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

June 5, 2017 by

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.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, All Star Game, Baseball, Cisco, DAS, Major League Baseball, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

News roundup: Ramifications of Manchester attack

June 1, 2017 by

Will large sports and entertainment venues change their security procedures in the wake of the recent fatal bomb attack outside the Manchester Arena? As more and more venues look to add closely tied public areas to arenas and stadiums, it’s a good bet we will see security perimeters extend farther out from the entry doors. Here’s a roundup of stories exploring what comes next after Manchester. Anyone with comments or more links, please share as this topic needs to become a priority for everyone.

Manchester attack points to vulnerabilities even at venues with high security: The LA Times weighs in with info from counter-terrorism experts.

U.S. Authorities Are Taking a Fresh Look at Security Outside Arenas After the Manchester Attack: AP (via Time) talks to Wrigley Field execs about adding security cameras outside the stadium.

Concert Security Experts on Preventing Attacks: ‘Our Adversary Is Very Committed, Adaptive and Elusive’: Variety talks to reps from the Oak View Group’s new Prevent Advisors group.

Manchester suicide attack lays bare limits of security measures: Reuters looks at whether or not we’ll ever be able to completely protect venues against determined terrorists.

Manchester shows why even the best protection can’t stop attacks: The Washington Post weighs in with a similar view as Reuters.

Filed Under: Security Tagged With: , , , ,

Built.io formally announces sports-app business

May 23, 2017 by

Screenshots from Built.io’s under-development mobile app for the NBA’s Miami Heat. Credit: Miami Heat

Built.io, the startup behind the Sacramento Kings’ new team and stadium app, formally announced its “fan experience platform” today, putting the company more directly in competition with market leaders YinzCam and VenueNext.

A San Francisco-based company, Built.io did not have a standalone sports-app business when it was selected by the Kings to be the base app technology for both the Kings’ team app as well as the app for the Kings’ new home, the Golden 1 Center. Since that arena’s launch last year, Built.io has also signed the Miami Heat as a customer, ahead of today’s formal launch of the sports-app platform.

In the larger sports world, YinzCam is by far and away the company with the most apps developed for teams and stadiums, with many of its content-focused developments used by numerous pro league teams as well as many large colleges. VenueNext, which entered the world as the app developer for the San Francisco 49ers’ new Levi’s Stadium a few years ago, has since signed up multiple pro teams like the NHL’s San Jose Sharks as well as entertainment entities like Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby.

Of the two market leaders, Built.io’s platform-based approach to app building — where third-party components for features like wayfinding and parking can be added via an API structure — is more like VenueNext’s, though YinzCam also has the ability to add third-party components as needed. The challenge for all stadium- and team-app builders, as well as for venue owners and teams, is to get fans to download and use the apps, so that teams can take advantage of the opportunities afforded by digitally connected customers.

Screenshot of part of the Built.io app for the Kings.

While there is plenty of promise and perceived opportunity in team and stadium apps, the current reality sees fans at stadiums using public social-media apps like Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter and Instagram, or other tools like email and search, far more often than team- or stadium-specific apps. However, by driving fans to use apps for digital ticketing and other necessary service transactions, team and stadium apps are likely to be more used over time, following the adoption curves for other businesses like coffee shops and airline tickets.

Though still small, Built.io has been around for a bit, as it was founded in 2007. The company has previous experience connecting larger enterprise businesses, experience founder Neha Sampat told us will work well as stadiums and teams become more connected in all their businesses.

“What the Kings are trying to do is a large-scale enterprise use case,” said Sampat in an interview last year. “There are a lot of big-data analytics and so much personalization that is dependent on data.”

Sampat said Built.io’s model of a “back end as a service” and its ability to quickly connect other programs’ APIs should be a good fit for the Kings, as well as for other teams looking to blend more services and functions into team and stadium apps.

Filed Under: Apps, Facebook, Horse Racing, Levi's Stadium, NBA, San Jose Sharks, Venture Capital, VenueNext, YinzCam Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

‘Right opportunity’ led Rushton from IBM to LA Chargers job

May 16, 2017 by

Jim Rushton

Jim Rushton, who held one of the most high-profile jobs in the sports network business market as leader of the stadium-technology group at IBM, said it was a “once in a lifetime chance” at the “right opportunity” that led him to leave Big Blue to become the new chief revenue officer for the Los Angeles Chargers.

Rushton, who started his new job this week, spoke with Mobile Sports Report last week on the phone after what he described was a “whirlwind” of activity, which ended up with him at one of the top-level business spots for the former San Diego Chargers, who are in the midst of a move up the coast.

“The chance to help rebuild and evolve an NFL franchise in a market like Los Angeles doesn’t come up very often,” said Rushton. “It really was a once in a lifetime career opportunity.”

Part of that opportunity will be to help figure out how to remake the Chargers franchise as part of a joint tenant agreement at the yet-to-be-built new Los Angeles NFL stadium, a venue being built by LA Rams owner Stan Kroenke. Rushton said that fan data and anayltics will me a “massive part” of his new purview, and that as a partner in the stadium operations the Chargers will be part of “joint decisions” on technology matters inside the new venue.

Rushton, who held a similar position with the NFL’s Miami Dolphins before moving to IBM, said his post with the Chargers will have more responsibilities.

On his short but productive IBM tenure — during which IBM came from pretty much nowhere to becoming one of the leaders in the stadium-networking integration space — Rushton said he felt he was leaving the operation improved from its initial inception.

With IBM-led deployments at Texas A&M, Atlanta’s new Mercedes-Benz Stadium and the forthcoming LA Football Club venue leading the way, Rushton said IBM’s tech-integration business now has a “signficiant [deal] pipeline across the world.”

One of the more interesting features of Rushton’s new job is the fact that the Chargers will play home games the next two seasons at the StubHub Center, a 27,000-seat soccer stadium in Carson, Calif., that will become the NFL’s smallest venue starting this fall. Though it’s not clear whether or not the stadium will improve its technology offerings before the Chargers play, Rushton was excited by the prospect of a scaled-down experience.

“It’s going to be terrific — it’s like having only premium seats, because everything will be lower bowl,” Rushton said.

Filed Under: NFL, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

JMA Wireless partners with Shared Access for UK stadium deals

May 11, 2017 by

Wireless connectivity provider JMA Wireless announced a partnership with UK-based Shared Access aimed at bringing wireless connectivity to stadiums and other large public venues in the United Kingdom, the companies said.

Announced first at the SEAT London conference in April, the partnership does not yet have any announced deals to bring products like JMA’s well-known TEKO DAS platform to stadiums; but with Shared Access already claiming a portfolio of more than 50,000 site locations for potential deployments, some could soon be forthcoming.

According to Shared Access, it operates as a sort of neutral third-party host, “an independent owner and operator of shared wireless communications infrastructure, leasing space on our sites to different Mobile Network Operators,” according to the company’s website. Shared Access also says it develops wireless deployments co-located with stadium lighting systems.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with an innovative infrastructure provider, such as Shared Access, to build on our leadership position in the smart stadium movement,” said Todd Landry, corporate vice president of product and market strategy at JMA Wireless, in a prepared statement. “Shared Access has significant experience deploying wireless technologies, and we have a joint mission in mind that can benefit clubs everywhere.”

Filed Under: 4G LTE, DAS Tagged With: , , , ,

AT&T sees 13.6 TB of cell data used for Kentucky Derby weekend; Verizon hits 7.17 TB on Derby Day

May 8, 2017 by

Race winner Always Dreaming. Credit: Coady Photography /Churchill Downs

Once again, fans at the Kentucky Derby used more wireless data than they did the previous year, with AT&T seeing a total of 13.6 terabytes of cellular data over the racing weekend at famed Churchill Downs.

For the muddy Derby race day itself, AT&T said its customers used a total of 8.1 TB of data on the in-venue DAS, the temporary COWs (cell trucks on wheels) and the AT&T macro network in the area. That number surpassed the 6.7 TB AT&T saw on Derby Day last year.

With an additional 5.5 TB of traffic seen on the “Kentucky Oaks” race day Friday, AT&T saw a total of 13.6 TB for the race weekend, a 19 percent increase from last year’s AT&T total of 11.4 TB for the weekend.

UPDATE: Verizon Wireless said it saw 7.17 TB of traffic on Kentucky Derby Day, up from 5.5 TB the year before. For the full three days of racing (including Thursday’s “Thurby” events), Verizon said it saw a total of 14.27 TB of traffic, meaning that this year’s events handily surpassed last year’s combined-carrier mark of 20.15 TB. In the venue, wireless carriers run on a DAS deployed by Mobilitie.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, DAS, Horse Racing, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,
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