AT&T beefs up DAS at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium ahead of College Football Playoff championship

Tampa's Raymond James Stadium. DAS antennas visible on light standards. Photos credit: AT&T

Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium. DAS antennas visible on light standards. Photos credit: AT&T

With the college football playoff championship game coming to Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium on Jan. 9, 2017, it’s no surprise that wireless carriers like AT&T have been beefing up coverage in and around the venue ahead of what is historically one of the biggest wireless-use events in sports.

According to our unofficial list, the last two college football playoff games rank fifth and sixth overall in the list of “most Wi-Fi used for a single-day event,” trailing only the last two Super Bowls, WrestleMania 32 and a Texas A&M home game against Alabama. (Note to stadium IT types: If you have a recent event that should be on our list, let us know!) DAS stats from the CFP championship games were also among the top usage totals for single-day events, with such numbers still growing year to year.

DAS antenna visible on red stanchion

DAS antenna visible on red stanchion

For this year’s game at the home of the NFL’s Buccaneers, AT&T said it had increased coverage via the stadium’s DAS by 400 percent, now up to a total of 452 antennas inside the venue. In and around town, AT&T said it had invested more than $9 million in new improvements, including 20 new or enhanced cell sites, ahead of the playoff championship weekend. In addition, AT&T will be deploying 2 cell on wheels or COWs during the event.

MSR TOP 3 TOTAL USAGE

1. Super Bowl 50, Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara, Calif., Feb. 7, 2016: Wi-Fi: 10.1 TB; DAS: 15.9 TB; Total: 26 TB
2. Super Bowl XLIX, University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, Ariz., Feb. 1, 2015: Wi-Fi: 6.23 TB; DAS: 6.56 TB**; Total: 12.79 TB**
3. WrestleMania 32, AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas, April 3, 2016: Wi-Fi: 6.77 TB; DAS: 1.9 TB*; Total: 8.6 TB*

* = AT&T DAS stats only
** = AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint DAS stats only

MSR TOP 5 FOR WI-FI

1. Super Bowl 50, Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara, Calif., Feb. 7, 2016: Wi-Fi: 10.1 TB
2. WrestleMania 32, AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas, April 3, 2016: Wi-Fi: 6.77 TB
3. Super Bowl XLIX, University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, Ariz., Feb. 1, 2015: Wi-Fi: 6.23 TB
4. Alabama vs. Texas A&M, Kyle Field, College Station, Texas, Oct. 17, 2015: Wi-Fi: 5.7 TB
5. College Football Playoff championship game, AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas, Jan. 12, 2015: Wi-Fi: 4.93 TB

Stadium Tech Report: Arizona Cardinals get stadium ready for Super Bowl with Wi-Fi upgrade

University of Phoenix Stadium. Credit all photos: Arizona Cardinals.

University of Phoenix Stadium. Credit all photos: Arizona Cardinals. (click on photos for larger image)

As they get set to host their second Super Bowl this February, the IT team at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., knows now what they didn’t know then: The big game requires a big wireless network. Bigger than you think.

“It’s funny to look back now on that first Super Bowl,” said Mark Feller, vice president of information technology for the Arizona Cardinals, speaking of Roman numeral game XLII, held in the barely 2-year-old facility on Feb. 3, 2008. With a couple Fiesta Bowls and one BCS championship game (2007) under his belt in a facility that opened with Wi-Fi and DAS, Feller said he and his team “thought we had a good handle” on what kind of network was required for a Super Bowl crowd.

The NFL, he said, begged to differ. Those college games might have been big, but the Super Bowl was bigger.

“We had the Fiesta Bowl that year at night, and when the game was over there were people from the NFL there wanting to know when they could set up,” said Feller in a recent phone interview. “This year, we’re much better prepared. We know what the water temperature is this time.”

Rip and replace, with more and better gear

Wi-Fi railing antennas

Wi-Fi railing antennas

For Super Bowl XLIX, scheduled to take place in Glendale on Feb. 1, 2015, Feller and his team have not just tuned up their network — they have done a full rip and replace of the Wi-Fi system, installing new Cisco gear from back end to front, in order to support a wireless game-day demand that is historically second to none. Integrator CDW has led the Wi-Fi effort and Daktronics and ProSound did the installation of new video screens, and neutral host Crown Castle has overseen a revamp of the DAS system, again with more antennas added to bolster coverage. In all, there has been more than $8 million in wireless improvements before this year, Feller said, as well as another $10 million for two new video boards that are each three times larger than what was there before.

“The last three or four years there have been things we knew we needed to improve [before the Super Bowl],” Feller said. After extensive work with the NFL’s technical team — this time well before the Fiesta Bowl — Feller oversaw a “top to bottom” refurbishment that included replacing core Cisco networking gear with newer gear, and new and more Wi-Fi access points that now total somewhere north of the 750 mark, with some more to be added before the big game. The new network, which was in place for the start of the current NFL season, has undergone testing by CDW at each home game, Feller said. CDW also plans to expand the network outside the stadium before the Super Bowl, in part to handle the extra events that take place not just on game day but in the days leading up to the game.

“The plan is to install more [coverage] outside, in the plaza areas,” Feller said.

When it opened in 2006, the $455 million University of Phoenix Stadium was one of the first with full-bowl Wi-Fi, using Cisco gear from the inside out. “Cisco was in here before they called it [their solution] ‘connected stadium’,” Feller said. From core network switches to firewalls to edge switches, this year there is all new Cisco gear in the venue, as well as new 3700 series APs, with panel antennas and antennas in handrails.

“Handrail [antennas] are sometimes a bit of a challenge, because you need to drill through concrete that’s 40 feet up in the air, behind another ceiling,” said Feller, describing one particular design challenge. Another one was mounting antennas on drop rods from the catwalks below the stadium’s retractable roof, to serve the upper-area seating. There are also some new Wi-Fi APs on the front row of the seating bowl, pointing up into the crowd.

“It was a fun project,” Feller said.

Stadium with roof open

Stadium with roof open

All on board for the DAS

The upgrade for the stadium’s DAS, led by Crown Castle, was just finished a few weeks ago, Feller said, and included more coverage outside the stadium as well, with antennas placed on light poles and on the stadium’s shell.

“Crown Castle did a great job of managing the carriers” on what is a 48-sector DAS, Feller said. “It [the upgrade] really required a lot of creative thinking from their engineers.”

Since the stadium was originally designed with wireless in mind, Feller and his team didn’t need to build new head end room for the DAS upgrades. “But I wouldn’t say we have plenty of space left,” he added. “We’ve got a lot of new equipment.”

Though all the major carriers are expected to be on the DAS by the big game, league partner Verizon Wireless should have some special projects up its sleeve for the big game, including another demonstration of its LTE Broadcast technology, which optimizes things like live video over LTE cellular links.

New Cardinals app a preview of Super Bowl version?

The Cardinals also had a new version of the game-day team app for this season, built by stadium-app leader YinzCam. According to Feller the new app supports three different live video feeds, as well as instant replays.

Wi-Fi antenna on railing

Wi-Fi antenna on railing

“It’s really cool to have that ability to watch things like a touchdown pass at the end of the game,” Feller said. And while no details have yet been revealed, in an interview with NFL CIO Michelle McKenna-Doyle earlier this year MSR learned that the league and YinzCam are working on a Super Bowl app with its own new bells and whistles. (Stay tuned for more info on the Super Bowl app.)

In addition to two more regular-season home games in December, the University of Phoenix Stadium will have at least a couple more dry runs to help test the network, during the Dec. 31 Fiesta Bowl and during the NFL’s Pro Bowl, scheduled for Jan. 25. And though the Cardnials lost to the Atlanta Falcons Sunday, at 9-3 they are still tied with the Green Bay Packers for the best record in the NFC, something that has the Phoenix faithful optimistic about the postseason.

“We’re going to get some more test runs, on New Year’s Eve and during the Pro Bowl,” Feller said. “And maybe some home playoff games as well!”

(more photos below)

Wi-Fi antenna in roof rafters

Wi-Fi antenna in roof rafters

More antennas in rafters

More antennas in rafters

Wi-Fin antenna under overhang

Wi-Fi antenna under overhang

CBS to stream entire 2014 SEC football schedule online and via app

If you’re one of those college football fans who simply can’t get enough SEC, CBS has you covered this season even if you’re not near a TV set. Starting with this weekend’s Georgia vs. South Carolina game, CBS said it will stream its entire schedule of SEC football games live online for free, and also through its Android and iOS apps. The online version of the broadcast, dubbed SEC Live, will also feature extras like an “all-22” overhead camera angle, and a special online postgame show.

The CBS slate of 16 SEC games is about one game a weekend, with a couple doubleheaders thrown in as well as the SEC championship game on Dec. 6. While the online streaming is not only convenient for those who want to watch games while away from their couch, it in many ways offers more features than the regular broadcast, with the multiple camera angles and other goodies like Twitter stream integration, player stats, highlights and polls. (Let’s see if CBS can fix the problem that plagues other online efforts, namely Twitter feeds that get ahead of the live video stream.)

The all-22 camera is one that adds a lot to football watching, especially for true football geeks who want to see plays unfold with coach-like access. ESPN had an all-22 camera among its options during the most recent BCS championship megacast. The inclusion of the multiple camera angles by CBS is good news, a signal that broadcasters are responding to fans’ wishes and using technology to answer the need. The entire package — especially the free nature of it, not requiring any cable contract qualification for access — is just another example of the savvy digital chops at CBS.

According to CBS, the SEC Live package each week will also include “a pregame show, a halftime show, and an original 5th Quarter postgame featuring analysis from CBS Sports’ lead college football analyst Gary Danielson.” We here at MSR are big fans of the postgame show with Danielson, which is sometimes conducted in a motorhome with a Skype-like feel. Good stuff.

Extreme, YinzCam team up for Baylor Wi-Fi and app deployment

Screen shot of proposed Baylor app

Screen shot of proposed Baylor app

When the new $260 million McLane Stadium at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, opens for this season it will have full-facility Wi-Fi and a custom mobile app, designed and deployed by a partnership between Wi-Fi gear and analytics provider Extreme Networks and app developer YinzCam.

In an announcement today, Extreme and YinzCam said fans in McLane Stadium will have access to real-time replays via the team’s new app, a functionality made possible by high-quality Wi-Fi. The network and app are expected to be live for the Baylor Bears’ first home game of the season, an Aug. 31 date with SMU. The stadium will also have a distributed antenna system (DAS) hosted by AT&T; according to Baylor, Verizon Wireless has already agreed to participate in the AT&T-hosted DAS.

While we are working on setting up an interview with the Baylor folks to hear more about their new stadium in general and their network in particular, here are some of the prepared quotes from the participants:

Pattie Orr, Vice President for Information Technology, Baylor University:

“2014 is a monumental season for Baylor University and Baylor Athletics as we officially open McLane Stadium and deliver our fans the ultimate fan experience. Using a hand-picked collection of innovative technology, Baylor fans will stay connected with the ultra-fast Wi-Fi network as well as a robust cellular distributed antenna system. Fans can direct their own mobile experience using our new Baylor In-Game application throughout the stadium.”

Norman Rice, Senior Vice President of Business Development, Extreme Networks:

“Baylor University is one of the pre-eminent academic and athletic institutions in the country and has put together one of the most exciting experiences in sports with the debut of McLane Stadium. Extreme Networks is proud to let our wireless technology extend the connectivity that fans and media consider a ‘must have’ whenever they attend a game.”

Priya Narasimhan, CEO and Founder, YinzCam:

“This is a major first in college sports. The Baylor In-Game App is pushing the envelope by being the first college athletics app to provide instant replays from multiple views to Baylor fans, right at their seats, at the new McLane Stadium.”

Stadium Tech Report: AT&T brings Wi-Fi and IPTV to Wisconsin’s Camp Randall Stadium

Screen Shot 2014-08-12 at 12.36.29 PMThe University of Wisconsin’s Camp Randall Stadium, a facility built before those things called telephones were in widespread use, is finally getting the technology it needs to let current-day mobile devices stay connected: A high-speed Wi-Fi network and a stadium-wide IPTV system, which will both be deployed by AT&T before the first kickoff this fall.

While few people probably had any kind of working telephone when Camp Randall was built in Madison, Wisc., in 1917, things are a lot different now, as most people own at least one mobile device. Prior to this season, visitors to the 80,321-seat Camp Randall experienced the frustration familiar to many who visit crowded public spaces: the dreaded “no signal” notice, or calls or texts that went nowhere.

“If you worked in the stadium, on game days it was hard to get online, or even send a text,” said Justin Doherty, Wisconsin’s associate athletic director for external relations, in a recent phone interview. According to Doherty, recent fan surveys showed that improving wireless service was a top request. After issuing an RFP, Wisconsin chose AT&T as its partner in the reported $6.2 million networking project, which will also include the deployment of 700 high-definition TV screens throughout the stadium. On the Wi-Fi side, AT&T will provide a 10 Gigabit backbone connection and will install approximately 750 Wi-Fi access points throughout the facility.

Wi-Fi access point at Camp Randall Stadium. Credit: University of Wisconsin

Wi-Fi access point at Camp Randall Stadium. Credit: University of Wisconsin

Combining Wi-Fi with DAS

Though AT&T executives have stated publicly that DAS can sometimes take care of all the connectivity needs in a stadium, the phone provider giant also said that installing DAS and Wi-Fi together can create “the optimal user experience” by allowing both technologies to do what they are best at. In the stadium network world, that usually means allowing DAS to handle simpler communications like phone calls and texts, while allowing Wi-Fi to handle heavier bandwidth loads, like streaming video.

In a somewhat interesting twist, AT&T — which has deployed numerous DAS systems in stadiums — does not run the DAS at Camp Randall Stadium. According to Doherty, the Camp Randall DAS is run by Crown Castle, with AT&T and Verizon as customers. The AT&T Wi-Fi installation, however, will significantly increase the amount of available wireless bandwidth, taking a lot of congestion away from the cellular network as a critical first task.

Beyond providing pure bandwidth, Wisconsin doesn’t yet have solid plans on how it expects to use the Wi-Fi network. Doherty said that innovative ideas like instant replay and food-ordering apps being installed at some other venues are things Wisconsin will be looking to deploy in the near future.

“There’s a lot on the plate, but we want to walk before we run,” Doherty said. “We’re going to be in a little bit of a learning mode [early on], trying to understand how to run the network. By the seventh game [this season] we should be a lot better.” According to Wisconsin and AT&T, the network is expected to be ready by the time of the first home game this season, Sept. 6 vs. Western Illinois.

AT&T taps Cisco for Wi-Fi and video

IPTV install at Camp Randall Stadium. Credit: University of Wisconsin

IPTV install at Camp Randall Stadium. Credit: University of Wisconsin

Though it wasn’t spelled out in the press release, Doherty said that AT&T will be using Cisco Wi-Fi hardware, along with Cisco’s StadiumVision system to provide the video feeds to the in-house digital displays. One of the features of the StadiumVision system that is of great interest to Doherty is the ability for administrators to split the screen in different ways, such as including an L-shaped advertising border around the edges. Though in the future that might be used to sell advertising, Doherty said Wisconsin will most likely use the displays to promote other sports.

“You might see a game feed on the main part of the screen, and then in the L-wrap area we might promote ticket sales for hockey games,” Doherty said. “We also might use it for social media feeds. We’re going to be heavy on internal messaging this fall.”

According to Doherty, the Wisconsin IT team scouted some other school and pro facilities to get ideas of how to best implement wireless deployments. Among the venues visited were the Rodgers Centre, home of the Toronto Blue Jays, and Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver, home of the Denver Broncos.

“All those people we visited were very helpful,” Doherty said. “You have to pull little pieces from what they have done, and make it your own.”

And then, you have to let the fans know that it’s OK to try to use their phones in one of the nation’s oldest sporting facilities.

“We want people to know the network is there, and we’re going to actively promote it,” Doherty said. “We’ll have signage and we have a good greeting services staff who will be armed with the information on how to get on the network. We’re going to do everything we can to get people connected.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post incorrectly identified Aruba Networks as the Wi-Fi gear provider for the Camp Randall Stadium project. MSR regrets the error.

Wi-Fi APs seen above the seating area. Credit: University of Wisconsin.

Wi-Fi APs seen above the seating area. Credit: University of Wisconsin.

ESPN the BCS winner with Megacast broadcast experiment

Side by side ESPN Megacast screens during BCS

Side by side ESPN Megacast screens during BCS

My favorite moment from Monday’s stupendously good BCS championship game came during a break at the start of the fourth quarter, when FSU quarterback Jameis Winston told his offensive teammates, one by one, that “you want it more” than Auburn. If you were watching the game on TV on the main ESPN feed, you missed this extremely cool exchange. But I saw it, and heard it, courtesy of the ESPN Megacast experiment.

My guess is that the Megacast experiment — in which ESPN used multiple broadcast channels to air different views and commentators on the game — was probably only experienced by a small amount of hard-core fans with digital chops. (And purported sports-site editors who call Jameis Winston “Wilson” in Twitter-speed error.) But I think it’s the wave of the future for big-event broadcasts, since it addresses the too-common problem of boring or annoying announcers and one single view of the action.

The bit where Winston was talking to his teammates came courtesy of the “Spidercam” channel, which simply showed fans what the robot camera that hovers above the field was seeing. What was unadvertised was the fact that that camera also has a microphone — in addition to the Wilson pep talk the spidercam caught coaching conversations on the sidelines during breaks, and also gave you a real in-the-arena feel of crowd noise. My new favorite digital sports moment came when I realized I could open more than one Megacast window and had the main feed running next to the spidercam feed on my desktop Mac. Nirvana. I felt like I was in the broadcast truck, deciding exactly how much info the audience of one — me — wanted to see.

Screen shot 2014-01-06 at 8.45.47 PMSome of the people I follow on Twitter really liked the channel that provided a panel of coaches watching and commenting on formations and things like that, a kind of chalk talk in real time. I wasn’t that thrilled with it because the coaches were all “aware” and tried to act too scholarly. A roundtable discussion channel had participants with a bit more life, but the “Fan Cam” channel was a fail, especially the FSU fan who looked like Zach Galifianakis — dude, you wore a red vest and texted for all of us to see?

Some other parts were hit and miss as well — the Goal Line channel had the excellent radio feed audio with Mike Tirico, and an instant replay after every play, which was great. But it also had two cameras that remained focused on the coaches, something I never need to see again in my lifetime. There was also a Spanish language feed and the home team radio feeds for each team, which I didn’t spend a lot of time on. Still, the breadth of choices was for me the amazing part and I hope it gets copied often and improved on.

I mean — imagine the possibilities! ESPN blew it by not having Jason Dufner and Charles Barkley, two Auburn alums who are hilarious, on some kind of screen or feed. Dufner’s Twitter feed during the game was 10 times more entertaining than the Fan Cam, and he was spot on in calling out the refs for missing multiple holding infractions on FSU. I also nominate the SB Nation crew to do a live commentary on their hilarious Brent Bingo if Musberger comes back for one more year on the title game crew.

You’ve also got to think that beer companies will get in on this act soon, showing R-rated commentary from sports humorists from some sponsor tent on site. The beauty of having multiple audio or complementary video feeds online is the cost of producing them has got to be a fraction of the cost that is already sunk for the main TV production. ESPN could pull this off for TV since it has multiple channels in ESPN2, ESPNU and the like. But any broadcaster could do this more easily by putting all the extras online only.

There were some apparent production glitches — viewing online, the different channels weren’t in sync, so if you tried my two-window experiment you quickly noticed that the spidercam was a few seconds ahead of Brent and Herbie. And the spidercam window could use a floating info-window that tells you down and distance, since it’s not always apparent from the behind-the-play angle the camera usually takes. Keep the live microphone, though! Moments like the one of Winston in the huddle are a priceless view into the games we care deeply about. And that, in my mind, makes the Megacast a win in its first time out. Well played, ESPN. Now everybody else, please copy it.

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