Denver Broncos

NFL Stadium Tech Reviews — AFC West

November 16, 2015 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

Editor’s note: The following team-by-team capsule reports of NFL stadium technology deployments are an excerpt from our most recent Stadium Tech Report, THE PRO FOOTBALL ISSUE. To get all the capsules in one place as well as our featured reports, interviews and analysis, download your free copy of the full report today.

AFC WEST

Reporting by Paul Kapustka

Kansas City Chiefs
Arrowhead Stadium
Seating Capacity: 76,416
Wi-Fi – Yes
DAS-Yes

On a quest to challenge the HD experience at home, Chiefs president Mark Donovan delivered Wi-Fi and a mobile app to Arrowhead Stadium in 2013. Kansas City continues to enhance its mobile experience for fans, and now has in-stadium NFL RedZone access, live video feeds during games, as well as video highlights and replays from every drive. New for 2015, the Chiefs added a “Chiefs Kingdom” rewards program that works via the app.

Denver Broncos
Sports Authority Field at Mile High
Seating Capacity: 76,125
Wi-Fi – Yes
DAS – Yes

Connectivity is still kind of a mixed bag in Broncosland, with Wi-Fi in the stadium but still only available for Verizon Wireless customers. Verizon, AT&T and Sprint all have separate DAS deployments, so most fans should be covered in one form or another.

Oakland Raiders
O.Co Coliseum
Seating Capacity: 56,057
Wi-Fi – No
DAS – Yes

With the team’s stay in Oakland still a matter of doubt, fans will have to cheer their team on without Wi-Fi for another year at O.Co Coliseum. Despite being available for A’s fans, when the stadium capacity increases by almost 20,000 people for football, Raiders faithful are left without any access, without any official explanation.

San Diego Chargers
Qualcomm Stadium
Seating Capacity: 70,561
Wi-Fi – No
DAS – Yes

The stadium that hosted the Super Bowl over a decade ago does have DAS antennas courtesy of AT&T for improved cell coverage. Perhaps given the Chargers’ public statements about moving to a new stadium or Los Angeles means that they aren’t going to make a Wi-Fi investment at Qualcomm right now.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Apps, AT&T, DAS, Denver Broncos, NFL, NFL Network, Sprint, Super Bowl, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi Tagged With: 4G LTE, Arrowhead Stadium, AT&T, DAS, Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs, Mobile Sports Report, NFL, Paul Kapustka, Qualcomm Stadium, San Die, Sports Authority Field at Mile High, Stadium Wi-Fi, Super Bowl, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi

Stadium Tech Report — NFL stadium technology reports — AFC West

November 7, 2014 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

Editor’s note: The following team-by-team capsule reports of NFL stadium technology deployments are an excerpt from our most recent Stadium Tech Report, THE FOOTBALL ISSUE. To get all the capsules in one place as well as our featured reports, interviews and analysis, download your free copy of the full report today.

AFC WEST

Reporting by Chris Gallo

Denver Broncos
Sports Authority Field at Mile High
Seating Capacity: 76,125
Wi-Fi-Yes
DAS-Yes
Beaconing – No

When Sports Authority Field at Mile High is at full capacity (76,125) on game days, the stadium is the 14th largest city in Colorado. And it’s a well-connected one too. Because the Denver Broncos deliver TE Connectivity DAS and a Verizon-built Wi-Fi network to the stadium. On the Wi-Fi side, Sprint should be joining this season, allowing its customers to join Verizon’s with free Wi-Fi access. Verizon, which has added Wi-Fi APs in strategic spots around the facility, has also added an additional 180 DAS antennas to its network. AT&T customers use a separate DAS at Sports Authority, and Sprint is also adding to its DAS deployment with more antennas.

Kansas City Chiefs
Arrowhead Stadium
Seating Capacity: 76,416
Wi-Fi – Yes, 600+ access points
DAS-Yes
Beaconing – No

On a quest to challenge the HD experience at home, Chiefs president Mark Donovan delivered Wi-Fi and a mobile app to Arrowhead Stadium last season. Chiefs fans will continue to be able to share status updates and check fantasy lineups on game days in 2014. Let’s see if the support helps Kansas City make the playoffs for consecutive seasons for the first time since 1994-1995.

Oakland Raiders
O.Co Coliseum
Seating Capacity: 56,057
Wi-Fi – No
DAS-Yes
Beaconing – No

The Raiders enter 2014 seeking their first winning season in over a decade. The fans will have to cheer their team on without Wi-Fi for another year at O.Co Coliseum. Despite being available for A’s fans, when the stadium capacity increases by almost 20,000 people for football, Raiders faithful are left without any access.

San Diego Chargers
Qualcomm Stadium
Seating Capacity: 70,561
Wi-Fi – No
DAS-Yes
Beaconing – No

The stadium that’s named after the wireless giant remains a mystery. Because Wi-Fi in Qualcomm Stadium, a facility whose sponsor’s fortunes come mainly from the sale of wireless-phone silicon, is still absent. The stadium that hosted the Super Bowl over a decade ago does have DAS antennas courtesy of AT&T for improved cell coverage.

Filed Under: AT&T, DAS, Denver Broncos, NFL, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi Tagged With: Arrowhead Stadium, AT&T, DAS, Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs, Mobile Sports Report, NFL, Paul Kapustka, Sports Authority Field at Mile High, Sprint, Stadium Wi-Fi, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi

Who’s up for a Levi’s Stadium SpeedTest?

August 15, 2014 by Paul Kapustka 2 Comments

Friends and fans of Mobile Sports Report who are planning to attend Sunday’s first football game at Levi’s Stadium — how about helping us out by taking a network speed test to see if the facility’s much-touted wireless network really delivers as planned?

Ookla Speedtest in action

Mobile Sports Report will be in the house Sunday, and we will do our best to walk around as much of the stadium as we can, testing network speeds and app performance along the way. But nothing beats more results, and if you’re not familiar with how to do a network speed test, it’s pretty easy. Just go to Speedtest.net, run by Ookla, and either click “begin test” or even better yet from a mobile device, download the Speedtest app and do the same thing.

When the test is running you’ll get a little meter showing how fast the download and upload speeds are. I think the best method for sharing is to tweet the results — you can do so either by going to the “results” page on Speedtest.net or on the app, and share via Twitter from there, or maybe better yet just post a tweet with the results, along with the time of day and what part of the stadium you’re in. Also note whether you are using the stadium’s Wi-Fi network or just using a cellular connection. Both should work quite well, but it could be interesting to see if one works better than the other during a packed-house event.

If you don’t want to run a Speedtest, even tweeting about general network performance (good, slow, no connection) would be worthwhile, as would be any info about long or short concession lines, problems or smooth ways to get into the park, etc. If everyone uses the hashtag #Levinet I’ll round up as many as possible and put them in a blog post. (My Twitter handle is @PaulKaps if you want to follow my tests Sunday.)

We’ll try to organize group speed tests at as many games as we can get to this fall — again, the more results the better the idea we will have about how the new Levi’s Stadium is or isn’t performing.

UPDATE: Interesting tweet late Friday night from Dan Williams, the man whose job it is to make sure the network works…

@paulkaps if only SpeedTest actually meant something. Our goal is to make sure you are not disconnected from the world while at Levi's. 🙂

— Dan Williams (@danw49) August 16, 2014

Have to say I agree with Dan’s point that measuring pure speed via SpeedTest in a bit of a vacuum may not be an optimal grade. But I do like its ability to show whether things wireless are working or not… anyone with a better idea, we’re all ears… or browsers…

Bonus: KQED reporter Molly Samuel interviewed yours truly for a Marketplace radio segment on Levi’s, embedded below. Enjoy!

Filed Under: 4G LTE, DAS, NFL, Twitter, Wi-Fi Tagged With: Aruba Networks, DAS, DAS Group Professionals, Denver Broncos, Levi's Stadium, Mobile Sports Report, NFL, Ookla, Paul Kapustka, San Francisco 49ers, Speedtest.net, Stadium Wi-Fi, Twitter

Stadium Tech Report: Verizon, AT&T DAS upgrades at MetLife Stadium await Super Bowl Sunday

January 27, 2014 by Paul Kapustka 7 Comments

Verizon branded gate at MetLife Stadium. Credit: Verizon Wireless

Super Bowl foes the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos have only had two weeks to prepare for each other. But Verizon Wireless and AT&T have been preparing for the roman-numeral date at MetLife Stadium for more than a year. Will the Verizon Wi-Fi and DAS, and AT&T’s separate DAS be able to handle the wireless needs of the fans at the NFL’s biggest game? Tune in Sunday to see!

We might be one of the only news outlets who care more about the wireless networking at Super Bowls than the game itself, but for many in the stadium tech industry the biggest single game in America’s most popular sport is always somewhat of a wireless watershed. Perhaps at no other event do attendees spend so much time shooting selfies and posting them as they do from the site of Super Bowl Sunday. Even in the expected cold, it should be no different this week at Super Bowl XLVIII at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, where game time is scheduled for around 6:30 p.m. Eastern.

But well before that, fans will be testing the Verizon-built Wi-Fi network and both of the big carriers’ DAS deployments inside MetLife. According to reps from both companies that we spoke with last week, the carriers are ready.

Verizon spokesman David Samberg told us via email last week that an upgrade of the Verizon DAS in MetLife this past season means there are now more than 500 DAS antennas inside the facility. See some of the photos provided by Verizon that show the clever hiding spots Verizon engineers have found over the last 18 months as they’ve added capacity to a network built just a few years ago.

AT&T has also put in a brand-new DAS over the past year, with another 500-plus antennas of its own. “For the last year or so we’ve been working on our pre-game and game day network playbook in an effort to provide the best possible wireless experience for our customers,” said Michael Maus, assistant vice president of network services at AT&T, via email. “In anticipation of the huge volume of data and voice usage expected [for the Super Bowl], we’ve built a new state of the art antenna system inside the stadium, we’re rolling in portable cell sites both at the stadium, and to support the tailgate areas, and we’ve augmented coverage in New York City to support the activities there.”

Rooftop DAS equipment. Credit: Verizon Wireless

For Verizon’s own customers, 4G LTE capacity at MetLife has been quadrupled since last year, according to Samberg, who said that all stadium upgrades were completed by October, giving Verizon multiple chances to test its system against crowds at New York Giants and New York Jets home games. So far, Samberg said, so good.

More traffic than last year’s Super Bowl already

While yours truly opined earlier this year that this year’s Super Bowl might not set a wireless traffic record, we didn’t take into account some simple numbers — mainly, that MetLife Stadium’s official capacity of 82,566 is bigger than the Superdome’s 72,003. So, even if it’s cold, having 10,000 more people on hand probably means more bandwidth consumed, even if this year’s game doesn’t have a power blackout in the second half. (And even if it does, Samberg said the network shouldn’t go down since Verizon has backup power supplies on hand.)

Find the DAS antenna! Credit: Verizon Wireless

Our only problem with record wireless numbers from Sunday’s game is that we probably won’t ever see an actual number, since Verizon historically shies away from providing a score. Instead it just issues press releases saying things like “way more traffic this year than last!” and then expects us all to believe that without numbers. The good news for fans at the game is that the in-stadium Wi-Fi network, also built by Verizon, is free and open to customers of all carriers, or basically anyone with a device that has a Wi-Fi chip. But Verizon, like big competitor AT&T, has been beefing up its DAS installations significantly because most people try cellular first, even at stadiums, before instructing their phones to find a Wi-Fi network. AT&T, to its credit, usually does deliver a wireless scorecard quickly after big events. So at least from AT&T’s perspective we should find out if this year’s game sets another record.

Aside from the stadium improvements, Verizon will be showing a demonstration of a technology this week that could make DAS more of a competitor to Wi-Fi on the high bandwidth side of things. Called LTE multicast, the technology basically establishes set channels for LTE devices that will “broadcast” video, like a TV channel. (This idea is similar to the StadiumVision Mobile technology Cisco uses at stadiums like Barclays Center.) Theoretically, LTE multicast could let fans use a cellular connection to view multiple video streams, something you would need to use Wi-Fi for it to have any chance of working. But the multicast demo won’t take place at MetLife, but instead at Bryant Park in Manhattan this week. If you are in the city, check out the demo and let us know what you think.

No NFL Mobile at MetLife

And here’s something else you won’t be able to use at MetLife during the Super Bowl: Verizon’s own NFL Mobile app, which outside the stadium will be the only smartphone platform you’ll be able to watch the game on. (The Fox streaming site and app will only work with tablets and desktops or laptops, per the league’s rights agreement with Verizon.) Next year, the rights for NFL Mobile will change and if the local game (like, say, the Super Bowl) is on TV, you’ll be able to use NFL Mobile to watch it even if you’re at the stadium. But not this year! (To give one answer as to why, if you are at the game, you might want to watch it on your cell phone, we say: Bathroom or beer lines!)

More stadium infrastructure photos below:

AT&T DAS antennas at MetLife. Credit: AT&T

AT&T’s new head-end building at MetLife, where its DAS gear is housed. Credit: AT&T

Inside the AT&T head-end building at MetLife. Cables! Credit: AT&T

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, Cisco, DAS, Denver Broncos, Fox Sports, iPad, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, MSR Guides, NFL, NFL Mobile, Seattle Seahwaks, Super Bowl, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi Tagged With: AT&T, DAS, Denver Broncos, Lucas Oil Stadium, MetLife Stadium, Mobile Sports Report, New Orleans Superdome, NFL Mobile, Paul Kapustka, Seattle Seahawks, stadium cellular, stadium DAS, Stadium Wi-Fi, Super Bowl, Super Bowl wireless traffic, Super Bowl XLVIII, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless

Fox: We’re ready for big Super Bowl streaming audience

January 24, 2014 by Paul Kapustka 2 Comments

While nobody can predict how things like a stadium blackout or a polar vortex might affect the broadcast of an event like the Super Bowl, executives at Fox are doing all they can to prepare to make sure this year’s online coverage of the NFL’s championship game goes off as well as possible.

With viewership expected to exceed last year’s total of 3 million unique online viewers, the live stream of Super Bowl XLVIII will be available on iPads in the Fox Sports Go app and via a browser at FoxSportsGo.com. The online feed will be available free to anyone with an Internet connection starting at 12 a.m. ET on Sunday, Feb. 2, and will also include access to a Spanish-language broadcast.

But remember: The live streaming from Fox is only available for desktops or laptops, or via an iPad using the FoxSportsGo app. Because of NFL rights contracts, to watch the game live on a smartphone you need to be a Verizon customer and have the $5 per month premium version of the NFL Mobile app installed.

No matter which platform you choose to use, as always the Super Bowl should be a compelling story, even if that tale is something other than the game between the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks. Super Bowl XLVIII is scheduled to start around 6:30 p.m. ET from MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, where snow and cold may be part of the equation.

“It should be interesting, with [possible] weather in New Jersey,” said Clark Pierce, senior vice president of mobile and advanced platforms for Fox Sports, in a phone interview earlier this week. “We’re ready for traffic to spike at some moment when something happens, and we get a lot of concurrent users. We’ll see how we do.”

Tablet audience keeps fueling growth

Granted, the online viewer numbers for the Super Bowl are completely dwarfed by the regular TV viewers, which for last year’s game totaled 164 million. But having 4 million unique viewers online is a huge digital audience, and it’s one that Pierce said Fox has been planning for over the past few years.

“We know what CBS did [for streaming] and we know what NBC did,” Pierce said of the networks which had the Super Bowl broadcast the past 2 years. “And we’re working with [content delivery network provider] Akamai, and it’s not their first rodeo. So I think we’re ready for whatever can happen.”

Perhaps the biggest number of online viewers for this year’s Super Bowl will come via Apple iPads, the market leader in the tablet form factor. While Fox has not yet released viewer numbers by device or platform for its restricted streaming of the NFC playoff games, it did say it had a record 2.4 million visitors to its FoxSports.com website on championship Sunday, a 53 percent increase over the previous year. Pierce said increases in digital viewers are partially due to the expanding tablet market, and tablet owners getting more comfortable watching sports on a smaller screen.

“The concept of watching TV on a smaller screen is another year down the road and people are just that much more used to it,” said Pierce, who also said that online viewers may choose tablets over laptops or desktops due to clearer pictures.

“People are getting spoiled by Apple and Android devices with really high screen resolution,” Pierce said.

Streaming delay inevitable

What doesn’t work so well with any live streaming option is trying to use it as a “second screen” alongside a live TV broadcast. Because of the technical necessities of putting a live signal online — which includes mainly taking the TV feed and encoding it to the Internet — delays between “live” TV and the show online can be from 20 seconds to a minute or more, Pierce said.

“It does take time to take a big HD picture and encode it into IP,” Pierce said. “There’s just no way around it.”

In the future, Pierce hopes to help Fox add more features to its online offerings, maybe making them something like what broadcast engineers see in the event production studios, with multiple monitors offering different feeds and live stats. Still, just having a free online broadcast is a huge leap forward from the recent past.

“It’s been exciting to build it, and in the future our team hopes to add more content and features,” Pierce said. “The horizon is pretty exciting.”

Filed Under: Apple, Apps, CBS Sports, Denver Broncos, Fox Sports, iPad, NFL, NFL Mobile, Seattle Seahwaks, Smartphone, Super Bowl, Tablets, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: Denver Broncos, Fox, Fox Sports Go, iPad, iPhone, MetLife Stadium, Mobile Sports Report, NFL Mobile, Paul Kapustka, Seattle Seahawks, Super Bowl, Super Bowl live streaming, Super Bowl online, Verizon Wireless, watching Super Bowl online

NFL Championship games live streams: Fox for Niners-Seahawks, CBS for Broncos-Patriots, Verizon NFL Mobile for both

January 17, 2014 by Paul Kapustka 1 Comment

Are you ready for some streaming football? In case you won’t be near a TV for either of Sunday’s championship games, you still may have a chance to watch the games live on a PC, a tablet or a smartphone. Here are the details:

If you’re a customer of a participating provider for Fox Sports Go, you can watch Sunday’s NFC championship game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks on the Web or on an Apple iPad using the Fox Sports Go website or mobile app. The Fox Sports Go website address is foxsportsgo.com, and the list of participating providers includes AT&T U-Verse, Comcast Xfinity, Suddenlink, Optimum, Midcontinent Communications, and Wow!. Coverage starts with the FOX NFL Sunday pregame show at 6 p.m. ET. Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, Pam Oliver, and Erin Andrews will call the game at 6:30 p.m. If you’re like me, the mute button on Buck/Aikman comes into play at about 6:35.

CBS will also live-stream its coverage of the AFC championship game from Denver, starting at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday. The games can be watched online at CBSSports.com’s NFL page, or via the CBSSports app, which shows the games via a web page. I did see a little disclaimer that says live streaming is only available via iOS mobile devices.

If you are a Verizon Wireless customer and want to watch the games on your 4G LTE smartphone, you can sign up for Verizon’s NFL Mobile app and its live NFL service, which costs $5 a month extra to whatever cell plan you have. NFL Mobile customers will be able to see live streaming action from both championship games as well as the Super Bowl. Though it suffered glitches earlier this season, Verizon’s NFL Mobile app has been rock-solid for me, with lots of air time during my daughter’s Sunday afternoon music lessons. Don’t get caught without football this weekend, these games are possible classics you don’t want to miss.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, CBS Sports, Denver Broncos, Denver Broncos, Fox Sports, NFL, NFL Mobile, Seattle Seahwaks, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: Denver Broncos, Football on my phone, live streaming NFC championship, live streaming NFL, Mobile Sports Report, New England Patriots, NFL games on the web, NFL Mobile, NFL streaming, Paul Kapustka, San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks, Verizon Wireless

NFL Stadium Tech Reviews — AFC West

AFC WEST

Stadium Tech Report — NFL stadium technology reports — AFC West

AFC WEST

Who’s up for a Levi’s Stadium SpeedTest?

Stadium Tech Report: Verizon, AT&T DAS upgrades at MetLife Stadium await Super Bowl Sunday

Fox: We’re ready for big Super Bowl streaming audience

NFL Championship games live streams: Fox for Niners-Seahawks, CBS for Broncos-Patriots, Verizon NFL Mobile for both

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