it deployed 13 COWs and upgraded many DAS deployments in the Phoenix area prior to the Super Bowl, and even said it had a team of network technicians on hand to make sure traffic kept running smoothly.

How did it all work out? So far, we haven’t seen any reports of missed cellular connections during Super Bowl weekend (which also included the Waste Management golf tournament in the area, further adding to cellular pressure). What it does make us wonder about is the economic solution in the future to big-crowd wireless traffic concerns, which clearly aren’t limited to inside the event venue anymore. Are more portable deployments the way forward, or will we see more DAS installations that can be upgraded quickly on the fly?

More photos below!

AT&T COW with box on roof

AT&T COW with box on roof

Another AT&T COW

Another AT&T COW

AT&T COW at Wild Horse Pass

AT&T COW at Wild Horse Pass

AT&T COW deployment in downtown Phoenix

AT&T COW deployment in downtown Phoenix

Downtown COW on a roof

Downtown COW on a roof

ESPNZone DAS cabling run

ESPNZone DAS cabling run

Hyatt Gainey Ranch COW

Hyatt Gainey Ranch COW

Sonim’s rugged LTE phones get public-safety trials at Super Bowl, World Ski Championships

Sonim XP7 handset

Sonim XP7 handset

The new XP7 ruggedized LTE smartphone from Sonim Technologies will get some on-the-scene testing by public safety professionals at both the Super Bowl as well as the upcoming World Ski Championships in Vail, Colo., according to Sonim, a San Mateo, Calif.-based maker of ruggedized devices.

Expected to be publicly announced Friday, the news that Sonim’s newest ruggedized LTE handset will be tested by firefighters from the Phoenix Fire Department during their Super Bowl deployments is significant for those concerned with public-safety operations around large public venues, since it offers a new way for industry-standard applications to be shared in a potentially “extreme” environment. With support for both standard wireless-carrier LTE networks as well as the emerging “FirstNet” public safety LTE frequency, the Sonim XP7 also offers one potential path toward the long-desired goal of having communication devices that can allow different first-responder agencies to communicate with each other, or to more simply share information from different devices, applications or networks.

While the Phoenix test deployment of XP7 handsets will use AT&T LTE airwaves, a similar test process scheduled to take place in Vail and Beaver Creek at the Feb. 2-15 FIS World Ski Championships will use a demonstration version of the Band Class 14 LTE public safety broadband network, according to a release from FirstNet Colorado.

Screen Shot 2015-01-28 at 3.15.18 PMThe Vail demonstration will make use of a Distributed Antenna System (DAS) that was built for the town of Vail by neutral host provider Crown Castle, as well as the Sonim phones, among other devices and services.

While it has the first-glance look of a regular smartphone, the Sonim XP7 has a host of ruggedized features including long battery life, an extra-loud speaker, protection against drops and weather, a touchscreen accessible with gloves, and a screen viewable in bright sunlight. In a recent interview with Sonim CEO Bob Plaschke, MSR got to see and hold Plashcke’s XP7, a bulky device that certainly feels like it could stand up to extreme weather and rough handling. In addition to its obvious target market of first responders and other extreme-condition businesses, the XP7 is also being targeted at extreme athletes and outdoor-lifestyle customers, who should be able to purchase the device from major U.S. wireless carriers later this year.

In Phoenix, the Sonim phone will be compared to consumer-grade smartphones in a test using a custom-built firehouse alert app, according to Sonim. The Phoenix firefighters will also test the XP7’s ability to act as a Wi-Fi hotspot, and will also test its compatibility and interoperability with other mobile devices.

YinzCam’s Super Bowl stadium app will have instant replays, Super Bowl commericals, stadium maps and more

Screen shot of Super Bowl app for this year's game.

Screen shot of Super Bowl app for this year’s game.

We’ve been waiting for official word on what the YinzCam-developed app for the Super Bowl will look like, and though there’s no press release the page where we are guessing it will eventually be available is offering some details, like the availability of instant replays from different camera angles, video of Super Bowl commercials, and stadium maps.

On the Seahawks.com site we found a good how-to story for fans going to the game, which included a link to this page, where we are guessing the Super Bowl stadium app will be available for download. Here is the boilerplate:

New for Super Bowl XLIX, the Super Bowl Stadium App Presented by Verizon aims to take the fan experience inside University of Phoenix Stadium to the next level. Features that will enhance Super Bowl ticketholders’ experiences include exclusive in-stadium video content such as Super Bowl commercials and replays from four different camera angles, stadium seating and concession maps, once-in-a-lifetime gameday opportunities visible only to fans inside the stadium and the option to receive up-to-the-minute gameday notifications. Available on iOS, Android and Windows. Goes Live 23rd January 2015

(Looks like the app is already available in the App Store and in Google Play, but nothing is live; we downloaded the app and the only three buttons available, for highlights, commercials and memories, all say they will be available on Feb. 1 at the stadium, so no idea what the “goes live” on the splash page above means yet.)

Screen Shot 2015-01-23 at 11.40.41 PMYinzCam founder and CEO Priya Narasimhan had told us earlier this year that a Super Bowl app was in the making, and apparently it will contain features found in some of the latest YinzCam app deployments, such as the Seattle Seahawks’ new stadium app, which has multiple camera angle replays. The Super Bowl app is different from the Arizona Cardinals’ regular stadium app, which was also built by YinzCam, which also features instant replays.

We were able to download the app for iPhone (it’s free) and apparently you will need to be connected to the stadium Wi-Fi (which has the clever SSID of “Stadium WiFi”) in order to view highlights and other video options.

The good thing for fans at the big game, there will be plenty of networking horsepower to keep the app running, no matter where you are. If you’re inside the stadium there is a new Wi-Fi network and a refurbished DAS deployment to keep fans connected; stay tuned next week for our big breakdown of DAS deployments and carrier plans to keep the Super Bowl crowds super-connected.

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