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TigerLogic seeks to drive fan engagement via social media

November 1, 2013 by

tiger

TigerLogic is charging into the collegiate sport scene with its social media platform Postano (meaning, ‘to post’ in Italian) a set of tools that will enable the school’s athletic departments to use fans’ social media posts to help promote the sports and school.

The company has already landed its platform at a number of schools, and at least one pro basketball team as well. Its customers see Postano as a way to engage fans not only at the events but in-between games as well. Among the early adopters are the University of Oregon and Arizona State University.

Postano is a flexible tool that can be adjusted to meet a school’s needs, according to the company. The goal is to enable schools to be able to present their teams in exactly the way they want them presented, down to the correct colors if somebody wants to paint their face school colors, said Tom O’Keefe, TigerLogic’s senior vice president of Social and Mobile.

The idea is pretty simple on the face of it: The company can provide a package of technology that allows the school to collect, curate and rebroadcast social media including posts from Instagram, Facebook, Vive and Twitter. They can be text, photos or video or combinations of these types of content.

Under Postano, the schools can create a media command center and then after the collection of the data they can display it in a variety of ways including on stadium scoreboards, or on displays set up for the purpose. Fans can see their own social conversations being broadcast while at the events. At the same time the schools can get a feel for the mood of the fan base by reviewing what is going on in the social media world.

Postano has created set packages specifically for college sports that include access to the following options: The Postano Social Hub, Postano Command Center, Postano Mobile and Postano Events and Social wall. It also will create customized features for its customers. The mobile platform supports both Apple’s iOS and the Android operating system.

One of the challenges that its technology faces is the inability of some stadiums to support large volumes of social media. Users can flood the grid bringing it to a halt. It does no good to try and engage fans if they cannot get a connection to post data.

While most major athletic conferences have signed away broadcasting and some digital media rights, the use of social media was not covered in these deals, and TigerLogic believes that this will be a major growth market for the company as schools use the media to further engage fans, O’Keefe said.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Android, Apple, Apps, DAS, Facebook, Instagram, iOS 7, Sports Social Media, Sports Social Media Data, Twitter Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Horned Frogs get AT&T Wi-Fi, DAS for TCU Stadium

October 25, 2013 by

In case you had any doubts that AT&T is serious about this whole wireless-in-stadiums market, we have yet another announcement: AT&T announced availability of a Wi-Fi and DAS network for Texas Christian University’s Amon G. Carter Stadium, located in Fort Worth (“Foat Wuth”). There’s also a mobile app available for Horned Frogs fans, complete with the Bypass Lane powered concessions ordering feature.

For a company that claimed it wasn’t doing Wi-Fi networks in stadiums anymore, AT&T has sure been busy launching them. I guess we can alter the “no Wi-Fi” plan to “we’ll put in Wi-Fi if we get to own the network.” For TCU, AT&T’s implementation looks pretty robust, with 345 Wi-Fi access points and another 140 DAS antennas. At 45,000+ seats, the TCU stadium is what you might call middle-big, but 345 APs and 140 DAS should do pretty well, especially with an AT&T operation behind the scene.

Looks like our friends from Cisco might have a win in purple-land too, since the AT&T press release said the facility also now has a StadiumVision deployment, bringing high-definition information to all the digital displays in the stadium. No mention of Cisco in the release, but that’s pretty standard. We’ll circle back with Cisco folks to see if they can shed more light.

If we were doing a BCS-type ranking for college stadium deployments, you’d have to make AT&T the Alabama equivalent at No. 1, right? Any Verizon networks going in at colleges that we haven’t heard about? Let us know…

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, Cisco, DAS, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

AT&T Bosox fans set wireless data records during World Series opener

October 24, 2013 by

It’s a bit of a broken record — another big sporting event, another huge wireless data usage event — but the numbers never fail to amaze me: According to our friends at AT&T, fans at Fenway Park Wednesday night set new records for wireless data usage during the Red Sox victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in the opening game of the 2013 World Series. How much data? Try 248 GB of data, bigger even than the Bosox’s Big Papi.

Mind you, none of these figures represent traffic that might have traversed over the Meru-supplied Wi-Fi network inside Fenway. The following figures are all from AT&T’s Distributed Antenna System (DAS) network, the collection of small cellular antennas that bring better connectivity to crowded public places. And this is only AT&T carried data, which means that the total of all wireless customers in the park is almost certainly a multiple larger. But for your enjoyment here are the AT&T stats, direct from our AT&T sources:

— Data usage on the AT&T in-stadium network during Game 1 was 248 GB (gigabytes) of data
— 248 GB of data is equal to more than 700,000 social media posts with photos
— AT&T fans made more than 17,361 voice calls and sent more than 56,335 SMS text messages Wednesday night on our in-stadium network
— The peak hour for data traffic on the in-stadium network was from 10–11 p.m. EST
— The 248 GB total surpassed the record for data usage for the AT&T in-stadium network at Busch Stadium in St. Louis in 2013, which was 183 GB set on 10/11/13

We’ll see if the Meru folks can provide any Wi-Fi stats before the series ends. Like football, baseball is perfect for data dalliances because of all the downtime between action. Just more proof that this mobile sports thing is more than just a fad.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, Baseball, DAS, Major League Baseball, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Soldier Field gets upgraded DAS from AT&T, Boingo

October 23, 2013 by

We’re not sure exactly how much better the new DAS install is at Soldier Field in Chicago, but we are convinced that it may take some time for the mainstream media to learn the difference between better cellular and Wi-Fi.

(What do we mean? One Chicago TV station and the Chicago Tribune think that a new DAS means faster Wi-Fi. Ah well. In the meantime, keep reading MSR if you need clarity and details about stadium technology.)

In a somewhat confusing press release, Boingo and AT&T, in partnership with venue management services provider SMG, announced an “enhanced distributed antenna system network” at the home of the Chicago Bears, that wonderful old/new facility located hard along Lake Michigan’s shore just south of downtown.

What’s confusing about the release is that it doesn’t quite explain how and why Boingo and AT&T are partnering with SMG as neutral-host operators. Plus, it seems that both Boingo and AT&T have already been operating DAS installs at the stadium, so who knows how “new” the enhancements really are. Our best guess (we have emails in to both companies so expect more clarity soon) is that since Boingo has been operating Soldier Field’s Wi-Fi and AT&T is bullish on DAS installs everywhere, it makes sense to team up with an upgrade that will now provide better coverage, probably with more antennas and new coverage for AT&T’s 4G LTE network. We’d call this arrangement a win for Boingo, which is intent on building up its stadium DAS and Wi-Fi business. Plus, the companies have done business together before so maybe partnering for a DAS isn’t so confusing after all.

No word yet whether Verizon or Sprint or T-Mobile has signed on to participate in the DAS, or whether the new DAS will keep Bears fans online longer, distracting them from worrying about the health of Jay Cutler’s groin. Good thing to have as the snowflakes start flying in the Windy City.

UPDATE 1, 10/24: We are still seeking clarity on the business arrangement, but an AT&T spokesperson confirmed our guess about the LTE addition. Here is an official AT&T breakdown of the enhancements to the DAS: “The DAS equipment at Soldier Field is equivalent to about 7 individual cell sites, or enough to service a town about the size of 88,000. The DAS contains more than 250 stealth antennas inside and outside the stadium which have increased AT&T’s network capacity by approximately double (100%). The design changed when we added layers to the wedge shape that was previously used. The old system had 16 sectors, sliced like a pie. The new system has 22 sectors that service each section of the stadium as well as each level of the stadium.”

Sounds good. But now I’m thinking about pie. Pumpkin, with whipped cream. Hmmm.

UPDATE 2, 10/25: Now from the Boingo folks, who wouldn’t say more about operational details other than that Boingo and AT&T worked together on the upgrade. More from Boingo, which answers our question about whether there are other carriers using the DAS: “Boingo is responsible for the ongoing operation and management of the DAS network, working closely with both SMG at Soldier Field and AT&T. Boingo also manages Soldier Field DAS network access contracts for Verizon, Sprint and US Cellular.”

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, DAS, NFL, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

TE Connectivity reveals several big-league DAS deals

October 14, 2013 by

When it comes to stadium networking deals, there are often a lot of names and companies behind the scenes that don’t get the headlines when services are initially deployed. But now that claiming project wins is seen as an important point of reference for future business, you may start to see more of the type of news releases that crossed our desk today: One from DAS supplier TE Connectivity, naming the company as the DAS provider for four major-league ballparks, including Yankee Stadium, Target Field in Minneapolis, The Ballpark in Arlington, and Citi Field.

Fans going to those stadiums may never know what or who TE Connectivity is, but the people responsible for making cellular networks work better inside arenas know TE Connectivity, a communications infrastructure supplier that did more than $13 billion in sales during 2012. According to its press release TE Connectivity’s DAS gear is inside “more than 50 baseball, football, and soccer stadiums around the world,” so we will probably be hearing more from TE Connectivity as the “inside baseball” of stadium networking space becomes more well-known.

Likewise, TE Connectivity’s third-part neutral host operator partner in Minneapolis, InSite Wireless Group, will probably start talking more soon about its third-party DAS hosting skills, which include not just stadiums but “convention centers, hotels and casinos, airports, and transit systems like the MBTA Boston subway system,” according to the company. We have calls scheduled with both companies this week, so look for more details here soon.

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

DAS Pig Soooey! AT&T brings DAS upgrade to Razorback Stadium

October 3, 2013 by

The loyal fans of the University of Arkansas Razorbacks can now be assured of a better level of cellular connectivity at football games, thanks to a new DAS install at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium, courtesy of AT&T.

Unlike its recent Pac-12 infrastructure deal, the contract to put better cell coverage in Razorback land is being pitched as part of AT&T’s overall network small-cell upgrade, something AT&T calls Project Velocity IP. For us, the part of the budget it comes from doesn’t matter as much as it is another DAS win for AT&T, and this time in the biggest of college football conferences, the SEC.

AT&T even has a press release out on the news, linked here. We’re working on getting a list of all the recent AT&T DAS wins, since it seems like we’re writing about a new one every week. Anyone else out there putting in more DAS deployments? Let us know.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, DAS Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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