stadium wireless

Artemis announces DISH spectrum lease, setting up San Francisco pCell service trial; also makes venue-specific hub available for trial

February 24, 2015 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

Artemis Networks founder Steve Perlman. Credit all photos: Artemis Networks

Artemis Networks moved one step closer to a real-world offering of its pCell wireless service with the announcement of a spectrum lease deal with satellite provider DISH that will give Artemis the means to offer commercial services in San Francisco perhaps as early as sometime later this year, pending FCC approval.

In the meantime, owners of large public venues (like sports stadiums) can now test out the Artemis technology for themselves, by testing an Artemis I Hub and antenna combination in a trial arrangement with the company. Announced last year, Artemis’ pCell technology claims to solve two of the biggest problems in wireless networking, namely bandwidth congestion and antenna interference, by turning much of the current technology thinking on its head. If the revolutionary networking idea from longtime entrepreneur Steve Perlman pans out, stadium networks in particular could become more robust while also being cheaper and easier to deploy.

In a phone interview with Mobile Sports Report prior to Tuesday’s announcement, Perlman said Artemis expects to get FCC approval for its pCell-based wireless service sometime in the next 6 months. When that happens, Artemis will announce pricing for its cellular service, which will work with most existing LTE phones by adding in a SIM card provided by Artemis. Phones with dynamic SIMs like some of the newer devices from Apple, Perlman said, will be able to simply choose the Artemis service without having to add in a card.

Though he wouldn’t announce pricing yet, Perlman said Artemis services would be less expensive than current cellular plans. He said that there will likely be an option for local San Francisco service only, and another that includes roaming ability on other providers’ cellular networks for use outside the city.

More proof behind the yet-untasted pudding

When Perlman, the inventor of QuickTime and WebTV, announced Artemis and its pCell technology last year, it was met with both excitement — for its promise of delivering faster, cheaper wireless services — and no shortage of skepticism, about whether it would ever become a viable commercial product. Though pCell’s projected promise of using cellular interference to produce targeted, powerful cellular connectivity could be a boon to builders of large public-venue networks like those found in sports stadiums, owners and operators of those venues are loath to build expensive networks on untested, unproven technology. So it’s perhaps no surprise that Artemis has yet to name a paying customer for its revolutionary networking gear.

Artemis I Hub

But being able to name names and talk about spectrum deals are steps bringing Artemis closer to something people can try, and perhaps buy. VenueNext, the application development firm behind the San Francisco 49ers’ Levi’s Stadium app, confirmed that it is testing Artemis technology, and the San Francisco network will provide Perlman and Artemis with a “beta” type platform to test and “shake out the system” in a live production environment.

“We need to be able to move quickly, get feedback and test the network,” said Perlman about Artemis’ decision to run its own network first, instead of waiting for a larger operator to implement it. “We need to be able to move at startup speed.”

For stadium owners and operators, the more interesting part of Tuesday’s news may be the Artemis I Hub, a device that supports up to 32 antennas, indoor for now with outdoor units due later this year. The trial testing will allow venue owners and operators to kick the tires on pCell deployment and performance on their own, instead of just taking Artemis’ word for it. Artemis also has published a lengthy white paper that fleshes out the explanation of their somewhat radical approach to cellular connectivity, another step toward legitimacy since publishing such a document publicly means that Artemis is confident of its claims.

If networking statistics from recent “big” stadium events are any barometer, the field of stadium networking may need some significant help soon since fans are lately using way more data than ever before, including the 13+ Gigabytes of traffic at the Super Bowl in Phoenix and the 6+ GB figure from the college football playoff championship game. To Perlman, the idea of trying to use current Wi-Fi and cellular technology to address a crowded space doesn’t make sense.

“You simply cannot use interfering technology in a situation where you have closely packed transmitters,” said Perlman. “You just can’t do it.”

Artemis explained

pCell antenna from Artemis Networking

If you’re unfamiliar with the Artemis idea, at its simplest level it’s a new idea in connecting wireless devices to antennas that — if it works as advertised — turns conventional cellular and Wi-Fi thinking on its head. What Perlman and Artemis claim is that they have developed a way to build radios that transmit signals “that deliberately interfere with each other” to establish a “personal cell,” or pCell, for each device connecting to the network.

(See this BusinessWeek story from 2011 that thoroughly explains the Artemis premise in detail. This EE Times article also has more details, and this Wired article is also a helpful read.)

Leaving the complicated math and physics to the side for now, if Artemis’ claims hold true their technology could solve two of the biggest problems in wireless networking, namely bandwidth congestion and antenna interference. In current cellular and Wi-Fi designs, devices share signals from antenna radios, meaning bandwidth is reduced as more people connect to a cellular antenna or a Wi-Fi access point. Adding more antennas is one way to solve congestion problems; but especially in stadiums and other large public venues, you can’t place antennas too close to each other, because of signal interference.

The Artemis pCell technology, Perlman said, trumps both problems by delivering a centimeter-sized cell of coverage to each device, which can follow the device as it moves around in an antenna’s coverage zone. Again, if the company’s claims hold true of being able to deliver full bandwidth to each device “no matter how many users” are connected to each antenna, stadium networks could theoretically support much higher levels of connectivity at possibly a fraction of the current cost.

The next step in Artemis’ evolution will be to see if (or how well) its technology works in the wild, where everyday users can subject it to the unplanned stresses that can’t be tested in the lab. With any luck and FCC willing, we won’t have to wait another year for the next chapter to unfold.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Apple, AT&T, DAS, Wi-Fi Tagged With: Artemis Networks, DAS, DISH, FCC, Mobile Sports Report, Paul Kapustka, pCell, spectrum, stadium networking, Stadium Wi-Fi, stadium wireless, Steve Perlman, Wi-Fi

Boingo adds University of Houston to growing stadium Wi-Fi and DAS customer list

May 6, 2014 by Paul Kapustka 1 Comment

University of Houston stadium rendering. Credit: University of Houston

Boingo Wireless, once known best for its Wi-Fi deployments in airports, is rapidly building up a big resume of stadium customers for Wi-Fi and DAS installations. The latest in a string of recent announcements is a Wi-Fi and DAS deployment deal for the new University of Houston football stadium, a 40,000-seat facility scheduled to open for the 2014 college season.

We’re working on setting up a call with the Houston folks to learn more about their deployment plans but in the meantime you can peruse the Boingo press release as well as the website about the new stadium, which has been under construction for a few years. Like the deployment underway at the Air Force Academy, Boingo’s wireless plans for Houston include a neutral third-party DAS installation as well as Wi-Fi for fans at the stadium as well as for internal stadium operations.

“A world-class facility like the Houston Football Stadium requires a state-of-the-art wireless network on par with major league venues,” said Mack Rhoades, Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics at the University of Houston, in a prepared statement complete with a bad sports/Wi-Fi metaphor that publicity people just can’t resist. “Boingo brings experience in managing networks for professional and university stadiums and arenas nationwide, and they’ll provide a comprehensive wireless solution that’ll keep Cougars’ alumni, fans and staff connected from kick-off to the final touchdown.”

Like we said, more soon when we speak with the folks from U of H.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, DAS, NCAA Football, Wi-Fi Tagged With: 4G LTE, Boingo Wireless, DAS, Mobile Sports Report, Paul Kapustka, Stadium Wi-Fi, stadium wireless, University of Houston

Can the NBA’s stadium networks handle live Google Glass camera views?

April 7, 2014 by Paul Kapustka 1 Comment

The news that NBA teams are now partnering with San Francisco’s CrowdOptic to deliver Google Glass views to stadium big screens is a pretty interesting development to contemplate, on the heels of our Stadium Tech Report for Q1 2014, which looks at wireless network deployments in NBA stadiums. Done in a team-approved, controlled fashion, a few Google Glass streams could be pretty interesting. But CrowdOptic’s capabilities, as I understand them, are much bigger, and could theoretically allow for fans to see what other fans are seeing, if both are wearing Google Glass. The question we have for that latter idea is: Can the stadium networks handle all that traffic?

A good place to start to figure out the answer to that question is by downloading our Stadium Tech Report for Q1 2014, available free right now from our site. The 35-page PDF report delivers a capsule profile of each and every NBA team and whether or not it has Wi-Fi and DAS services in its stadiums. In our research we found Wi-Fi to be almost universal, with 79 percent — or 23 of 29 NBA facilities — all having fan-facing Wi-Fi. There is also a DAS (Distributed Antenna System) for enhanced cellular in almost every arena, and the ones that don’t have it are either installing it now or plan to soon.

But can those networks handle a crowd of Google Glass wearers, all broadcasting video of their court views? A good question for the next report, maybe. But you’ll need to know what the current network deployment situation is first, so… DOWNLOAD THE REPORT!

Filed Under: 4G LTE, DAS, Google, NBA, Wi-Fi Tagged With: CrowdOptic, DAS, Google Glass, Mobile Sports Report, NBA, Paul Kapustka, stadium networks, Stadium Tech Report, Stadium Wi-Fi, stadium wireless, Wi-Fi

Stadium Tech Report: St. Louis’ Edward Jones Dome taps Mobilitie for DAS deployment

April 6, 2014 by Paul Kapustka 2 Comments

Edward Jones Dome

You can add the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis to the list of large, public facilities with a common No. 1 complaint from visitors: Why doesn’t my cell phone work?

“People get really anxious when they can’t get a signal,” said Marty Brooks, senior vice president and general manager of the Edward Jones Dome and the adjacent America’s Center convention complex. “It’s been our number one complaint, that people can’t connect.”

To address its connectivity issues, the team in charge of IT at the 66,000-seat stadium that is home to the NFL’s Rams and the adjacent 500,000-square-foot convention center enlisted wireless infrastructure supplier Mobilitie to install a neutral-host distributed antenna system (DAS), which should be operational this summer. At that point, cellular reception for customers of all the major carriers should improve drastically, even in the concrete hallways and closed meeting rooms of the connected facilities.

“Like many facilities that are 10 years old or older, we were not prepared for the [wireless] demands that the public and our clients have brought,” Brooks said in a recent phone interview. “It was a no-brainer for us to upgrade. We knew we had to.”

DAS first, another common theme

Marty Brooks, senior vice president and general manager, Edward Jones Dome

Aside from the connectivity issues, the deployment schedule Brooks and his team chose – DAS first – is also in line with many other facilities. Though Wi-Fi services often get more public attention due to the perhaps wider understanding of the technology, according to Mobile Sports Report’s 2013 State of the Stadium Technology Survey, most large public facilities that are installing new wireless infrastructure put a priority on DAS, perhaps because it alleivates the most pressing problem, that of having no connection at all.

“Our first priority was to address [basic] cellular, because we felt we could mobilize that deployment faster,” said Brooks. Though the facility, which opened in 1995, also hopes to bring Wi-Fi in, Brooks said the early negotiations confirms his beliefs that installing Wi-Fi is a longer process.

“We hope to get Wi-Fi installed in a couple years,” Brooks said. “But DAS will bring an immediate marked improvement.”

Staying in Neutral

Though the largest wireless carriers in the U.S., especially AT&T and Verizon Wireless, often like to lead or build DAS installations they are a part of, Brooks said that the St. Louis arena and convention center – which is owned by the St. Louis Regional Sports Authority and operated by the St. Louis Convention/Visitors Bureau – knew it wanted a third-party DAS operator.

“We felt the [DAS] backbone should be built like Switzerland,” said Brooks, who said that carrier groups were not even allowed to bid for the system’s construction. In the end the complex went with Mobilitie, a firm whose long track record of putting DAS into large public venues helped Brooks and his team move confidently forward.

Christos Karmis, president, Mobilitie

“Mobilitie has good relationships with all the carriers, and they had the experience we were looking for,” Brooks said.

“Our focus has always been to be a good partner with [wireless] carriers,” said Christos Karmis, president of Mobilitie, in a recent phone interview. One of the benefits a facility owner or operator gets when they work with a neutral provider like Mobilitie is the accumulated knowledge gained by doing many large-venue deployments, and the internal resources to have staff who knows the differences in needs between the major carriers.

“We have people who are 100 percent dedicated to each of the different carriers, and how their technology changes from year to year,” Karmis said. “You have to stay up to speed or even ahead of it. If not, you end up in a situation where [the DAS] is not deployed right and the carriers don’t move onto the system.”

Antennas easy, cabling hard

According to Brooks, the easy part of the DAS installation is the deployment of the actual antennas. The hard part, he said, is stringing all the cable necessary to bring signals to the antennas, especially in the “dark” areas like long concrete-walled hallways and the convention center’s many internal meeting rooms.

Edward Jones Dome at night

“Pulling all the wire is very difficult and time consuming,” Brooks said. “We need to make sure that the media members who are working back at the end of dark corridors, or the suite holders in the backs of their suites, all have the ability to connect with their cell phones. Same with the all the attendees in our convention halls. We need to bring [wireless] access to all the inner spaces of a steel and concrete building.”

For its DAS operations, the facility has a 1,700-square foot enclosure with all the necessary HVAC and electricity. Brooks said stadium owners and operators need to “be creative” in finding spaces for DAS gear, which has only grown larger the past few years with the 4G LTE network deployments from all the major carriers.

Planning for crowds beyond the game

Unlike other stadiums that exist by themselves, the combination of arena and convention center makes for some unusual crowd gatherings, Brooks said, including a half-dozen or so times a year when the 66,000-seat stadium is at capacity while another 25,000 to 30,000 people are at the convention center.

But just like they expect their team to win no matter who the opponent is, Brooks said Rams fans also expect their phones to work on game day – and they aren’t shy about letting his team know if their performance isn’t a winning one.

“There’s such a level of expectation for the service we have to provide – and the fans are not shy about letting us know,” Brooks said. “But we told them, we’re committed to making this happen.”

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, DAS, MSR Guides, NFL, Wi-Fi Tagged With: DAS, DAS in stadiums, Edward Jones Dome, Mobile Sports Report, Mobilitie, NFL, Paul Kapustka, St. Louis convention center, St. Louis Rams, stadium wireless

Stadium Tech Report: Is the NBA the stadium Wi-Fi winner?

March 27, 2014 by Paul Kapustka 4 Comments

With fan-facing Wi-Fi available in 23 of its 29 team facilities, it appears on paper that the National Basketball Association — the NBA — is the U.S. leader among pro sports leagues when it comes to stadium Wi-Fi. But if only a few of those same stadiums are actively promoting Wi-Fi or delivering advanced wireless services, is that title valid? For the answer or at least some informed conjecture, we point you to our inaugural Stadium Tech Report long-form issue, our Q1 2014 report which focuses on, you guessed it, Wi-Fi and wireless deployments in NBA stadiums.

Available now for free download, the 35-page PDF report delivers a capsule profile of each and every NBA team and whether or not it has Wi-Fi and DAS services in its stadiums. To spoil the fun a little, I will let you know that we found Wi-Fi to be almost universal, with 79 percent — or 23 of 29 NBA facilities — all having fan-facing Wi-Fi. (To save you time I will list the non-Wi-Fi stadiums here: Miami, Denver, Utah, Atlanta, Minnesota and Milwaukee.) There is also a DAS (Distributed Antenna System) for enhanced cellular in almost every arena, and the ones that don’t have it are either installing it now or plan to soon. But as we noted in the lead, even with all this connectivity, there are just a handful of teams who are really utilizing their wireless services to improve the fan experience. That measured embrace of wireless services makes us wonder why many teams are reluctant to promote the assets already installed.

Profiling the leaders

I could tell you more but — why not download the report? We put a lot of effort into this report, which is designed as a “lean back” type of publication, the kind of thing you can refer to over and over again as a reference, or as a resource to study when you need a break from Twitter and email. In addition to the team-by-team capsules we also have included three in-depth profiles of wireless deployment leaders, including the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, the Staples Center in Los Angeles, and Orlando’s Amway Center. There is also report-based analysis of the league’s wireless situation from yours truly, plus an industry thought-leader perspective from our friend Seth Buechley at SOLiD, on why facilities should use wireless technology to improve fan safety, a sometimes overlooked amenity that deserves more attention.

I’ll be talking here more about the report this week and next, but first and foremost I’d like to thank our sponsors, whose contributions make it possible for us to offer this time-consuming research and analysis for free to our readers. Along with SOLiD, who sponsored our State of the Stadium report last year, for our Stadium Tech Report Q1 issue we’d like to welcome Extreme Networks, Crown Castle and AmpThink, whose support of our efforts are deeply appreciated.

We also truly appreciate our readers, who have increased in considerable number the past few months. There’s no magic as to why we’re growing — starting last November, we started telling more of your stories, stories of stadium deployments with lessons learned, failures overcome and enthusiastic steps taken — in a series we started calling Stadium Tech Reports. Those stories have resonated, and we hope that this new long-form report series will too, as the format allows for a bit of leg-stretching and an easier way for our readers to share our stories — your stories — with your professional circles.

One favor to ask — please register!

With growth and change there is always a little bit of pain, and for our readers there is one task that we ask — that you register with us to download the new report, so we can better serve you going forward. (And instead of just forwarding the report, please ask your professional circle to go ahead and register too!)

We realize that many of you may have recently spent a little bit of time filling out a registration form to download our previous report, and we thank you for that effort. But with the new growth in readership we’ve had to step up our game as well and that meant biting the bullet to put in a new registration system that will allow us to provide a robust “gated” content system for our registered readers, meaning that for all the rest of the reports and other exclusive content we have planned for this year and beyond (it’s a growing list!) you won’t need to keep filling out forms.

Even though our report is bound up in a PDF, we realize that any such publication is always a “work in progress,” so please if you have any updates, corrections, suggestions or any other opinions, feel free to leave them here in the comments, or email me directly at kaps at mobilesportsreport.com. We have lots more in store for the stadium technology market this year, so register today so that you don’t miss a thing as the 2014 season rolls on.

Filed Under: DAS, MSR Guides, NBA, Wi-Fi Tagged With: Amway Center, Barclays Center, Cisco Connected Wi-Fi, Cisco StadiumVision Mobile, DAS, Mobile Sports Report, NBA, NBA stadium Wi-FI, NBA Wi-Fi, Paul Kapustka, Stadium Tech Report, Stadium Wi-Fi, stadium wireless, Staples Center

AT&T running ads about DAS in stadiums… MSR approves

March 17, 2014 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

Sure this is an AT&T ad. But an ad about putting in DAS at a stadium? Who would run a copy of this except us? Enjoy all you antenna geeks out there. And… there’s gotta be work for the fan, maybe conduit work? C’mon DAS dudes, let me in on the fun!

You had me at “Do you know how to optimize a 9-beam multi-beam antenna system?”

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, DAS Tagged With: AT&T, DAS, Mobile Sports Report, Paul Kapustka, stadium DAS, stadium wireless