Mobile Sports Report

SignalShare sued for $7.8 million over alleged fraudulent leases

May 17, 2016 by Paul Kapustka

Screen shot of nGage Fan Feed. Credit: SignalShare

SignalShare, a company involved in bringing Wi-Fi networks and associated fan-experience apps to stadiums, is being sued by an equipment leasing company over a dispute involving allegedly fraudulent leases by SignalShare, and SignalShare’s default on an agreement to pay back money obtained through those leases. A report on the Law360 website said the case filed in Massachusetts federal court by NFS Leasing of Beverly, Mass., on Jan. 28, 2016, seeks $7.8 million from SignalShare.

SignalShare, which has partnered with Wi-Fi gear vendor Extreme Networks on deployments for the Jacksonville Jaguars, the University of Maryland and the Detroit Red Wings, has most recently touted its Live-Fi nGage suite, a system that combines content, analytics and advertising links to give venue owners and operators a turnkey method to improve fan engagement and perhaps increase revenue opportunities for large-venue Wi-Fi networks.

According to the Law360 story, the lawsuit from NFS Leasing claims that SignalShare “began requesting financing from NFS for purchasing equipment for fictitious contracts,” using forged, altered and falsified documents for deals that didn’t exist. From the Law360 report, which quotes from the legal complaint:

“[SignalShare] would represent to NFS that it had entered into an agreement with a sports arena or team and would induce NFS to provide funding for the acquisition of the allegedly-needed equipment,” the complaint said.

SignalShare would provide fake or forged invoices for the equipment it allegedly ordered, or provide fictitious serial numbers for items allegedly purchased and installed in the fraudulent contracts, the complaint said.

Between May 20, 2014 and May 21, 2015, SignalShare conned NFS into advancing funds on 10 fraudulent lease transactions to the tune of $4.9 million, the complaint said.

The Law360 story also said that NFS Leasing and SignalShare agreed to a short-term repayment of the debts incurred, but that SignalShare defaulted on the payments. With interest and attorney fees, NFS is claiming SignalShare owes $7.8 million.

So far, neither NFS nor SignalShare has replied to a request for more information.

UPDATE, 5/18/16: Since the original post we have obtained more court documents related to the case, which indicate that former SignalShare CTO Joe Costanzo has left the company and is counter-suing SignalShare over its actions regarding this issue. More to come later today.

Filed Under: Apps, Extreme Networks, Wi-Fi Tagged With: Detroit Red Wings, Extreme Networks, Jacksonville Jaguars, Mobile Sports Report, NFL, NFS Leasing, nGage Live-Fi, Paul Kapustka, Stadium Wi-Fi, University of Maryland, Wi-Fi

Is WrestleMania the perfect storm for mobile-content consumption? Listen to Podcast No. 4 to find out!

May 16, 2016 by Paul Kapustka

Episode 4 of the STADIUM TECH REPORT PODCAST is live, in which hosts Phil Harvey and Paul Kapustka go to the mats to figure out if WrestleMania and the associated WWE operations are the perfect storm for mobile-content creation. We also discuss why WrestleMania and events like it are capable of creating massive demands for in-stadium bandwidth, like the latest big wireless day at WrestleMania 32 at AT&T Stadium. Listen now and let us know what you think!

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Here is the link to the podcast on iTunes!

Filed Under: About MSR, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Video Streaming Tagged With: AT&T Stadium, Mobile Sports Report, Paul Kapustka, Phil harvey, Stadium Tech Report, Stadium Tech Report Podcast, WrestleMania, WrestleMania 32, WWE

ExteNet acquires Dallas-based TPI, which provides DAS infrastructure to AT&T Stadium

May 11, 2016 by Paul Kapustka

More consolidation in the in-building wireless marketplace happened today with the announcement that Lisle, Ill.-based ExteNet Systems acquired Dallas-based Telecommunications Properties, Inc., (TPI) in a deal whose terms were not disclosed.

ExteNet, which runs DAS systems in many venues like Miami’s Marlins Park, was acquired itself last year by telecom investment group Digital Bridge Holdings and Stonepeak Partners in a deal that wound up being worth $1.4 billion. Since we haven’t heard from ExteNet yet it’s unclear if some of those funds went to acquire TPI, which among other clients runs the DAS at AT&T Stadium, as we found out when TPI’s president Jimmy Chiles posted a comment to one of our reports about AT&T Stadium.

From the sounds of the press release, not much will change on the TPI end except the company control and maybe the logo. From the release:

ExteNet will undertake maintenance operations responsibilities for all existing TPI networks. Properties and venues in TPI’s portfolio currently include Madison Square Garden, the LA Forum, AT&T Stadium (home of the Dallas Cowboys), the KFC YUM Arena and the Kentucky Exposition Center, among others.

More as we hear more…

Filed Under: 4G LTE, DAS Tagged With: AT&T Stadium, DAS, ExteNet Systems, Mobile Sports Report, Paul Kapustka, TPI

AmpThink brings Wi-Fi to Mall of America: So far, 486 TB of data used by 320K unique clients

May 10, 2016 by Paul Kapustka

Bloomington, Minn.-based Mall of America. Photos: Mall of America Instagram page.

Lately the sports stadium technology business has seen some big wireless-usage events, like Super Bowl 50, WrestleMania 32 and the Kentucky Derby, where fans keep setting records with terabytes of wireless use. We know it’s not a stadium, but now that we have some stats from the new Wi-Fi network AmpThink installed at the Mall of America, prepare yourself for a new level of consumption: How does 486 TB of traffic used by 319,995 unique clients over 793,750 total wireless sessions grab you?

Granted, not all this traffic happened in a single day during a single event (it’s the total since the network went live just before Thanksgiving in 2015) but still — we’ve always said that the large-crowd connectivity problems seen in stadiums would likely be replicated in many other large public venues like convention centers, casinos and malls — and now, thanks to AmpThink, we have some proof.

We haven’t yet visited the Bloomington, Minn.-based Mall of America, which calls itself the Nation’s Largest Mall even though according to Wikipedia it is the second-largest shopping mall in the country behind the King of Prussia Mall outside Philadelphia. (If there’s a mall-size expert out there, please let us know the stats.) Bottom line: Mall of America is huge, as it has an in-mall amusement park and the multiple levels of indoor shopping, which seem to make sense in Minnesota, where it can get brutally cold in wintertime and hot in the summer. It also seems to make sense that people will increasingly want Internet connectivity while shopping, for both economical reasons (how many of you have searched the price of something on your phone while at the mall?) as well as standard reasons while at a large public venue like help getting around, finding things like parking, restaurants and friends.

Old Met Stadium site gets new Wi-Fi… and Cisco StadiumVision

So on the site of the old Metropolitan Stadium in the Twin Cities, there’s now a Cisco-based Wi-Fi network which, if the stats mentioned above are any proof, is quite popular with shoppers. According to AmpThink, the network covering the mall’s 5.6 million square feet of space uses more than 600 Wi-Fi access points in addition to 236,600 feet of CAT6 cable, and 7,920 feet of fiber optic cable. Though we’re guessing that a mall may have infrastructure that allows for easier deployment of antennas, and not as much interference issues as a bowl-shaped stadium, apparently there was some new thinking necessary to cover the multiple mall levels with connectivity.

Minnesota Vikings cheer team tryouts at the mall.

“The Wi-Fi network we built for the Mall is not just big, but complex,” said Bill Anderson, President of AmpThink, in a prepared statement. “Our Radio Frequency engineers were challenged to develop new methods to calibrate frequencies in order to optimize performance for shoppers as they move in a massive space that has four distinct shopping levels and a large administrative level.”

And again — while it’s not a stadium the mall is taking advantage of technologies honed in the crucible of stadium use, including Cisco’s StadiumVision system for digital displays, which in a mall situation most likely has multiple uses for its ability to have centralized control of content being pushed out to the TV-like displays throughout the facility. AmpThink also said its management of the network includes use of Cisco’s Connected Mobile Experiences (CMX) to enable the mall to use things like device location data for customer engagement and analytic insights, such as the stat that mall guests who use the Wi-Fi network are staying for an average of 3.5 hours per visit to the mall.

With 40 million annual guests, we can’t wait to see the year-long Wi-Fi stats when they are totaled up. For now, it seems like the mall is happy with its choice of technology deployers:

“AmpThink has been a key partner in facilitating the connected experience for our guests at Mall of America”, said Jill Renslow, SVP of Marketing and Business Development at Mall of America, in a prepared statement. “Their industry experience and relationships were instrumental for our Wi-Fi installation, and we look forward to additional growth in innovation and a continued partnership with their team.”

Any other big malls out there with new Wi-Fi installs? Let us know!

UPDATE: Thanks to Andrew vonNagy of Revolution Wi-Fi LLC for the MoA Wi-Fi pictures below!

Filed Under: Wi-Fi Tagged With: AmpThink, Bloomington, Cisco, Mall of America, Minnesota Vikings, Mobile Sports Report, Paul Kapustka, Wi-Fi

Cellular use tops 12 TB for Kentucky Derby day — 20 TB+ for Derby weekend

May 9, 2016 by Paul Kapustka

Race winner Nyquist. Photo: KentuckDerby.com

Wireless data use at Saturday’s Kentucky Derby broke records all around, as major wireless carriers AT&T and Verizon Wireless both reported new event-usage top totals, with AT&T seeing 6.7 terabytes of data use while Verizon recorded 5.5 TB, for a total of 12.2 TB used during the Run for the Roses day. Last year, AT&T saw 5.1 TB of traffic on the Churchill Downs DAS and some extra infrastructure, while Verizon saw its total increase from 3.8 TB in 2015. Both AT&T and Verizon are on the main Churchill Downs DAS, which is run by neutral-host provider Mobilitie. This number will likely get even bigger if and when we get DAS stats from T-Mobile, which is also on the Churchill Downs DAS.

For the entire “Derby weekend” — a two-day stretch that also includes the Kentucky Oaks race on Friday — the carriers saw a combined 20.15 TB of data, with AT&T hitting 11.4 TB for the weekend and Verizon 8.75. Those totals are pretty stunning, when you realize that just two years ago AT&T only saw 2 TB of traffic on its DAS and associated infrastructure (which includes temporary cell towers on trucks and nearby macro towers), and Verizon customers used just 1.37 TB of data.

More evidence of wireless traffic growth can be found in the AT&T claim that it saw 815 GB of traffic on its network in a single hour last Saturday, easily the high number ever for AT&T at any kind of event. AT&T said that peak hour was from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern time, when the big race was held and favorite Nyquist won. In 2014, that peak hour for AT&T saw 180 GB of traffic, a number that we thought was big then. Verizon, which like AT&T added capacity to its infrastructure at Churchill Downs prior to this year’s race, also said it saw a traffic spike around the time of the big event. By comparison, AT&T said that at this year’s Super Bowl 50 at Levi’s Stadium it saw 201 GB of traffic on its DAS network just after kickoff.

When it comes to DAS the Derby now falls just behind the Super Bowl for DAS totals with 12.2 TB to 15.9 TB, though the Derby number could get closer if and when we get numbers from T-Mobile and Sprint. And yes, granted it’s a much bigger crowd (the Derby had its second-highest attendance ever with 167,227 — just a few thousand less than the record of 170,513 set last year. We also don’t have any stats yet for usage of the new Churchill Downs app, but it does appear betting was up this year, maybe due to app integration?

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, DAS, VenueNext, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: 4G LTE, AT&T, Churchill Downs, DAS, Kentucky Derby, Levi's Stadium, Mobile Sports Report, Mobilitie, Paul Kapustka, Verizon Wireless

Cavs, Budweiser and YinzCam bring virtual reality experiment to Cleveland fans

May 4, 2016 by Paul Kapustka

Fan testing the virtual-reality headset at Quicken Loans Arena. All photos: Cleveland Cavaliers

Approximately 750 fans were able to use the Cleveland Cavaliers’ stadium app and some cardboard headsets to get a virtual-reality experience while at Quicken Loans Arena for Wednesday’s playoff game between the Cavs and the Atlanta Hawks, according to the team.

Since we weren’t at the Q we couldn’t see the videos but according to the Cavs there was some VR content available Wednesday night via the YinzCam-developed team app, which if you were lucky to get one of the 750 promotional headsets that were given away, you could insert your phone and have a true, turn-the-head feel to the VR content, according to the team. Other fans could simply view the VR content on their phones, even without the headsets, the Cavs said.

Though there was no live VR content available, the canned-video experiment is just another leading-edge innovation for the Cavs at Quicken Loans Arena, one of the most technology-forward sports arenas around. According to the team it plans to repeat the VR experiment at some future playoff games, with another 1,500 Budweiser-branded headsets to give away.

Screenshot of Cavs app showing VR content tab

Cleverly, the headset “easily transforms into a handy Budweiser beer holder,” according to a press release.

“We’re always looking for new ways to connect with our fans by leveraging emerging technologies that deliver unique experiences. VR was a logical next step and an area we’re excited to explore,” said Mike Conley, Cavs VP of Digital, in a prepared statement. “The technology has endless opportunity and thanks to our partnership with Budweiser and Yinzcam, we’ve been able to get a head start in the emerging VR space with the new video content available on the Cavs App.”

No word yet on how well the headsets worked (as viewing devices or beer holders) or how many fans viewed the VR content, but it is at the very least a sign that VR may be closer to mainstream than you think, and that for savvy teams it can be an easy way to add a very visible sponsorship. Oh and by the way the Cavs also destroyed the Hawks 123-98, going up 2-0 in their series.

Here’s what the VR content looked like (kinda) in a 2D version

Filed Under: Apps, Atlanta Hawks, Basketball, NBA, YinzCam Tagged With: Apps, Budweiser, Cleveland Cavaliers, Mobile Sports Report, NBA, Paul Kapustka, Quicken Loans Arena, Virtual Reality, VR, VR headsets, YinzCam