iPhone – Page 4

Levi’s Stadium Wi-Fi update: Usage down from record, but still strong — 2.4 TB for Eagles game

October 30, 2014 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

Fans take pictures of opening-day kickoff from southwest concourse. Credit, all photos: Paul Kapustka, MSR

With three NFL games and now one collegiate contest under its belt, the Wi-Fi network at Levi’s Stadium is still handling big loads of data traffic, though not quite at the Super Bowl-beating level of 3.3 Terabytes recorded at the Niners’ home opener.

According to statistics provided by Niners vice president for technology Dan Williams, the Levi’s Wi-Fi network carried 2.4 TB of data during the Sept. 28 game against the Philadelphia Eagles, and another 2 TB during the Oct. 5 contest with the Kansas City Chiefs, both sellouts with reported attendance of 70,799 fans. And at an Oct. 24 college game between Cal and Oregon with 55,575 fans in attendance, the network carried 1.5 TB of traffic.

As you might be able to guess from the bandwidth numbers, the Sept. 28 game also had more users on the network, with 22,942 unique users, compared to 21,133 at the Oct. 5 game. For Cal-Oregon the unique user count was 13,508. At the Niners’ regular-season home opener on Sept. 14, there were more than 30,000 fans using the Wi-Fi network, with a peak of 19,000 simultaneous connections. The peak numbers for the later dates were 15,500 for the Sept. 28 game, 14,500 for the Oct. 5 game, and 8,400 for the college game.

In-seat and express food orders stay strong

Screen grab from Levi’s Stadium app showing in-seat food delivery option.

Food and beverage orders via the Levi’s Stadium app appear to be holding between the 1,500-2,000 order level for both the express pickup option as well as the in-seat delivery, with both features available to every seat in the house. According to Williams, for the Eagles game there were 1,144 express pick-up orders and 1,652 in-seat deliveries, while at the Kansas City game there were 1,162 express and 1,712 in-seat orders. At the Cal-Oregon game, where many fans were probably not as aware of the Levi’s app functionality, there were 551 express orders and 308 in-seat deliveries.

The video-replay feature of the Levi’s app also continues to attract solid interest, with 1,297 unique users watching 5,089 replays at the Eagles game and 1,111 unique users watching 4,986 replays at the Kansas City game. At the college game 234 fans used the replay feature, watching 1,059 replays.

One more interesting stat provided by Williams — the Apple iPhone is the overwhelming favorite device for connecting to the Levi’s Stadium Wi-Fi, with 62 percent share for the Sept. 28 game, and 60 percent share for both the Oct. 5 and Oct. 24 games. Android devices represented 24 percent (Sept. 28), 26 percent (Oct. 5) and 25 percent of all devices, while Apple iPads accounted for 2 percent, 3 percent and 1 percent of devices for the respective Sept. 28, Oct. 5 and Oct. 24 games.

DAS usage also remains strong, but not tops in NFL

On the DAS side of the Levi’s Stadium network we have some stats from AT&T to share (but none from any other carriers). According to AT&T, for the Oct. 5 game AT&T customers used 549 GB of data, which was only the fourth-highest AT&T DAS total for that weekend. Dallas (827 GB), San Diego (716 GB) and New Orleans (598 GB) all had higher AT&T DAS traffic totals for that weekend’s games. (Remember, these are results for stadiums with AT&T DAS networks only, not for all stadiums.) For the Sept. 14 game, the Levi’s Stadium AT&T DAS recorded 673 GB of traffic, according to AT&T.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Android, Apple, AT&T, Dallas Cowboys, DAS, iPad, iPhone, NCAA Football, New Orleans Saints, NFL, Pac-12, University of Oregon, Wi-Fi Tagged With: AT&T, DAS, in-seat food ordering, in-stadium replays, Levi's Stadium, Mobile Sports Report, NFL, Paul Kapustka, San Francisco 49ers, Stadium Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi

Reports: Free Wi-Fi now available at Kansas City’s Kauffman Stadium for World Series

October 22, 2014 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

According to reports from Kansas City, the previously Wi-Fi-less Kauffman Stadium now has a working free Wi-Fi network for fans, apparently installed recently by Major League Baseball’s advanced media group. Though we haven’t yet received any official confirmation about the network’s launch from either the Royals organization or from MLBAM, two separate sources confirmed that free Wi-Fi is available in the stadium, and apparently has been for a few weeks now.

In our reporting about MLB Wi-Fi deployments for our Q2 Stadium Tech Report, we found that Kauffman Stadium was one of 10 MLB parks not yet offering Wi-Fi for fans in the seats. But since this spring MLBAM has publicly said that it plans to help install Wi-Fi in the remaining parks that need it, including helping to pay for the deployment if necessary. One possible reason for the speedy deployment at Kauffman could be the joint marketing deal between Apple, MasterCard and MLBAM to promote the use of the new Apple Pay service, which is being offered at both Kauffman Stadium and AT&T Park during the World Series. San Francisco’s AT&T Park already has Wi-Fi, a service the Giants have offered fans since 2004.

Though a thorough search of the Kansas City Royals’ team website shows no mention of Wi-Fi services available at Kauffman stadium, one Twitter user has reported finding a free “speedy” Wi-Fi service at recent playoff games there, and another visitor to the park for yesterday’s World Series opener also reported a live Wi-Fi service available to fans. Another tipster has told us that the network uses Cisco Wi-Fi gear, but again, nothing has yet been officially confirmed.

Anyone lucky enough to have a ticket to tonight’s Game 2, send us a Wi-Fi speedtest if you can…

Filed Under: Apple, Baseball, Cisco, Fox Sports, iPhone, Major League Baseball, San Francisco Giants, Wi-Fi Tagged With: Apple, AT&T Park, Kansas City Royals, Kauffman Stadium, MasterCard, MLBAM, Mobile Sports Report, Paul Kapustka, San Francisco Giants, Stadium Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi, World Series

Stadium Tech Report: DAS Group Professionals makes a name for itself with Levi’s Stadium DAS

September 11, 2014 by Paul Kapustka 3 Comments

DAS antennas hanging from a Levi’s Stadium overhang. Credit, all Levi’s photos: Paul Kapsutka, MSR

If you look around at the walls, ceilings and overhangs at Levi’s Stadium, it’s hard to miss the small square boxes with the off-white color and a “DGP” logo in one corner. While the wires hanging out the back of each box make it an easy guess that the equipment has something to do with wireless networks, even many industry insiders may not know the company behind the boxes and the three-letter acronym.

Meet DAS Group Professionals, the Bay Area firm in charge of deploying a distributed antenna system (DAS) to make sure your cell phone gets a good signal at San Francisco 49ers games and any other event inside the 68,500-seat Levi’s Stadium. And while you might not be familiar with DGP, rest assured the company is extremely familiar with cellular deployments for large public venues, having installed similar DAS networks for airports, casinos and hotels, and even for San Francisco’s BART train system. Of course, most of that work was done when the company was called Forza Telecom, before changing its name to DGP earlier this year, another reason why “DGP” may not have rung any bells.

“It may appear like we just fell out of the sky, but we’ve actually built quite a few [DAS] systems,” said Steve Dutto, president of DGP, in a recent phone interview. “We’ve got years of experience.”

DAS antennas above a food stand

DAS: The Rodney Dangerfield of stadium connectivity

One thing that keeps firms like DGP in the shadows is the relative obscurity of DAS itself. While most people generally understand how cell phones work — you turn on your phone, and it connects to an antenna somewhere on a tower or rooftop — in crowded public facilities like stadiums, traditional cellular networks with towers several miles apart can’t handle the concentrated capacity. To provide connectivity for areas with large crowds, the latest tactic is to deploy a DAS, a network of lots of smaller antennas. Originally deployed in places like office buildings, hotels and convention centers, DAS is rapidly gaining favor in stadiums and arenas, helping to alleviate the “no signal” problem that has cropped up in many venues the past few years.

And while stadium Wi-Fi gets lots of headlines whenever it gets deployed — probably thanks again to the widespread understanding of how Wi-Fi works — there are already far more DAS deployments in stadiums than Wi-Fi, mainly because cellular carriers will pay almost all the associated costs of a DAS buildout to make sure their customers get a signal. According to our most recent 2014 State of the Stadium survey, 71.4 percent of our respondents said they had a full DAS at their facility, while only 35.7 percent had fan-facing Wi-Fi.

Steve Dutto, president, DGP

How does a DAS work? Usually, either a major cellular carrier or a third-party “neutral” host like DGP will build out the antenna infrastructure, which includes many small antennas and then cables to bring the connections back to a wiring room or data center. There, cellular carriers install their own cell-tower back-end gear to authenticate customers and to provide a connection to the company networks and the Internet. Since it’s in the cellular carriers’ interest to keep their customers connected (and using billable minutes and data), carriers will often pay the full cost of a DAS infrastructure by building and running it themselves. In the case like Levi’s, where DGP is the “neutral host,” DGP builds the infrastructure and then charges cellular carriers to use it.

Such deals are rarely publicized, and Dutto would not comment on how much each carrier was being charged to use the Levi’s DAS — though industry gossip has the figure somewhere around $5 million per carrier per year. And just like fight club, for many deployments the first rule of DAS is that you don’t talk about DAS, because no cellular carrier ever wants to admit that its network might need help. So just like Rodney Dangerfield, DAS often doesn’t get a lot of public respect. But at Levi’s Stadium and many other sports and entertainment venues, DAS is a booming business that would be sorely missed if it wasn’t there.

The ‘dream and the nightmare’ of building the Levi’s DAS

Now that DGP’s 700-plus antenna DAS deployment is up and running at Levi’s, Dutto can breathe a small bit easier. While the network is good business for the company and an obvious prominent calling card for the future, the aggressive deployment timeframe probably isn’t something Dutto is eager to repeat.

“Levi’s Stadium was both a dream and a nightmare [for DGP],” Dutto said, due in part both to the Niners’ aggressive performance expectations and the rapid buildout schedule. Of course, DGP was somewhat used to working quickly with the Niners — when the company put a DAS in Candlestick Park back in 2012 to solve that stadium’s legendary lack of connectivity, Dutto said it was deployed “in about 90 days.”

The success of the Candlestick deployment, Dutto said, led to the Niners offering the Levi’s DAS gig to DGP. With it, however, came the need to match the team’s out-front statements about how the stadium was going to be the best ever in terms of wireless connectivity. And with many people not knowing or not bothering to switch their phones to Wi-Fi, the Levi’s DAS, like most stadium DAS deployments, would probably handle most of the wireless connections.

Door sign for head end equipment room at Levi’s Stadium (there are many of these)

“We knew that it needed to be significantly better than anywhere else, right at the launch,” Dutto said. While the late addition of an early August soccer game at Levi’s pushed deployment schedules ahead even faster, Dutto said in the end it helped DGP overall.

“I wasn’t a big fan of getting ready for that date [the Aug. 2 soccer game was Levi’s first event] but it was a blessing in disguise,” Dutto said. “The trouble with a network is that you can’t really test it until everyone shows up. We got some good data from that event.”

After the “daily and nightly” discussions with the Niners’ tech team about antenna placements and other matters, the DAS network performed well when it mattered, during the Niners’ two preseason games on Aug. 17 and 24. According to a traffic report from the stadium tech team, the DAS network carried a combined 1.02 terabytes of wireless traffic for the two preseason games, which is on par with activity seen at big events in the past, like Super Bowls. According to Dutto DGP’s internal tests showed that few, if any, calls were dropped or didn’t connect.

“We’re at 98 percent [network performance] already, without [the network] being fully optimized,” Dutto said.

RF challenges and too many iPhone 4 customers

While many of the stadium’s Wi-Fi antennas are well hidden — including the ones in boxes under seats — the DAS antennas are a bit more prominent, especially if you are near where the first overhang comes close to the seats.

“Unfortunately, with Levi’s exposed steel-beam construction, if you want the DAS to work, you’re going to see it,” Dutto said. “It’s hard to be stealthy in there.”

And in many cases there isn’t just one but instead two DGP antennas side by side, which reflects the company’s decision to actually build two parallel DAS systems to better accomodate more wireless carriers. According to Dutto, AT&T and T-Mobile are based on one system, while Verizon Wireless, Sprint and public safety communications are handled by the other one. Currently, all the carriers are live on the DAS except for Sprint, which is still in the process of installing its back-end equipment.

DAS antenna in “Faithful Mile” area

One of the biggest challenges for DGP, Dutto said, comes from outside the stadium, and not inside. Like other open-air stadiums located in city cores, Levi’s Stadium faces significant interference from cellular antennas on nearby office building rooftops, as well as from the Santa Clara Convention Center right across the street.

“Less than a half mile from Levi’s you can see seven different rooftop cell sites,” said Dutto, who said the flat, open terrain around the stadium increases the ability for those signals to interfere with the stadium DAS deployment. Target Field in Minneapolis had some similar problems with cell antennas on nearby office buildings.

“We’ve done a lot of work with the carriers to adjust their macro networks around the stadium,” Dutto said. “We’ll do more of that as we go, and expect it to get better.”

And while Levi’s Wi-Fi network has shown itself to be incredibly robust, Dutto said that cellular connectivity over the DAS might be even faster than Wi-Fi in many instances, especially if fans have later-model phones with 4G LTE.

Even though Dutto said DGP’s testing recorded download speeds of up to 200 Mbps — and 65 Mbps sustained — he acknowledged that many Levi’s patrons might never see those kinds of numbers unless they snap up some of the new iPhone 6 models introduced by Apple this week. According to network stats collected by DGP during the preseason games, a lot of fans may be ready for an upgrade.

“There’s a lot more iPhone 4 users out there than we thought,” Dutto said.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Apple, AT&T, DAS, iPhone, MSR Guides, NFL, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi Tagged With: AT&T, BART, Candlestick Park, DAS, DAS Group Professionals, DGP, Forza Telecom, Levi's Stadium, Mobile Sports Report, Paul Kapustka, San Francisco 49ers, Sprint, stadium Wi-Fii, Steve Dutto, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi

Dallas Cowboys, AT&T add more tech to AT&T Stadium, add fuel to ‘most-connected stadium’ debate

August 21, 2014 by Paul Kapustka 5 Comments

AT&T Stadium, North Texas, USA

During last Sunday’s first “real” football game at Levi’s Stadium, I was asked several times if I thought the San Francisco 49ers’ new home was the “most connected” venue ever. I hesitated and hedged my answer a bit, because when it comes to wireless networks and tech innovations I think AT&T Stadium — home of the Dallas Cowboys — needs to be mentioned in the same sentence as Levi’s.

This week AT&T and the Cowboys announced more enhancements to AT&T Stadium’s already powerful network, and a new toy for fans to interact with. First on the network side, AT&T said from last summer until now it has increased the capacity of the stadium’s DAS by 50 percent, with 1,300 DAS antennas now in place. On the Wi-Fi side the stadium now has more than 1,500 access points, which may be the most in any stadium anywhere, to the best of my knowledge. (According to the Niners’ press guide, Levi’s has 1,200 Wi-Fi APs.) Throw in the big TV hanging from the center of the roof and AT&T Stadium has to be part of any discussion about “the most connected stadium” in football, if not in all of sport.

AT&T Stadium’s new “Fan Experience Board” in louvering position. Credit all photos: AT&T/Dallas Cowboys.

(I’d also include AT&T Park in San Francisco in that argument, which has somewhere north of 1,200 Wi-Fi APs in a much smaller venue; from what we hear the two AT&T-sponsored stadiums have a friendly competition when it comes to tech deployments.)

On the new-toy side it should be fun to see the new 130-foot “AT&T Fan Experience Board” in action — according to AT&T and the Cowboys this contraption is built of 40 mirrored louvers which can rotate in sync, and can show ads, fan pictures and will also be part of what the team and AT&T are calling the “Unite this house” feature on a new fan app. We’ll let the Cowboys blog explain how this will work, on plays where Tony Romo is throwing to teammates instead of to opponents:

The “Unite the House” fan interaction feature on the app will alert fans at pivotal moments of the game through their mobile devices. As the stadium app vibrates, a message will be displayed providing the particular context and immediacy of the action. Fans will be guided to unlock their phones, hold their fingers on the Dallas Cowboys star and as more phones power up, the stadium will be full of strobes, not only from mobile devices, but also on the ribbon displays and the HD video board. The visual will gain intensity and speed as more fans join in, energizing the stadium and culminating in a final eruption of light and motion provided by the louvers that will canvas the entire stadium.

AT&T Stadium interactive screens

AT&T and the Cowboys also announced some large interactive screens — the Cowboys blog called them “life-sized iPhones” — where fans can swipe to learn more about Cowboys players, or Cowboys cheerleaders. Our guess is that both will be immensely popular. At Levi’s, there are some interactive displays and features — one, sponsored by Yahoo!, asks fans to answer trivia questions. While it’s neat to see these things emerge, I wonder if instead of fluffy features some interactive boards could be converted into things that could help you — like with stadium maps, or an app that would let a phone-less fan send a message to someone else’s device. Our guess is that you will see more, not less, of these interactive screens in the near future.

If nothing else, the Cowboys and AT&T seem to be showing that even off the field, the NFL is a competitive league — we will be interested to see how the technology deployments at other stadiums, like Jacksonville, play out. Look for more coverage and anlysis in our upcoming Q3 Stadium Tech Report issue, which will focus on… football. AT&T technology photos to follow.

AT&T Fan Experience board with single message

Message board showing photo compilation

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, Cisco, Dallas Cowboys, DAS, iPhone, NFL, Wi-Fi Tagged With: 4G LTE, AT&T, AT&T Park, AT&T Stadium, Dallas Cowboys, DAS, Levi's Stadium, Mobile Sports Report, NFL, Paul Kapustka, San Francisco 49ers, Stadium Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi

Stadium Tech Report: Levi’s Stadium network lives up to hype, but team app still needs work

August 17, 2014 by Paul Kapustka 11 Comments

Levi’s Stadium from Section 244. All photos: Paul Kapustka, Mobile Sports Report

At the very least San Francisco 49ers fans Sunday could take heart in the fact that the wireless network in Levi’s Stadium largely lived up to its advance billing, performing quite well even as the team on the field sputtered and failed to connect. In its first “real” test with an almost-full house on Sunday the Levi’s Wi-Fi and cellular networks seemed to work well throughout the game, delivering solid speed test results from almost every part of the new 68,500-seat facility, even as Colin Kaepernick and the rest of the 49ers were dealt a 34-0 preseason drubbing by Peyton Manning and the visiting Denver Broncos.

And just like the team, the Niners’ stadium technology lineup still has some weak spots that will hopefully be fixed before the regular season home opener on Sept. 14. Among the disappointments Sunday was a no-show by the highly heralded instant replay feature, the crown jewel of the new Levi’s Stadium app. We also experienced some location-connection problems with one of our devices, exposing what we consider a flaw in the Levi’s app, namely an over-reliance on location technologies to enable key parts of the app, like wayfinding and on-site video streaming.

Ticket scanner with Niners visor to block sun

Some other not-so-advanced technology flaws that could use fine-tuning include the volume level on the main stadium public-address and announcing system, which was so loud that it made it a struggle just to talk to the person next to you for long stretches of time. The ticket scanning machines also seemed to have issues working in the bright sunlight, a problem that found a low-tech fix when ticket personnel placed Niners’ visors around the tops of the machines to shade the scanning area. And many concession stands around the stadium were unable to serve guests or could only take cash because the staff operating the stands said they weren’t given access codes to the point-of-sale systems.

Overall, however, the first football game at Levi’s was a success on many levels, including the fantastic sight lines available from most seats and largely incident-free travel and parking operations, with noticed improvements especially on the VTA light rail front that struggled mightily during the stadium’s opening-event soccer game two weekends ago. Most fans also probably got a little weight loss from the no extra-charge sauna situation, thanks to the cloudless day and bright sun that bathed most of the seats in searing heat for long times after the 1 p.m. start.

Smooth start for early VTA riders

What follows here is a somewhat minute-by-minute account of my trip to the game, and my experience with the network and stadium operations on site.

Mtn View lot sign, not in operation at 9:30 a.m.

Since I wasn’t given press access to the game, Mobile Sports Report attended like a regular fan, purchasing a single ticket through the NFL Ticket Exchange service on the 49ers’ web site. My plan to get to Levi’s from San Mateo was to drive to downtown Mountain View, park there and take VTA the rest of the way. (I didn’t take CalTrain mainly because I didn’t want to have to sync my return schedule with the CalTrain options going northbound on Sunday.)

Though I was somewhat incredulous about having to buy tickets online — VTA said that the ticket machines in Mountain View would be shut down Sunday to keep big lines from forming — upon further review the VTA app was slick and easy to operate and understand. After purchasing a ticket for $6.50 Saturday night I activated it Sunday, and showed it at the gate where they checked boarding passes. For people who didn’t have tickets there was a tent set up where they could buy a pre-loaded Clipper card for $10 good for a day’s worth of VTA riding. There was an abundance of VTA workers on hand, as well as a large and very obvious police presence. As a nice touch there was also a large bank of porta-potties, and behind the trains there were express buses waiting, according to one VTA employee, in case of crowd overloads.

“We learned some lessons from two weeks ago,” he said.

If there was a glitch in the VTA operations it was with the city of Mountain View — though a couple city lots were designated as places where fans could buy all-day parking passes, and there were clear signs to those lots, at 9:30 a.m. those lots were not yet staffed with anyone to pay; MSR found one sign leaning up against a post, waiting to be deployed. Fans could also park in the CalTrain lot for $5, payable via the CalTrain track podium ticket machines.

Fans transferring from CalTrain to VTA at Mtn View station

I boarded the first VTA train to leave for the stadium, along with many fans who had just gotten off CalTrain. The pleasant, air-conditioned trip took just 27 minutes, passing many Silicon Valley company headquarters and one neighborhood with “no parking here” patrols before stopping pretty much right at the Levi’s Stadium entrance. A few steps later I was in the parking lot, and took the first of many Wi-Fi speed tests and got a signal of 29 Mbps download and 23 Mbps upload, a good sign for network operations.

Looking for Wi-Fi, finding lots of it

DAS antenna in “Faithful Mile” area

Once inside the gates — and past the shaded scanners — I started speed testing in earnest, with the two devices I brought with me: A Motorola Droid 4 on Verizon, and a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 on AT&T. While waiting for the main stadium gates to open at 11 a.m. I got the weakest Wi-Fi signals of the day along the “Faithful Mile” area where promotional booths from sponsors kept early arrivers entertained. Wi-Fi on both devices out there only hit 2 to 3 Mbps on the download, while cell signals on both devices were in the 6-7 Mbps download range. Since I could see multiple DAS radios in the area but not any Wi-Fi access points I wasn’t too surprised; but it was an unusual area not to be blanketed with Wi-Fi, especially since there was good access a couple hundred yards away in the parking lots.

After finally entering the stadium proper, I ran into Niners president Paraag Marathe — who said he was “nervously excited,” and looked ready to start sweating in his suit and tie. “We’ve just got to make sure everything works today,” Marathe said, shaking my hand. Then I went up the escalator and saw the “Kezar pub,” an open-air bar filling the top area above the Intel gate. There, draft beers like Shock Top and Goose Island IPA were available for $11, and bottled beers available for $10.25.

As I started walking around the outside concourse I took my first speed test in the stadium and it blew the needle off the edge: 57.92 Mbps download, 41.00 Mbps upload.

Pegging the needle: @LevisStadium wifi hits 57 mbps on lower concourse #levinet http://t.co/AXEfODpPin

— paulkaps (@paulkaps) August 17, 2014

A few minutes later on the inside concourse (where most of the concession stands are) I hit 27.85 Mbps/21.34 Mbps, still impressive. Then I tried to launch the app, and — problem. Apparently the device wasn’t connecting because it wouldn’t show my location on the wayfinding app. Luckily, right in front of me was Racquel, one of the “NiNerds,” the team’s new staff of technical experts who are there to help fans make the app work. But Racquel couldn’t solve my problem, even after we both tried turning on all location services, including Bluetooth.

Racquel the NiNerd

“I can try to find another NiNerd who might know more about this device,” offered Racquel, who was visibly dismayed at her failure to help solve my problem. Instead, I moved on, hoping that the problem would solve itself later. But it didn’t.

Failure to locate… and other app problems

After downloading the Levi’s app to both devices over the weekend, I noticed that the first item on the app list of functions — Tickets — required me to “sign in” with my “Stadium Ticket Account,” something I didn’t have and didn’t know how to get. I did figure out how to enter my purchased seat location (which I could have used to order food to my seat, or for the express pick-up option), but I could never get the location feature to work on the Samsung device, which kept me from being able to see the live streaming TV option (I kept getting a message that said, “You must be at the stadium to play this video”). I was able to watch the live TV option on the Motorola device, after turing on location services. But for both devices — and, as it turns out, for everyone in the stadium — the final feature on the app, Game Center, where we were supposed to be able to see all the instant replays we could handle, remained labeled “coming soon.”

Finally sitting in my most excellent seat — section 244, row 3, seat 17 — I noticed that the Motorola device could no longer connect to Wi-Fi, even as the Samsung device was hitting marks in the 15-16 Mbps range. I started tweeting about the problem, and instead of a NiNerd coming to help me I got a personal visit from the Levi’s version of a Jedi Master, namely Dan Williams, the team’s vice president of technology. (Never underestimate the power of a complaining tweet!)

Niners VP of technology Dan Williams attempts to fix my Droid 4 Wi-Fi issues (while trying not to laugh at the fact that I actually have and use a Droid 4)

On my own, I had guessed that the Droid’s inability to connect came from its having only a 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi radio. If you’re not familiar with Wi-Fi networks, the 2.4 GHz band of unlicensed airwaves is what most first-generation Wi-Fi networks used; more recent devices are able to also use the 5 GHz band of unlicensed airwaves, which simply offer more channels and more bandwidth. The iPhone 5s, for example, mainly uses 5 GHz for Wi-Fi, as does my Samsung Note.

In scanning the available Wi-Fi networks, I had also noticed something else that I thought could be gumming up the Droid’s connection — a bunch of personal Wi-Fi hotspots in the immediate area, including several labeled as GoPro cameras. After curiously examining my Droid 4 — and its slide-out keyboard — Williams and a technician from Wi-Fi gear provider Aruba Networks concurred that my device was getting bogged down in the 2.4 GHz mess, and also wasn’t refreshing the available networks list, a device-specific problem.

Bottom line? Levi’s is no country for old phones.

Initial verdict: Wi-Fi and cellular is world class… but app needs work

After staying into the third quarter — and visiting another friend in section 109, where I got another hefty Wi-Fi speed test (24.42/25.39 Mbps) — I followed the lead of many fans and took an early leave of Levi’s, which meant no lines at the VTA trains and just a couple short delays due to track congestion that stretched the return train trip to 40 minutes. Overall, my travel to and from the stadium from San Mateo took just over an hour each way, a happy stat to report.

My initial verdict is that the Wi-Fi and DAS (cellular) networks delivered as promised, with solid speeds all around the stadium every time I checked. It’s no small accomplishment just to deliver such world-class service to such a crowded space, especially in the middle of Silicon Valley. True to its roots, the crowd Sunday was device-happy, with many iPads and GoPros being carried around as video cameras, in addition to all the phones that were in constant use. It’s a tribute to Williams and his staff, as well as the technology suppliers like Aruba, Brocade, Comcast (backbone bandwidth supplier) and DAS Group Professionals, who built the distributed antenna system (DAS) which brings advanced cellular connectivity inside the gates, to have built a solid network that worked well on its first big test.

The team app, however, did not even come close to living up to its advanced billing. To equal the network I think the app needs more advance instructions, especially on the ticketing/registration options as well as on the location services needed to make everything work. And until we see the multiple-camera angle live replays in action, to me the app is an incomplete project. The good news is, the Niners and their technology teams have several weeks to make improvements, including another preseason game Aug. 24 against the San Diego Chargers.

It’d also be helpful for the team to reach out a bit more to the VTA and players like the City of Mountain View, since the VTA site maps and Mountain View’s parking maps are far from what you would call “advanced design.” I think it’s up to the Niners to help pay for improvements to the city and transportation entities’ technology offerings, simply because of the burden placed on those operators by the fans going to Niners’ games. At the very least, more links from football to getting-there operations seems in order, instead of trusting that all parts of the operation will work in sync.

VTA lines going home

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Apple, Apps, AT&T, Comcast, DAS, Galaxy Note, Intel, iPad, iPhone, MSR Guides, NFL, Samsung, Twitter, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi, Xfinity Tagged With: Apple, Aruba Networks, AT&T, Comcast, Dan Williams, DAS, DAS Group Professionals, Intel, Levi's Stadium, Mobile Sports Report, Mountain View, Paraag Marathe, Paul Kapustka, San Francisco 49ers, Stadium Wi-Fi, Verizon Wireless, VTA

Stadium Tech Report: An MSR Geek Sneak Peek finds fast Wi-Fi, lots of cell antennas at Levi’s Stadium

July 18, 2014 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

A Wi-Fi access point near a section sign.

The historic idea that big, open-air stadiums are bad places for wireless connectivity may have finally met its match. Though it still needs a test when it’s full of fans, a sneak peek at the incredibly robust Wi-Fi and distributed antenna system (DAS) deployments in the San Francisco 49ers’ new Levi’s Stadium should mean, at least for Niners fans, that poor connections at football games are a thing of the past.

Granted, our tour of the new stadium during its ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday wasn’t any kind of official unveiling of the much-hyped Wi-Fi and cellular networks inside. There weren’t any tech reps on hand, and there were many places throughout the building where it was clear that parts of the network weren’t yet turned on (along with many flat-screen TV mounts still waiting for their electronics). But just walking around inside the concourses and clubs, a trained eye could see Wi-Fi access points and DAS antennas just about everywhere you looked. And, wow — in areas where the network was live, the download speeds were off the charts — we recorded several readings of 60 Mbps or higher, including on the Levi’s sustainable-garden rooftop court.

On one hand, it’s fair to say that our walk-around tests don’t mean a thing, because the real chore for the Levi’s network is not to impress a few random guests, but instead to handle the huge loads brought on by a sellout crowd of 68,500 iPhone-toting football fans. Over the next month or so we’ll get some more chances for proof points, especially at the Niners’ preseason games, when we hope to see the ambitious on-demand instant replay app being put through its paces, while at the same time Niners fans use their phones to order food delivered to their seats. That’s a lot of potential bandwidth and interactions. But after our tour Thursday, we’re perhaps a bit less cynical than we were before about the network’s ability to handle such loads.

SpeedTest results from Wi-Fi network inside Levi’s Stadium.

Designed for networking from the ground up

Why? Mainly, it’s the fact that Levi’s looks like the proof of what is possible when you design a stadium from the ground up with connectivity in mind. Though we could in fact see many, many exposed APs and DAS antennas, none were overly obtrusive — in fact, they all looked like they had been mounted somewhere that was expressly designed for them to be there. I’m no network engineer, but the simple lack of a lot of exposed cabling around those antennas and APs says to me that the guts of the building may be as smart as the network. Under one overhang I did see a cable run that reminded me of a data center — a wire basket carrying fiber, with plenty of room for expansion, leading into holes in the concrete that weren’t close to being filled. Again: I carry no union card. But if I can see such things and figure them out, it seems like a lot of thought went into the Levi’s network that’s perhaps not as obvious as the APs and antennas. Which, of course, is a great thing for administrators and even better for users.

Watching the British Open live on a TV inside an elevator at Levi’s Stadium.

What else did we see that was amazing, technology-wise? The sheer number of flat screen digital displays, especially when combined with the numerous large, comfortable lounge and club areas says to us that fans won’t miss much action even if they’re not in their seats. In the plush big-bucks clubs and even in the proletariat concrete concourses there was flat screen after flat screen (or at least the mounts where more TVs will be). It’s a simple but profound way to improve the fan experience, maybe a lesson learned from Candlestick, where fans congregated outside the few concession stands with TVs just to watch replays. Sure, the phone app may be one way to get there but my take from walking through Levi’s is that if you want to stand around and enjoy a beverage with friends you will still be kept up on the action even if your phone’s in your pocket.

Like we said — there is certainly more detailed information to come, and we are betting that the folks at Aruba Networks (the Wi-Fi gear supplier) and DAS Group Professionals (the neutral third-party DAS host) are chomping at the bit to talk about their deployments… let the free advertising of the antenna pictures below suffice for now. Though it’s just the start of our planned Levi’s Stadium network coverage, it was an impressive one, right down to the glasses of Iron Horse bubbly served at the post-ribbon-cutting reception. Salut, Levi’s and Niners!