Paul Kapustka – Page 69

ExteNet acquires Dallas-based TPI, which provides DAS infrastructure to AT&T Stadium

May 11, 2016 by Paul Kapustka

More consolidation in the in-building wireless marketplace happened today with the announcement that Lisle, Ill.-based ExteNet Systems acquired Dallas-based Telecommunications Properties, Inc., (TPI) in a deal whose terms were not disclosed.

ExteNet, which runs DAS systems in many venues like Miami’s Marlins Park, was acquired itself last year by telecom investment group Digital Bridge Holdings and Stonepeak Partners in a deal that wound up being worth $1.4 billion. Since we haven’t heard from ExteNet yet it’s unclear if some of those funds went to acquire TPI, which among other clients runs the DAS at AT&T Stadium, as we found out when TPI’s president Jimmy Chiles posted a comment to one of our reports about AT&T Stadium.

From the sounds of the press release, not much will change on the TPI end except the company control and maybe the logo. From the release:

ExteNet will undertake maintenance operations responsibilities for all existing TPI networks. Properties and venues in TPI’s portfolio currently include Madison Square Garden, the LA Forum, AT&T Stadium (home of the Dallas Cowboys), the KFC YUM Arena and the Kentucky Exposition Center, among others.

More as we hear more…

Filed Under: 4G LTE, DAS Tagged With: AT&T Stadium, DAS, ExteNet Systems, Mobile Sports Report, Paul Kapustka, TPI

AmpThink brings Wi-Fi to Mall of America: So far, 486 TB of data used by 320K unique clients

May 10, 2016 by Paul Kapustka

Bloomington, Minn.-based Mall of America. Photos: Mall of America Instagram page.

Lately the sports stadium technology business has seen some big wireless-usage events, like Super Bowl 50, WrestleMania 32 and the Kentucky Derby, where fans keep setting records with terabytes of wireless use. We know it’s not a stadium, but now that we have some stats from the new Wi-Fi network AmpThink installed at the Mall of America, prepare yourself for a new level of consumption: How does 486 TB of traffic used by 319,995 unique clients over 793,750 total wireless sessions grab you?

Granted, not all this traffic happened in a single day during a single event (it’s the total since the network went live just before Thanksgiving in 2015) but still — we’ve always said that the large-crowd connectivity problems seen in stadiums would likely be replicated in many other large public venues like convention centers, casinos and malls — and now, thanks to AmpThink, we have some proof.

We haven’t yet visited the Bloomington, Minn.-based Mall of America, which calls itself the Nation’s Largest Mall even though according to Wikipedia it is the second-largest shopping mall in the country behind the King of Prussia Mall outside Philadelphia. (If there’s a mall-size expert out there, please let us know the stats.) Bottom line: Mall of America is huge, as it has an in-mall amusement park and the multiple levels of indoor shopping, which seem to make sense in Minnesota, where it can get brutally cold in wintertime and hot in the summer. It also seems to make sense that people will increasingly want Internet connectivity while shopping, for both economical reasons (how many of you have searched the price of something on your phone while at the mall?) as well as standard reasons while at a large public venue like help getting around, finding things like parking, restaurants and friends.

Old Met Stadium site gets new Wi-Fi… and Cisco StadiumVision

So on the site of the old Metropolitan Stadium in the Twin Cities, there’s now a Cisco-based Wi-Fi network which, if the stats mentioned above are any proof, is quite popular with shoppers. According to AmpThink, the network covering the mall’s 5.6 million square feet of space uses more than 600 Wi-Fi access points in addition to 236,600 feet of CAT6 cable, and 7,920 feet of fiber optic cable. Though we’re guessing that a mall may have infrastructure that allows for easier deployment of antennas, and not as much interference issues as a bowl-shaped stadium, apparently there was some new thinking necessary to cover the multiple mall levels with connectivity.

Minnesota Vikings cheer team tryouts at the mall.

“The Wi-Fi network we built for the Mall is not just big, but complex,” said Bill Anderson, President of AmpThink, in a prepared statement. “Our Radio Frequency engineers were challenged to develop new methods to calibrate frequencies in order to optimize performance for shoppers as they move in a massive space that has four distinct shopping levels and a large administrative level.”

And again — while it’s not a stadium the mall is taking advantage of technologies honed in the crucible of stadium use, including Cisco’s StadiumVision system for digital displays, which in a mall situation most likely has multiple uses for its ability to have centralized control of content being pushed out to the TV-like displays throughout the facility. AmpThink also said its management of the network includes use of Cisco’s Connected Mobile Experiences (CMX) to enable the mall to use things like device location data for customer engagement and analytic insights, such as the stat that mall guests who use the Wi-Fi network are staying for an average of 3.5 hours per visit to the mall.

With 40 million annual guests, we can’t wait to see the year-long Wi-Fi stats when they are totaled up. For now, it seems like the mall is happy with its choice of technology deployers:

“AmpThink has been a key partner in facilitating the connected experience for our guests at Mall of America”, said Jill Renslow, SVP of Marketing and Business Development at Mall of America, in a prepared statement. “Their industry experience and relationships were instrumental for our Wi-Fi installation, and we look forward to additional growth in innovation and a continued partnership with their team.”

Any other big malls out there with new Wi-Fi installs? Let us know!

UPDATE: Thanks to Andrew vonNagy of Revolution Wi-Fi LLC for the MoA Wi-Fi pictures below!

Filed Under: Wi-Fi Tagged With: AmpThink, Bloomington, Cisco, Mall of America, Minnesota Vikings, Mobile Sports Report, Paul Kapustka, Wi-Fi

Cellular use tops 12 TB for Kentucky Derby day — 20 TB+ for Derby weekend

May 9, 2016 by Paul Kapustka

Race winner Nyquist. Photo: KentuckDerby.com

Wireless data use at Saturday’s Kentucky Derby broke records all around, as major wireless carriers AT&T and Verizon Wireless both reported new event-usage top totals, with AT&T seeing 6.7 terabytes of data use while Verizon recorded 5.5 TB, for a total of 12.2 TB used during the Run for the Roses day. Last year, AT&T saw 5.1 TB of traffic on the Churchill Downs DAS and some extra infrastructure, while Verizon saw its total increase from 3.8 TB in 2015. Both AT&T and Verizon are on the main Churchill Downs DAS, which is run by neutral-host provider Mobilitie. This number will likely get even bigger if and when we get DAS stats from T-Mobile, which is also on the Churchill Downs DAS.

For the entire “Derby weekend” — a two-day stretch that also includes the Kentucky Oaks race on Friday — the carriers saw a combined 20.15 TB of data, with AT&T hitting 11.4 TB for the weekend and Verizon 8.75. Those totals are pretty stunning, when you realize that just two years ago AT&T only saw 2 TB of traffic on its DAS and associated infrastructure (which includes temporary cell towers on trucks and nearby macro towers), and Verizon customers used just 1.37 TB of data.

More evidence of wireless traffic growth can be found in the AT&T claim that it saw 815 GB of traffic on its network in a single hour last Saturday, easily the high number ever for AT&T at any kind of event. AT&T said that peak hour was from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern time, when the big race was held and favorite Nyquist won. In 2014, that peak hour for AT&T saw 180 GB of traffic, a number that we thought was big then. Verizon, which like AT&T added capacity to its infrastructure at Churchill Downs prior to this year’s race, also said it saw a traffic spike around the time of the big event. By comparison, AT&T said that at this year’s Super Bowl 50 at Levi’s Stadium it saw 201 GB of traffic on its DAS network just after kickoff.

When it comes to DAS the Derby now falls just behind the Super Bowl for DAS totals with 12.2 TB to 15.9 TB, though the Derby number could get closer if and when we get numbers from T-Mobile and Sprint. And yes, granted it’s a much bigger crowd (the Derby had its second-highest attendance ever with 167,227 — just a few thousand less than the record of 170,513 set last year. We also don’t have any stats yet for usage of the new Churchill Downs app, but it does appear betting was up this year, maybe due to app integration?

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, DAS, VenueNext, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: 4G LTE, AT&T, Churchill Downs, DAS, Kentucky Derby, Levi's Stadium, Mobile Sports Report, Mobilitie, Paul Kapustka, Verizon Wireless

Cavs, Budweiser and YinzCam bring virtual reality experiment to Cleveland fans

May 4, 2016 by Paul Kapustka

Fan testing the virtual-reality headset at Quicken Loans Arena. All photos: Cleveland Cavaliers

Approximately 750 fans were able to use the Cleveland Cavaliers’ stadium app and some cardboard headsets to get a virtual-reality experience while at Quicken Loans Arena for Wednesday’s playoff game between the Cavs and the Atlanta Hawks, according to the team.

Since we weren’t at the Q we couldn’t see the videos but according to the Cavs there was some VR content available Wednesday night via the YinzCam-developed team app, which if you were lucky to get one of the 750 promotional headsets that were given away, you could insert your phone and have a true, turn-the-head feel to the VR content, according to the team. Other fans could simply view the VR content on their phones, even without the headsets, the Cavs said.

Though there was no live VR content available, the canned-video experiment is just another leading-edge innovation for the Cavs at Quicken Loans Arena, one of the most technology-forward sports arenas around. According to the team it plans to repeat the VR experiment at some future playoff games, with another 1,500 Budweiser-branded headsets to give away.

Screenshot of Cavs app showing VR content tab

Cleverly, the headset “easily transforms into a handy Budweiser beer holder,” according to a press release.

“We’re always looking for new ways to connect with our fans by leveraging emerging technologies that deliver unique experiences. VR was a logical next step and an area we’re excited to explore,” said Mike Conley, Cavs VP of Digital, in a prepared statement. “The technology has endless opportunity and thanks to our partnership with Budweiser and Yinzcam, we’ve been able to get a head start in the emerging VR space with the new video content available on the Cavs App.”

No word yet on how well the headsets worked (as viewing devices or beer holders) or how many fans viewed the VR content, but it is at the very least a sign that VR may be closer to mainstream than you think, and that for savvy teams it can be an easy way to add a very visible sponsorship. Oh and by the way the Cavs also destroyed the Hawks 123-98, going up 2-0 in their series.

Here’s what the VR content looked like (kinda) in a 2D version

Filed Under: Apps, Atlanta Hawks, Basketball, NBA, YinzCam Tagged With: Apps, Budweiser, Cleveland Cavaliers, Mobile Sports Report, NBA, Paul Kapustka, Quicken Loans Arena, Virtual Reality, VR, VR headsets, YinzCam

First round of NHL playoffs saw 8.6 TB of data used on AT&T networks

May 3, 2016 by Paul Kapustka

They’re smaller than football stadiums so hockey arenas aren’t going to generate wireless-data numbers as big as we’ve seen at events like the Super Bowl. But according to AT&T, wireless data use by NHL fans at playoff time took a big leap forward in the first round of the Stanley Cup action, with an average 41 percent increase in data use versus regular-season games at the same venues.

In total, AT&T said it saw more than 8.6 terabytes of wireless data used on its cellular networks at venues hosting first-round NHL playoff games, with an average of 191 GB used at each game. Winning the highest-average data contest was the Dallas Stars, whose fans used more than 379 GB per game during the first round games in American Airlines Center. In a statement that clearly needed a copy editor with sense and facts, AT&T said that the second-place Philadelphia Flyers, who play in a city that is “home of the country’s most passionate sports fans,” averaged 267 GB per game. In Chicago, where the defending Stanley Cup Champion Blackhawks took their series to a Game 7, THE most passionate sports fans used an average of 270 GB per game.

Remember, these are only AT&T stats for users on AT&T networks. And anytime the Philly-loving AT&T folks want to talk about passionate sports fans, they know where to find me. We can watch tapes of the Blackhawks-Flyers Stanley Cup finals together while we converse.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, DAS, NHL, Stanley Cup Tagged With: AT&T, Chicago Blackhawks, DAS, NHL, Stanley Cup

Churchill Downs picks VenueNext for new Kentucky Derby app

April 29, 2016 by Paul Kapustka

Screenshot of new Kentucky Derby app built by VenueNext for Churchill Downs.

Fans at this year’s Kentucky Derby will be able to find their way around historic Churchill Downs and place bets on races via a new venue mobile app, designed by VenueNext, the app developer for Levi’s Stadium and other football, baseball and basketball teams.

Most of the standard features of the VenueNext app platform, including interactive wayfinding and digital ticketing support, will be available to all fans for the May 7 Derby Day, according to Churchill Downs Racetrack general manager Ryan Jordan. Additionally, a small number of premium-seat ticketholders will be able to order food and drink for delivery to their seats via the app, a sort of “beta test” of one of the other VenueNext app services that Jordan said Churchill Downs plans to expand for future races.

“We’re very excited to roll this app out” on Derby Day, said Jordan in a phone interview. Though the racetrack has previously had some mobile apps, Jordan said they were mainly focused on the social element of the event, with links back to the Derby website. The VenueNext-powered app infrastructure, he said, “really translates well to our venue and we think will significantly improve the fan experience at the Kentucky Derby.”

Ryan Jordan, general manager, Churchill Downs

For VenueNext, the big-name deal is its first outside of stadium sports, and the sixth app deal overall, following deals for apps for the San Francisco 49ers, the Dallas Cowboys, the New York Yankees, the Orlando Magic and the Minnesota Vikings. VenueNext also designed a special Levi’s Stadium app for the recent Super Bowl 50.

Wayfinding, betting, and more

One of the top features from the VenueNext app package that “excites” Jordan is the app’s ability to use a beacon infrastructure to support a live interactive wayfinding map, where app users can track themselves in “blue dot” fashion similar to Google maps for driving. Since Churchill Downs is an old, sprawling facility, Jordan said that helping fans find their way was always a challenge.

“There’s been 142 years of building this place out, and it’s not like a bowl stadium where you can just keep walking in a circle to find things,” Jordan said. “To be able to use a mobile app to find your seats, find your car after the race, and find amenities like betting windows is very exciting. We have lots of signage, but there are lots of different buildings and signs, and it can be hard to find your way around.”

For several years now, the Derby has been building its own mobile betting app, which allows fans to place bets from anywhere at the track. That app, called Twinspires, is now also integrated within the new VenueNext app, which means that fans don’t have to exit and find another app to place wagers.

Wayfinding map screenshot

To make sure fans can stay connected anywhere on the grounds, Churchill Downs and partners Mobilitie and AT&T upgraded the venue’s DAS again this offseason, adding more capacity for AT&T 4G LTE services. Though Churchill Downs does have a small amount of Wi-Fi for the main buildings like the clubhouse and the towers, Jordan said that service is mainly for race days other than the big event.

“For regular race days [when fans are mostly in the main buildings] we may have 10,000 to 20,000 people here,” Jordan said. “For the Derby, we will have 170,000.”

Starting slow with food delivery

Also included in the app is the ability for fans to order food and drink to be delivered to their seats, or to be picked up at an express window at a nearby concession stand. Jordan said that during the offseason Churchill Downs retrofitted several kitchen areas to support the delivery and express pickup options, but that the track will start small with the service and expand from there. In addition to the Turf Club and its 500 seats where delivery will be an option, another 15 sections of seats will be able to use the app for express pickup orders, Jordan said.

“There’s a lot of employee training and infrastructure [for deliveries] that’s new to us,” said Jordan, explaining the start-slow approach. “The good news is, there’s lots of opportunity to keep expanding as we go.”

(more app screenshots below)

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Apps, AT&T, DAS, Levi's Stadium, Sports Betting, Wi-Fi Tagged With: 4G LTE, AT&T, Churchill Downs, DAS, Horse Racing, Kentucky Derby, Kentucky Oaks, Levi's Stadium, Mobile Sports Report, Paul Kapustka, Sports betting on mobile devices, VenueNext, Wi-Fi