Comcast – Page 3

New Report: State of the art Wi-Fi network at Braves’ new SunTrust Park

June 22, 2017 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

MOBILE SPORTS REPORT is pleased to announce the Summer 2017 issue of our STADIUM TECH REPORT series, the ONLY in-depth publication created specifically for the stadium technology professional and the stadium technology marketplace.

In addition to our historical in-depth profiles of successful stadium technology deployments, our second issue for 2017 has additional news and analysis, including a look at how the business model for DAS deployments is changing. Download your FREE copy today!

Inside the report our editorial coverage also includes:
— SunTrust Park first look: A review of sizzling network performance at the new home of the Atlanta Braves;
— Coors Field profile: A look at how the Wi-Fi network at “old” Coors Field is still serving fans with solid performance;
— Westfield Century City Mall profile: A close look at a new Wi-Fi network and other digital services emerging at an extensive renovation of this historic Los Angeles shopping center;
— Additional profiles of a new DAS deployment at Sonoma Raceway and new Wi-Fi for Red Bull Arena!

Download your free copy today!

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Apps, AT&T, Baseball, Cisco, Comcast, DAS, iPhone, Levi's Stadium, Major League Baseball, MLS, MSR Guides, NASCAR, Red Bull, Soccer, Sprint, Super Bowl, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi, Xfinity, YinzCam Tagged With: 4G LTE, Atlanta Braves, Cisco, Colorado Rockies, Coors Field, DAS, MLB, MLBAM, Mobile Sports Report, NASCAR, New York Red Bulls, Paul Kapustka, Stadium Wi-Fi, SunTrust Park, Verizon Wireless, Westfield Century City, Wi-Fi

New Report: New Wi-Fi, app and digital displays for San Jose Sharks’ SAP Center

April 3, 2017 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

MOBILE SPORTS REPORT is pleased to announce the Spring 2017 issue of our STADIUM TECH REPORT series, the ONLY in-depth publication created specifically for the stadium technology professional and the stadium technology marketplace.

Our profiles for this issue include a first-look visit to the San Jose Sharks’ newly wired SAP Center, where a Cisco Wi-Fi and StadiumVision network (deployed by AmpThink) has brought high-definition connectivity to the old familiar “Shark Tank.” We also have a profile of new DAS and Wi-Fi deployments at the Utah Jazz’s Vivint Smart Home Arena, as well as a recap of the wireless record-setting day at Super Bowl LI at Houston’s NRG Stadium. Plus, our first “Industry Voices” contribution, a great look at the history and progression of Wi-Fi stadium networks from AmpThink’s Bill Anderson. DOWNLOAD YOUR COPY today!

We’d also like to invite you to join in our first-ever “live interview” webinar, which will take place next Tuesday at 11 a.m. Pacific Time, 2 p.m. Eastern time. All the details are here, so register now and listen in next week for more in-depth views from Vivint Smart Home Arena, and their technology partners, Boingo and SOLiD.

We’d like to take a quick moment to thank our sponsors, which for this Stadium Tech Report issue include Mobilitie, Crown Castle, SOLiD, CommScope, Corning, Huber+Suhner, American Tower, and Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company. Their generous sponsorship makes it possible for us to offer this content free of charge to our readers. We’d also like to welcome new readers from the Inside Towers community, who may have found their way here via our new partnership with the excellent publication Inside Towers. We’d also like to thank our growing list of repeat readers for your continued interest and support.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Apps, AT&T, Basketball, Cisco, Comcast, DAS, Golden State Warriors, MSR Guides, NBA, NHL, Oracle, San Jose Sharks, SAP, VenueNext, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi Tagged With: 4G LTE, AmpThink, Apps, AT&T, Bill Anderson, Boingo, Cisco, DAS, Extreme Networks, Mobile Sports Report, NBA, NFL, Paul Kapustka, San Jose Sharks, SAP Center, SOLiD, Stadium Wi-Fi, Super Bowl, Utah Jazz, VenueNext, Verizon Wireless, Vivint Smart Home Arena, Wi-Fi

Comcast brings new 3-Gig backbone to Memphis Grizzlies’ FedExForum

March 14, 2017 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

Comcast Business, which has sponsored the backbone bandwidth to many sports arenas, announced that it has installed a new 3-gigabit fiber backbone to the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies’ FedExForum, which will support the already-existing fan-facing Wi-Fi network at the stadium.

According to our past research, the FedExForum Wi-Fi used to be supported by a wide-area wireless link provided by Ubiquiti, the firm that Grizzlies owner Robert Pera is CEO of. We are guessing here but we suspect that the fan-facing Wi-Fi will soon have a new SSID name of xfinitywifi, the SSID used by Comcast in other arenas where it provides backbone services.

Though we haven’t updated our specific information since our original report, news reports today claiming that Comcast is supplying Wi-Fi to FedExForum for the first time are incorrect. According to Comcast, under the new deal Comcast will also provide internet service and other communications services for the team’s front office operations.

Filed Under: AT&T, Basketball, Comcast, NBA, Wi-Fi Tagged With: 4G LTE, AT&T, FedExForum, Memphis Grizzlies, Mobile Sports Report, NBA, Paul Kapustka, Robert Pera, Stadium Wi-Fi, Ubiquiti, Wi-Fi

Sacramento Kings’ Golden 1 Center will use really fast fiber technology from CommScope

September 6, 2016 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

Fiber cabling inside the Golden 1 Center data center. Credit: CommScope / Golden 1 Center

Since the Sacramento Kings are already talking about bandwidth-hogging applications like virtual reality replays for fans who visit the new Golden 1 Center, it’s perhaps no surprise that the venue will also have some of the fastest, highest capacity fiber network technology at its core.

On Tuesday, the Kings and network infrastructure provider CommScope announced that Golden 1 Center will be the first place to employ something called wideband multimode fiber, or WBMMF in the world of tech acronyms. Without getting too deep into fiber optics details it might be enough for most to know that WBMMF, a new developing standard in the cabling infrastructure world, lets you send more stuff over fewer fibers, an advancement developed mainly for the data center world but one that will also benefit places that expect to move a lot of data around, like Golden 1 Center.

Back in the old days, it was news when stadium networks upgraded to 1-gigabit per second pipes coming in to provide bandwidth. These days, many stadiums are talking multiple 10-gig pipes and even looking at 100-gig pipes (like Golden 1 Center will use from Comcast), meaning that the internal networks also need to get faster and wider to handle the never-ending increases in data use.

Golden 1 Center nears completion. Credit: Golden 1 Center

Before its scheduled October opening we are sure we’ll hear more about the fan-facing Wi-Fi and DAS network deployments, but it’s worthwhile to acknowledge that the underlying core network at Golden 1 Center should be able to handle data expansion for the foreseeable future thanks to the choice of the latest in fiber technology.

John Schmidt, vice president for CommScope’s Data Center solutions team, said the WBMMF products are primarily targeted at the data center market; but he also noted that with its own 6,000-square-foot data center, Golden 1 Center qualifies as the kind of place that will need the kind of future-proofing WBMMF can provide.

When the plans for Golden 1 Center were first talked about publicly, Schmidt said CommScope reached out to the Kings with a pitch about using the latest fiber technology in the core.

“It was clear they wanted something state of the art, with a great fan [network] experience,” Schmidt said. “We told them we could help with the physical layer, to support the bandwidth they would need.”

Filed Under: Comcast, DAS, NBA, Wi-Fi Tagged With: cabling, CommScope, DAS, data center, fiber optics, Golden 1 Center, Mobile Sports Report, NBA, Paul Kapustka, Sacramento Kings, Stadium Wi-Fi, Vivek Ranadive, WBMMF, Wi-Fi

NRG Stadium Wi-Fi ‘soft launches’ at Texans preseason game

August 26, 2016 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

The Houston Texans gave their fans more to cheer about with a 16-9 preseason victory over the New Orleans Saints last Saturday, but what might have made a lot of people happy at NRG Stadium was the unofficial debut of the stadium’s new Wi-Fi network, which was available in a sort of “soft launch” mode.

We say “sort of,” because according to people who were at the game there was pretty heavy promotion of the new network’s availability, with bandwidth sponsor Comcast distributing flyers in seat cup-holders as well as making in-stadium announcements about the wireless connectivity. NRG Stadium had been one of the few NFL venues without Wi-Fi, but with the Super Bowl headed to Houston at the end of this season installing Wi-Fi became a priority.

Starting after the Final Four concluded this past spring, integrator 5 Bars and Wi-Fi gear provider Extreme Networks got busy, eventually installing approximately 1,250 Wi-Fi APs inside NRG Stadium. According to 5 Bars representatives, many of the APs in the seating bowl were installed under the seats, a deployment method that is becoming a trend in larger stadiums.

Though we don’t have any stats yet (since the network isn’t really “officially” launched) we did hear from network sources that there was a good uptake on the system, and we are looking forward to watching the Wi-Fi’s performance this season leading up to Super Bowl 51 in February. If any fans out there hit another Texans game anytime soon, send us a speedtest of the Wi-Fi!

Filed Under: Comcast, Extreme Networks, NFL, Super Bowl, Wi-Fi Tagged With: Extreme Networks, Houston, Houston Texans, Mobile Sports Report, NFL, NRG Stadium, Paul Kapustka, Stadium Wi-Fi, Super Bowl, Super Bowl 51, Wi-Fi

Comcast bringing backbone bandwith to NRG Stadium Wi-Fi

August 18, 2016 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

Free Wi-Fi is something Houston Texans fans will be able to cheer about this season at NRG Stadium. Credit: HoustonTexans.com

With the new Wi-Fi network just getting ready to go live at Houston’s NRG Stadium, Comcast announced that it will provide backbone bandwidth to the network under a sponsorship deal, with two 100-gig pipes that will both be available to the stadium facility.

Michael Bybee, a Houston-based director of external affairs for Comcast, said the company has a large fiber network throughout the Houston area, and a longtime relationship with the NFL’s Texans, making the network sponsorship deal a great fit. Comcast supplies (or will soon supply) similar broadband bandwidth to a number of other large stadiums, including the San Francisco 49ers’ Levi’s Stadium, the Sacramento Kings’ new Golden 1 Center, the Atlanta Braves’ new SunTrust Park, the Denver Broncos’ Sports Authority Field, the Detroit Tigers’ Comerica Park, the Tennessee Titans’ Nissan Field and the Oakland A’s Oakland Coliseum, among others.

In Houston, where integrator 5 Bars is installing a new Wi-Fi network using Extreme Networks gear ahead of next February’s Super Bowl 51, Bybee said Comcast will have two 100-gigabit per second pipes coming into the stadium, where they will feed a main 10-Gbps circuit for the regular-season NFL Wi-Fi needs. Should the stadium require more circuits, Bybee said, the facility will be able to “seamlessly add additional circuits” given the surplus of bandwidth supplied by the 100-Gbps pipes.

Though there hasn’t yet been an official announcement of the network being ready for public use, sources tell us that fans at Saturday’s preseason game between the Texans and the New Orleans Saints should finally find fan-facing Wi-Fi (look for the xfinitywifi SSID), an amenity that had been missing at NRG Stadium in the past. Anyone who goes to the game — send us a speed test!

Filed Under: Comcast, Extreme Networks, Levi's Stadium, NFL, Super Bowl, Wi-Fi Tagged With: 5 Bars, Extreme Networks, Houston Texans, Levi's Stadium, Mobile Sports Report, NFL, NRG Stadium, Paul Kapustka, Stadium Wi-Fi, Super Bowl, Wi-Fi

New Report: State of the art Wi-Fi network at Braves’ new SunTrust Park

New Report: New Wi-Fi, app and digital displays for San Jose Sharks’ SAP Center

Comcast brings new 3-Gig backbone to Memphis Grizzlies’ FedExForum

Sacramento Kings’ Golden 1 Center will use really fast fiber technology from CommScope

NRG Stadium Wi-Fi ‘soft launches’ at Texans preseason game

Comcast bringing backbone bandwith to NRG Stadium Wi-Fi

Sign up for our Email Newsletter

Search the MSR Site

e-reports