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Utah Jazz pick VenueNext for new stadium app

September 18, 2017 by

There’s no official announcement yet but the Utah Jazz today confirmed the scoop that was announced by CIO BJ Vander Linden last week at the Mobile World Congress Americas show, that the Jazz will use VenueNext for a new stadium app for the upcoming season.

More details will likely become available as we get closer to the tipoff of the 2017-18 NBA season, but in the meantime it’s interesting to ponder what has become of the equity deal struck between app provider YinzCam and the NBA 2 years ago.

Under the terms of that deal, YinzCam was supposed to “re-do” the stadium apps for 22 of the NBA’s teams, with things like food delivery and ticket services included. With two of those teams (the other is the Minnesota Timberwolves) now having announced plans to use VenueNext, there is a valid question about what is happening with YinzCam and some of its former clients.

Mobile Sports Report has reached out repeatedly to YinzCam CEO Priya Narasimhan over the past couple months, but we have not yet received a reply.

Filed Under: Apps, NBA, VenueNext, YinzCam Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Patriots, Extreme claim 8 TB of Wi-Fi used during NFL opener

September 15, 2017 by

Credit: Patriots.com

It looks like those NFL stadium Wi-Fi upgrades over the past couple years are paying off, with big numbers starting to roll in as the 2017 season gets underway. Tops on the numbers list so far is a report from Extreme Networks claiming a total of 8.08 terabytes of traffic was seen on the Wi-Fi network at Gillette Stadium for the NFL season opener, a 42-27 win by the visiting Kansas City Chiefs over the New England Patriots on Sept. 7.

The Patriots, one of several teams to significantly upgrade their Wi-Fi system before last season, saw a 5.11 TB mark during last year’s AFC Championship game, which (briefly) made the unofficial top 5 single-day Wi-Fi events list we’ve been keeping at MSR. Since then we’ve heard about a 7.25 TB game at AT&T Stadium for the Packers-Cowboys playoff tilt, and more recently a 6.2 TB mark seen at Notre Dame, for its Sept. 9 game against Georgia.

The Patriots’ 8-plus number came from an impressive number of fans using the network — according to Extreme, there were 41,377 unique users (out of 65,878 in attendance) on the network that day, with a peak concurrent user number of 33,909. Extreme also said the network saw peak throughput of 11.1 Gbps. These numbers are closing in on Super Bowl territory, with Super Bowl LI’s 11.8 TB mark now clearly in jeopardy when the big game rolls back around in Feburary. We are also waiting to see what the numbers are like from Atlanta’s new Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which hosts the Falcons’ regular-season home opener this weekend against Green Bay. Though there are no official reports yet, we have heard rumors that the MBS network did very well in preseason, so we’re guessing the list below will get a number of resets this season.

Got any numbers we need to know about? Send ’em in!

THE LATEST TOP 9 FOR WI-FI

1. Super Bowl 51, NRG Stadium, Houston, Feb. 5, 2017: Wi-Fi: 11.8 TB
2. Super Bowl 50, Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara, Calif., Feb. 7, 2016: Wi-Fi: 10.1 TB
3. Kansas City Chiefs vs. New England Patriots, Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Mass., Sept. 7, 2017: Wi-Fi: 8.08 TB
4. Green Bay Packers vs. Dallas Cowboys, Divisional Playoffs, AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas, Jan. 15, 2017: Wi-Fi: 7.25 TB
5. WrestleMania 32, AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas, April 3, 2016: Wi-Fi: 6.77 TB
6. Super Bowl 49, University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, Ariz., Feb. 1, 2015: Wi-Fi: 6.23 TB
7. Georgia vs. Notre Dame, Notre Dame Stadium, South Bend, Ind., Sept. 9, 2017: Wi-Fi: 6.2 TB
8. Alabama vs. Texas A&M, Kyle Field, College Station, Texas, Oct. 17, 2015: Wi-Fi: 5.7 TB
9. Pittsburgh Steelers vs. New England Patriots, AFC Championship Game, Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Mass., Jan. 22, 2017: Wi-Fi: 5.11 TB

Filed Under: AT&T, Dallas Cowboys, Extreme Networks, NFL, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Notre Dame sees 6.2 TB of Wi-Fi traffic for Georgia game

September 13, 2017 by

Notre Dame logo on Wi-Fi railing enclosure at Notre Dame Stadium. Credit: Paul Kapustka, MSR

The final score on the football field may not have made Fighting Irish fans happy, but on the connectivity side of things the new Wi-Fi network at Notre Dame Stadium scored a big win with 6.2 terabytes of traffic used during Notre Dame’s Sept. 9 home game against Georgia.

Deployed by AmpThink, the new Wi-Fi network is part of a $400 stadium renovation called Campus Crossroads that debuted in time for this year’s college football season. Mobile Sports Report got a look at the new stadium renovations, which include new premium seating areas and a large video board, during an August football scrimmage event that was open to fans.

On Sept. 3, the Irish formally opened the stadium with a home game against Temple, which Notre Dame won 49-16. According to Notre Dame, the new Wi-Fi network saw 4.8 TB of traffic for the season opener, with 21,395 unique client connections and a peak concurrent connection number of 15,800. For the Sept. 9 game against Georgia, a prime-time night game that saw the Irish just fall on the short end of a 20-19 score, the network saw 6.2 TB of traffic, with 25,856 uniques and 19,475 peak concurrent connections.

By our unofficial records, the 6.2 TB mark is the highest Wi-Fi traffic number recorded for a single-day college event. The previous high mark was a 5.7 TB total reported by Texas A&M for a 2015 season game against Alabama. (Any other big marks out there that we don’t know about, please let us know!)

Total attendance for both Notre Dame games this season was 77,622, which sounds like the new sellout capacity for the stadium, a number not previously reported since the renovation. Notre Dame can probably expect another big network experience on Oct. 21, when the Irish host Pac-12 rival USC.

Filed Under: AmpThink, Cisco, NCAA Football, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

MSR at MWC: Come see us in San Francisco!

September 13, 2017 by

If you are attending the Mobile World Congress Americas show this week in San Francisco, make sure you check out the Thursday morning series of keynote presentations moderated by yours truly, including a “fireside chat” with Al Guido, president of the San Francsico 49ers. Al and I will talk about Levi’s Stadium and how the Niners are using their digital strategy to better engage fans… be sure to start your Thursday morning with us! We get underway at 9 a.m. local time, so hit the Starbucks and come on by.

In addition to Al, there are four other keynote presenters who all represent a different part of the customer engagement equation. And later Thursday morning, you can continue your stadium-tech experience by checking out the panel discussion on The Connected Stadium: Enhancing Fan Engagement with representatives from the Utah Jazz, Sacramento Kings, Atlanta Hawks and Soldier Field (home of da Chicago Bears), as well as FC Barcelona. Moderated by Brian Berger, host of the excellent Sports Business Radio podcast, the panel starts at 11 a.m. local time.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, DAS, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , ,

NFL Wi-Fi update: AT&T Stadium adds 667 APs

September 10, 2017 by

A row shot of the under-seat APs at AT&T Stadium. Photo: Dallas Cowboys

With today’s main NFL season schedule already underway, here is a quick update on all the NFL stadium Wi-Fi updates we know about that are either finished or still under construction for the 2017 season:

— AT&T Stadium, already the location of the biggest (by number of APs) stadium network we know of, is in the process of adding another 667 APs, a project scheduled to be finished in the next few weeks. According to John Winborn, CIO for the Dallas Cowboys Football Club, the new APs are all the Cisco 3800 two-radio models, and will be installed on the stadium’s 400-level seating area.

When done, AT&T Stadium will have 2,567 APs, with plans to add another 400 in the upcoming offseason. After that, said Winborn, AT&T Stadium will “be out of locations in the stadium to place additional APs without additional spectrum opening up.” (editor’s note: This post has been updated to correct an error in reporting that previously stated that 600 new APs had been installed.)

— In Atlanta, the fans are getting ready for the first regular-season game at the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which will have nearly 1,800 APs total, many of those under the seats in the bowl.

— As previously reported in MSR, Denver’s Sports Authority Field at Mile High is in the process of ripping and replacing its former Wi-Fi network, installing 1,470 new Cisco 3800s in a project scheduled for completion by late October/early November.

— In Philadephia, Lincoln Financial Field is in the process of switching from an Extreme Networks deployment to a new one using Wi-Fi gear from Panasonic. More details on this project are promised later this fall.

— In Seattle, the Seahawks’ IT team is adding additional APs to improve coverage in the four corners of the upper seating sections of CenturyLink Field, according to Chip Suttles, vice president of technology for the Seahawks. Suttles said a full offseason tuning assessment with gear provider Extreme Networks also saw a new channel plan put in place, and “multiple Wi-Fi antenna orientations to improve coverage.”

— Detroit’s Ford Field also got a Wi-Fi (and DAS) upgrade over the past offseason, a revamp that will now allow all visitors, and not just Verizon Wireless customers, to use the stadium Wi-Fi.

— Chicago Bears fans will finally have free Wi-Fi this season, after being forced to pay for access previously.

— Following the announcement that the Arizona Cardinals were switching from CDW to Cox Business as the exclusive technology provider for the University of Phoenix Stadium, the UoP Stadium network was set for some additional APs and some network tuning ahead of the NFL season, according to Mark Feller, vice president of technology for the Cardinals.

Anyone else we miss? Send us the info… and the speedtests!

Filed Under: AT&T, Cisco, Dallas Cowboys, Denver Broncos, Detroit Lions, NFL, Seattle Seahwaks, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Verizon: Still no data charges for live NFL streaming via NFL Mobile app

September 9, 2017 by

There’s less fanfare around the decision this year (and no official press release we can find) but according to Verizon for the 2017 NFL season the wireless carrier will continue its plan from last year and won’t charge its metered-plan customers for data used while watching live NFL games via the NFL Mobile app. Free online slot games are the perfect place to start playing – https://slots-online-canada.ca/free-slots/

UPDATE, Nov. 4: Please see this post with a Verizon response to NFL Mobile billing issues.

As we noted last year, some of the most-read stories in Mobile Sports Report history have been posts wondering about how much data customers might use watching a live football game on their phones. The answer now, for many Verizon customers, is easy: It’s still zero. You will still need to pay $1.99 a month again this fall to watch RedZone on your phone via NFL Mobile, but watching the live local and national-broadcast games (like Sunday night games and Monday Night Football) won’t chew up any of the gigabytes in your data plan. That is, if you have a data plan.

Where it may get tricky — and NFL Mobile and Verizon have a history of things not going quite as planned — is when it comes to customers on Verizon’s new “unlimited” plans. The first reply we got from our Verizon contact said, “Customers with metered plans will also enjoy games data free.”

But what about unlimited customers, we asked. Would NFL Mobile live-action data still be charged to them? This matters somewhat because the plans aren’t truly unlimited — some slowdowns to service can occur if you use more than 22 GB of data during a billing cycle. So it’s unclear to us what will happen if “unlimited” NFL Mobile users go past that number by say, watching every game possible over a cellular connection.

Does that mean that NFL Mobile junkies might actually do better with a metered plan than an unlimited plan? We have no clue. Here is the clarified second response to that question when we posed it to a Verizon spokesperson, so see if it makes sense to you:

Regarding unlimited; most of the time you’ll enjoy the same network experience after your line exceeds 22 GB during a billing cycle. If you exceed 22 GB…and you’re on a cell site that’s congested at that time, it may affect your streaming.

This may be just a small-potatoes quibble, but readers please let us know if things aren’t as free as they should be. What is helpful to know is this fact from the Verizon spokesperson: “Data usage from NFL Mobile may accrue real time when watching, but will be removed afterward in 24-48 hours.” Close watchers of data totals last year hit our comment boards with tales of being charged for NFL Mobile game-watching, but we believe it all turned out right in the end. But our comments space is always open if it doesn’t so please, NFL Mobile fans, keep letting us know what’s really happening out there.

As we also noted last year, many NFL Mobile veterans almost always seek a Wi-Fi connection when they are streaming NFL Mobile games, because better bandwidth and no data charges.

And remember: You can’t watch NFL Mobile live games on your tablet, because Verizon’s rights package only includes cellular phone-type devices.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, NFL, NFL Mobile, NFL Network, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,
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