NFL Stadium Tech Reviews — AFC South

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 SOUTH

Reporting by Paul Kapustka

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Houston Texans
NRG Stadium
Seating Capacity: 71,054
Wi-Fi – No
DAS – Yes

With Super Bowl LI approaching in 2017, NRG Stadium is rumored to be (finally) getting Wi-Fi, with reports that the deployment will be led by 5 Bars and use gear from Ruckus Wireless; however none of this has yet been formally approved, so for now it’s another fall with no Wi-Fi at NRG.

Indianapolis Colts
Lucas Oil Stadium
Seating Capacity: 63,000
Wi-Fi – Yes
DAS – Yes

According to stats from this year’s Final Four basketball weekend, the Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity at Lucas Oil Stadium is working just fine, with just about 11 terabytes of traffic measured over the hoops-happy weekend. According to organizers, the stadium’s Wi-Fi carried more than 5 TB of traffic, which should prove stable enough for Colts fans this fall.

Jacksonville Jaguars
EverBank Field
Seating Capacity: 67,297
Wi-Fi – Yes
DAS – No

Jacksonville fans who are not inside one of the two pools at EverBank Field can use the free Wi-Fi provided by Extreme and SignalShare, with bandwidth provided by Comcast. EverBank also has Wi-Fi “coaches” to help fans connect to the network, reportedly wearing bright yellow hats.

Tennessee Titans
Nissan Stadium
Seating Capacity: 69,149
Wi-Fi – Yes
DAS – Yes

Another outfit by Extreme Networks, Titans fans are into the second year of stadium-wide Wi-Fi, at the newly named “Nissan Stadium” thanks to a sponsor change this summer.

Final Four final score: 11 Terabytes of total wireless traffic

Screen Shot 2015-03-10 at 6.37.28 PMWe finally have some final wireless results in from the Final Four, and the total wireless-traffic number of 11 terabytes used over the weekend is just another sign that mobile device use at “big” sporting events is still increasing, with no top in sight.

According to figures sent to us by Ryan Marketing Group Technologies — an official outlet for the NCAA’s men’s basketball tournament tech operations — there was 9.47 terabytes of wireless data used over the Final Four weekend in and around Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, with 5.3 TB of that running over the stadium’s Wi-Fi network and the balance running on the building’s DAS. According to Ryan Marketing Group they believe the DAS numbers only reflect Verizon Wireless customer traffic (we have asked Verizon to confirm the numbers, but have not yet received a response from Verizon). The NCAA numbers also include usage for attendees at the accompanying Fan Fest events, in addition to the Saturday and Monday night games.

Separately, AT&T had said that it saw 1.52 TB of cellular traffic on its own DAS for the Final Four games, so adding the figures together we get 10.99 TB of total data, a number that should give pause to stadiums or arenas with “big events” on the horizon. Following huge wireless traffic numbers from recent big events like the Super Bowl and the College Football Playoff championships, it’s clear that there is still no plateau in sight for mobile-device wireless usage at big events. And just when you thought networks might be able to keep pace with users, devices and apps, you have the recent emergence of livestreaming apps like Meerkat and Periscope to potentially swamp arena networks with even more data demands. So, big event holders… what’s in your network? Is it ready for the terabyte age?

AT&T: Final Four sees 1.52 terabytes of DAS traffic, almost double last year’s total

Lucas Oil StadiumSometimes we feel like a broken record when talking about data usage at big events — is the total ever going to stop growing? Not at the Final Four, apparently, where this year AT&T saw almost double the traffic on its in-stadium DAS, even at a smaller venue, the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

According to AT&T, its customers used a total of 1.52 terabytes of data on the in-stadium DAS at Lucas Oil Stadium during the three Final Four weekend games, a huge jump from the 885 GB of DAS traffic AT&T saw on its network at the last Final Four, held in AT&T Stadium. Remember, these numbers are for AT&T cellular customers only, and does not include traffic for any other wireless carriers or for the Lucas Oil Stadium Wi-Fi network. We have calls and emails in to the various players to see if we can get more numbers, but for now AT&T’s almost-double growth is pretty interesting.

Normally we’re not big fans of infographics but the one accompanying the AT&T press release about Final Four traffic is pretty interesting, since it simply shows just how much data use at big events keeps growing. AT&T’s DAS traffic numbers for the last four Final Fours (New Orleans, Atlanta, Texas and Indy) start respectively at 376 GB for 2012, then jump to 667 GB for 2013, then to 885 GB last year and the 1.52 TB mark this year. Maybe the release of the new iPhones this past fall helped with the ever-increasing totals, or the fact that new rich media applications like Vine and Instagram are gaining in use? And with new livestreaming video apps like Meerkat and Periscope joining the fray, how will wireless networks at large venues hold up?

For AT&T, big events now mean lots of resources not just inside the building, but in the surrounding public areas as well, to better handle the big crowds as they move about the event locale. Like it did for the recent South by Southwest festival in Austin, AT&T brought its big-ball antenna to Indy for the weekend, and supplemented downtown coverage with outdoor DAS deployments and improvements to the outdoor Wi-Fi hotspots it built for Super Bowl XLVI held at Lucas Oil in 2012.

AT&T Infographic about Final Four DAS data use

AT&T Infographic about Final Four DAS data use

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

Verizon branded gate at MetLife Stadium. Credit: Verizon Wireless

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

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

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 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

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

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

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