Verizon Wireless

IBM gets in the arena app game with LTE Broadcast support

May 22, 2014 by Paul Kapustka

This one of the more nuanced press releases we’ve seen in some time, but there seems to be some meat behind the idea of IBM helping to design an LTE broadcast enabled stadium app for the Amsterdam Arena.

We’ve reached out to the principals and so far no luck getting anyone on the phone, but we did get some more email info so I think I can piece together most of the story. Basically it appears that IBM has a mobile development program that is called, somewhat obviously, MobileFirst. For the Ajax soccer team, which plays in the 53,052-seat arena (which holds 68,000 for concerts) IBM helped develop an app that uses LTE broadcast to show multiple live video screens, while also allowing fans to interact with the app, doing things like voting for player of the game.

LTE Broadcast support is the thing that makes this particularly interesting for us, since it would be a way to make live video work without having to have a Wi-Fi network. However there are no details about whether a carrier is actually supporting the app in this fashion yet, or if it is live and in use. Good first step, IBM, but you need to do a better job explaining this “news.”

Screen shot of IBM app for Ajax football club. Credit: IBM

If you’re not familiar with LTE Broadcast (sometimes also called LTE multicast), it is a development around the cellular standard that allows service providers and/or teams and stadiums to use select airwaves as “broadcast” channels, a tactic that can deliver video in a much more efficient manner than, say, thousands of fans hitting a web page and requesting their own individual video feed. The one-to-many concept of LTE Broadcast is being embraced by U.S. carriers as well, and Verizon Wireless, which showed demos of the technology during Super Bowl week, is supposed to be doing another demo this weekend at the Indy 500.

Cisco’s SportsVision Mobile uses a similar distribution method (currently in use at the Barclays Center), but that technology takes advantage of in-building Wi-Fi. What’s not clear about LTE Broadcast in a stadium situation is whether or not you need extra equipment, or whether existing DAS deployments can handle LTE Broadcast without modification. Also unclear is whether or not client devices, like smartphones and tablets, need modification to run LTE Broadcast enabled apps.

From the press release and the screen shots, the IBM app for Ajax looks pretty good, but again, we’d want to talk to the folks at the stadium to see if it’s actually being used by real fans, or if this is still slideware. Anyone who lives over there who might go to the stadium, let us know if you know.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, Cisco, DAS, Soccer, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi Tagged With: 4G LTE, Ajax, Amsterdam Arena, AT&T, DAS, iBM, KPN, LTE Broadcast, LTE multicast, Mobile Sports Report, MobileFirst, Paul Kapustka, Stadium Wi-Fi, StadiumVision Mobile, Verizon Wireless

Indianapolis Speedway adds Verizon DAS

May 19, 2014 by Paul Kapustka

Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home of the Indy 500. Credit all photos: IMS Photo.

It’s still a work in progress, but Verizon Wireless customers who attend this year’s Indianapolis 500 race should see improved cellular communications, thanks to a DAS buildout currently underway.

According to Rhonda Winter, CIO for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Verizon was recently selected to build a neutral-host DAS which will add more than 200 internal and external antennas to the speedway’s main stands and buildings. While other carriers are slated to join the DAS in the future, only Verizon will be on the infrastructure this year. According to Verizon, it will also have two COLTs (cell on light trucks) mobile units at this year’s race, to improve coverage in far-flung areas like the fields of parking that are necessary to host the 250,000 fans who may show up to watch the May 25 event.

Verizon antennas atop Indianapolis Motor Speedway scoreboard.

Winter, who responded to questions via email, said Verizon offered “the best solution” when it came to picking a DAS host. The spread-out nature of the huge, 2.5-mile track makes Indy a fairly unique situation when it comes to wireless coverage. Added to the spacing requirements, Winter also noted that the track’s network sees a huge and sudden surge when fans arrive for race day. Among some of the experiments Winter and her staff are trying are some selected uses of public Wi-Fi, this year at special pre-race concert events and also in the VIP areas.

“Coverage and capacity on our busy race days continues to be a challenge that we are working to improve,” Winter wrote.

With the added capacity, Verizon customers should have no problems accessing the Verizon IndyCar Series INDYCAR 14 mobile app, which for Verizon customers only offers live features that include driver and pit crew audio, race radio broadcast coverage, as well as a track map. Winter said there is also an Indianapolis Motor Speedway app called Brickyard Mobile, which is the digital version of the track’s guest guide.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, DAS, Indy 500, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi Tagged With: COLTs, DAS, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indy 500, IndyCar Racing, Mobile Sports Report, Paul Kapustka, Stadium Wi-Fi, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi

Stadium Tech Report: Churchill Downs picks a winner with Mobilitie DAS

May 16, 2014 by Paul Kapustka

The iconic twin spires of Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby. Credit all photos: Churchill Downs

Move over, Super Bowls — there’s a new wireless-traffic event king on the U.S. sports landscape, and it’s one that’s been around longer than anything else. Thanks to a new distributed antenna system installed this year at historic Churchill Downs, fans at the recent Kentucky Derby were able to set single-event wireless traffic records, at a place where not too long ago getting a decent signal on your phone was a longshot at best.

According to Churchill Downs Racetrack general manager Ryan Jordan, up until last year cellular connectivity was a pain point at the historic facility, which opened in Louisville, Ky., in 1875. Though recently cellular providers tried to address the smartphone crunch by bringing in technology like COWs (cellular towers on wheels), the spread-out nature of the track and its architectural challenges made the COWs an unsatisfactory solution.

“The temporary COWs really couldn’t handle the traffic,” said Jordan in a recent phone interview. In post-race surveys, he said, the track heard complaints about connectivity, as did the cellular carriers.

“We heard it [the complaints] and the carriers heard it,” Jordan said. “But we never had a solution to handle the problem.”

In 2013, however, Churchill Downs enlisted infrastructure provider Mobilitie to deploy a neutral-host DAS to bring better cellular connectivity to the entire facility. While the deal was struck too close to last year’s race to allow for a full buildout, by this year’s 140th running of the “Run for the Roses,” a full-scale, 253-antenna DAS was in place to produce some winning results. According to AT&T, the Churchill Downs DAS carried event-record traffic over the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks weekend, with a total of 2 Terabytes of overall traffic and a peak hour of 180 Gigabytes of traffic, in the 60 minutes just before the Derby race on May 3.

Ryan Jordan, general manager, Churchill Downs

By comparison, during the most recent Super Bowl at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, AT&T saw a peak hour of 119 GB of traffic before kickoff, and 624 GB of total traffic on game day. Of course, some of the specifics of the Kentucky Derby make the big numbers easier to understand, including the 160,000 fans on race day as well as the full day of attendance, which featured less than a half-hour total of actual horses running fast. It’s important to note that the Derby figures are for AT&T traffic only, and do not include any potential traffic from Verizon Wireless customers, whose carrier also used the Mobilitie DAS to improve reception at the track.

“Derby Day is 13 races, each about 2 minutes long,” Jordan said. “When you figure out that the gates open at 8 a.m. and the Derby doesn’t start until 6:30 p.m., that’s almost 12 hours [of fans in attendance] and only 26 minutes of action.”

In other words, there’s a lot of time for selfies and other Internet activity.

Bucket list pictures, and race handicapping

Like the Super Bowl and other big sports events, the Kentucky Derby is a “bucket list” type of happening, one made even more receptive thanks to the see-and-be-seen nature of the event.

“People spend a lot of time taking in the things that make [the Derby] special, like hats, fashions, and the singing of ‘My Old Kentucky Home,’ ” Jordan said. “It’s the kind of event where people take pictures and send them to their friends to show them what they’re missing.”

Jordan said that in addition to social media activities, many fans at the track used the new DAS connectivity to try to improve their betting odds, using the Internet to help them handicap the races. (Churchill Downs also has a small amount of public Wi-Fi available only in the main building, used mainly to support an on-site mobile betting application.)

In previous years, fans at the event might not have been able to perform all those wireless functions. If the decision to upgrade the communications was an easy one, the decision to go with a “neutral” third party partner like Mobilitie came from a desire to serve all wireless customers equally. Though wireless carriers like AT&T and Verizon can and do act as lead contractors for many DAS deployments, the negotiations to get each carrier what it wants in terms of antenna deployments and other technology needs can get complex in a hurry.

“We know how to put on a great event,” said Jordan of the Derby’s owners and operators. For communications, Jordan said, the track sought out a firm with an equal amount of smarts and reputation in their field.

“We wanted to find someone who was an expert in the conversations [with carriers],” Jordan said, “and to make sure our system could cover as many of our fans as possible.”

Old buildings a challenge for new technology

Among the challenges encountered by Mobilitie at Churchill Downs were some structures dating back to the 1890s, including the iconic twin spires structure, which Jordan said dates back to 1895.

“Some areas have a lot of concrete and steel, and then there are seating areas open to the outside with enclosed dining rooms behind them,” Jordan said. “There were a lot of things for Mobilitie to design around, and it wasn’t easy for them. But walking around the facility, you don’t see a lot of large antennas. Everything is pretty discreet. We’re very pleased with Mobilitie. It was a great win for us.”

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, DAS, Horse Racing, MSR Guides, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: 4G LTE, AT&T, California Chrome, Churchill Downs Racetrack, DAS, Horse Racing, Kentucky Derby, Louisville, mobile betting, Mobile Sports Report, Mobilitie, Paul Kapustka, Run for the Roses, stadium DAS, triple crown, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi

AT&T sees massive traffic on new Kentucky Derby DAS deployment from Mobilitie

May 12, 2014 by Paul Kapustka

We’ve got a more in-depth review of the wireless experience at the Kentucky Derby on the way, but we did want to share with our readers the somewhat amazing stats from the AT&T wireless network over the weekend of racing at Churchill Downs. With a new DAS from Mobilitie in place, AT&T said it saw a total of 2 Terabytes of traffic over the weekend and a stunning total of 180 Gigabytes of traffic during the peak hour of 5-6 p.m. EDT, just before the 140th Kentucky Derby race went off on May 3.

According to a press release, that peak hour of wireless traffic was the most ever for AT&T at any in-venue event, including the various Super Bowls. What’s even more impressive is that the new DAS also hosted traffic from Verizon Wireless, which did not provide any statistics from the event; however, it’s a good guess that Verizon customers among the 260,000 attendees during race weekend were doing the same things AT&T customers were, taking pictures and sending messages from one of the pure “bucket list” events in sports.

Like we said, more details on the network deployment and challenges at Churchill Downs, in our next Stadium Tech Report. Stay tuned!

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, DAS, Horse Racing, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: 4G LTE, Churchill Downs, DAS, Kentucky Derby, Mobile Sports Report, Mobilitie, Paul Kapustka, stadium DAS, Super Bowl, wireless stadium traffic

Stadium Tech Report: Utah Jazz, Boingo Wireless bring DAS to Energy Solutions Arena

May 8, 2014 by Paul Kapustka

Energy Solutions Arena. Credit, all photos: Utah Jazz

With a big new video board added this year, the Energy Solutions Arena had taken a signficant step toward improving the experience for fans at Utah Jazz basketball games. But when those fans went to look at the small screens in their hands, they often experienced frustration.

“It’s really important to our fans to be able to text or post something to Facebook,” said Jamie Galileo, vice president for facilities at the Energy Solutions Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah. But without Wi-Fi or a modern distributed antenna system (DAS) in the building, sometimes fans were left disconnected.

“Even our employees were able to watch the [cellular] service degrade quite sharply during games,” Galileo said. Next year, that shouldn’t be a problem thanks to the new neutral-host DAS currently being installed at Energy Solutions Arena by Boingo Wireless. With the ability to support all major carriers and their new 4G LTE technology, the new DAS should significantly improve connectivity at Jazz games and other events inside the 19,911-seat arena.

DAS first, Wi-Fi maybe later

Opened in 1991 (known then as the Delta Center), the Jazz’s home is one of the few NBA arenas without advanced wireless connectivity. One of only six NBA arenas without fan-facing Wi-Fi, Energy Solutions Arena is still studying Wi-Fi deployment, Galileo said.

Jamie Galileo

Wi-Fi is still “something to look at,” Galileo said. “We want to first get past [installing] the DAS, and see what that does for the fan base.”

Through this past NBA season, fans at the arena had limited enhanced connectivity. According to Galileo, the building only had small DAS-style infrastructures for Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile customers, and an older system for AT&T customers that was installed prior to the 2002 Winter Olympics, when the arena was used for figure skating and short-track speed skating competition.

“There was some legacy DAS equipment [in the building],” Galileo said. “But you wouldn’t consider it a DAS by today’s technology.”

Neutral host was key

After what Galileo called an extensive RFP and review, Boingo Wireless was chosen for the DAS deployment, which is scheduled to be ready for the start of the next NBA season, beginning in the fall. According to Galileo, Boingo’s ability to be a neutral host was extremely attractive to Energy Solutions Arena.

“Neutral was the key word,” Galileo said. “We did not want to have every carrier have its own antennas. One set of antennas is much easier to blend in.”

Inside shot of Energy Solutions Arena, with big new video board

Doug Lodder, vice president of business development at Boingo Wireless, said Energy Solutions Arena has good cabling runs, which should make deployment of the DAS a fairly straightforward task.

“The bowl is always challenging,” said Lodder, who added that Energy Solutions Arena’s somewhat vertical shape of its main seating area might mean a little extra deployment work for Boingo engineers. And while no major carriers have yet signed deals to be on the DAS, Lodder is confident that most will want to have a presence in the building and will sign on before the Jazz start playing again.

“The demand is very high to be in a tier 1 NBA building,” Lodder said.

Galileo said that the arena has plenty of room for the DAS head end equipment, a space requirement that is sometimes challenging for older structures.

“We are on 3.5 acres of a 10-acre site,” Galileo said, “so we have some auxiliary areas. We won’t have to build out additional [head end] space.”

Between Jazz games and other events, Galileo said that Energy Solutions Arena typically has guests in the building 100 times a year. It is also a regular host to NCAA basketball tournaments, and Galileo said the new connectivity should help with future bids.

“It doesn’t hurt to have a DAS,” he said.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, Basketball, DAS, MSR Guides, NBA, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi Tagged With: 4G LTE, AT&T, Boingo Wireless, DAS, Energy Solutions Arena, Mobile Sports Report, NBA, Paul Kapustka, Salt Lake City, stadium DAS, Stadium Wi-Fi, Utah Jazz, Verizon Wireless

Churchill Downs taps Mobilitie for DAS upgrade ahead of Kentucky Derby

April 30, 2014 by Paul Kapustka

Texting and calling on Kentucky Derby day should work a lot better for fans at the legendary Churchill Downs racetrack this weekend, thanks to a recent doubling of the facility’s DAS infrastructure.

According to infrastructure deployer Mobilitie, the 140th running of the Derby and other associated races is expected to attract more than 260,000 fans to the Louisville, Ky., home of perhaps the world’s most famous thoroughbred event. With coverage improvements that Mobilitie said effectively doubles the capacity of the previous distributed antenna system (DAS) installment, fans should have better cellular coverage in more areas, including the track’s parking lot and other outside areas.

A Mobilitie press release said that the upgraded DAS will cover all six levels and basement in the Churchill Downs main building, and will also cover all of the grandstands, the parking areas and the newly installed Grandstand Terrace. In addition, Mobilitie said new coverage will also support temporary hospitality suites as well as the entire infield area. Mobilitie said the DAS system is one of the largest in the country, with more than 253 antennas and over 1 million feet of fiber optic cable installed throughout the venue. So far, AT&T and Verizon Wireless have signed on to use the DAS, which means that for this year at least most wireless customers will have access to improved connectivity. According to Mobilitie, both carriers’ 4G LTE signals will be supported by the neutral DAS.

FastBet app screen shot

“Since 2003, Churchill Downs has invested $160 million into improving the onsite customer experience for guests attending the Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby,” said Ryan Jordan, general manager of Churchill Downs, in a prepared statement. “A major part of the live event experience is ensuring that fans maintain connectivity to their social networks. As a result of the upgrades that Mobilitie made this year, our guests with smartphone service from participating carriers will be able to share those memorable experiences as they happen live with their entire network.”

Fans at the race can also use smartphones to bet on the races via their mobile devices, using the track’s Wi-Fi network that covers a large segment of the main building’s stands and suites. According to the Churchill Downs website, the FastBet Mobile system only works on the track’s Wi-Fi network, most likely due to security and billing requirements. A map shows which areas of the stands are covered by Wi-Fi.

Filed Under: AT&T, DAS, Horse Racing, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: 4G LTE, AT&T, Churchill Downs, DAS, horse race betting, Horse Racing, Kentucky Derby, Kentucky Oaks, mobile sports betting, Mobile Sports Report, Mobilitie, neutral host DAS, Paul Kapustka, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi