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Wi-Fi to the RV: Oklahoma brings Wi-Fi services to RV parking lot

December 28, 2015 by

Flag flying over SooneRVillage lot. All photos: University of Oklahoma (click on any photo for a larger image)

Flag flying over SooneRVillage lot. All photos: University of Oklahoma (click on any photo for a larger image)

As the University of Oklahoma studies the possibility of bringing Wi-Fi to its football stadium, it has already brought Wi-Fi to a group of dedicated fans: Sooner supporters who park their recreational vehicles in a special lot.

Called the SooneRVillage, the designated lot has Wi-Fi coverage to all its 400 spaces, according to David Payne, senior technology strategist for athletics at Oklahoma. “The network works really well – the RV customers are thrilled with it,” said Payne.

From an IT perspective, he said, the lot is a sort of experiment in real life as to how Wi-Fi connectivity can make fans happier.
“It [the RV network] gave me a platform to show what was possible [to improve] the fan experience,” Payne said.

Editor’s note: This story is from our most recent STADIUM TECH REPORT, the 2015 COLLEGE FOOTBALL ISSUE, which is available for free download from our site. Read this story and more about university technology deployments by downloading your copy today!

A mesh network on light poles

If you’ve been to any big football school that is located in a fairly remote place you know how important RVs are to fans who want to support their team as much as they can. With half its spots offering electrical hook-ups, the SooneRVillage regularly sells out, Payne said, and had done so even before Wi-Fi became available.

RV lot light pole with Wi-FI gear

RV lot light pole with Wi-FI gear

The cost of the lot is $150 per weekend for an electrical spot and $75 for non-electrical spaces, and season passes can be had for $750 (electric) and $300. Partnering with AT&T and Wi-Fi deployment firm AmpThink, Oklahoma responded to fan demand in bringing Wi-Fi to the RV lot, Payne said. Though its statistics from Wi-Fi usage this season aren’t fully tallied yet, Payne said through the first four home games the school saw 3,500 unique users register on the Wi-Fi system.

With an average of about 2.5 Wi-Fi users per vehicle, Payne guessed that in the near future it won’t be too hard to sell a sponsorship for the service to reach those bandwidth-hungry guests from out of town.

“You could sell a sponsorship to an RV dealer, and recoup some of the operating costs,” Payne theorized.

The network, which has about 40 Wi-Fi APs mounted on light poles, faced some unique technical challenges mainly around the power supply, Payne said. The question was, how do you keep power going to the APs when the lights need to be turned off at night? The solution, Payne said, was to use split electrical circuits so that APs could remain powered, and RV occupants could stay connected after dark.

More uses than just football

And while the RV users at football games were the primary target for the parking lot Wi-Fi network, Payne said the lot has already provided Internet access for several other groups throughout the year.

A Renaissance fair held in Norman, he said, uses the same lot (and the Wi-Fi), and the University itself now takes advantage of the Wi-Fi lot (located near the school’s basketball arena) as a centralized staging area for new student check-in procedures.

“We used that lot during the first week of school, and [having connectivity] really smoothed out the operations,” Payne said.

Full house at the SooneRVillage on game weekend

Full house at the SooneRVillage on game weekend

Filed Under: NCAA Football, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , ,

5 Bars finally gets official nod for Wi-Fi deployment at Houston’s NRG Stadium; but will use Extreme gear instead of Ruckus

December 22, 2015 by

NRGstadium_1It took a long time, but wireless deployment firm 5 Bars was finally given the official approval as the company leading the installation of Wi-Fi at Houston’s NRG Stadium, which is scheduled to host Super Bowl 51 in 2017.

Though construction won’t be started until after the 2016 NCAA Men’s Final Four — which also takes place at NRG — the network is scheduled to be completed in time for the next NFL season, according to 5 Bars. The only change from previous reports about this deal is that 5 Bars will be using Wi-Fi gear from Extreme Networks, and not Ruckus Wireless, apparently due to the NFL’s preference to have gear it is familiar with at a Super Bowl venue.

Given the sensitivity of the process and the gear-switch outcome, and the timing of the holidays, it’s perhaps understandable that calls and emails for comments to the stadium authorities, the NFL, and both Ruckus and Extreme have not yet been returned. The best we can guess is that with huge wireless demands expected at all Super Bowls going forward, the NFL — which gets extremely involved in Super Bowl venue preparations and management — didn’t want to have to work with gear it was unfamiliar with for a “big game.” Extreme, which has an exclusive-supplier deal with the league, is currently being used in nine NFL stadiums, though not in any that have recently held a Super Bowl.

Monnie McGaffigan, senior vice president for 5 Bars, who did confirm that 5 Bars originally submitted a joint bid with Ruckus for the NRG network, said 5 Bars remains “extremely happy” with the Ruckus gear it used in its Wi-Fi deployment at Angels Stadium in Anaheim. But now that the end result is a switch to Extreme, she said that 5 Bars is “getting ready to get boots on the ground” in January, doing local prep work for when the deployment will start in earnest at the home of the NFL’s Houston Texans.

According to McGaffigan, the network will use approximately 1,100 Wi-Fi APs, with under-seat deployments used for a majority of the in-bowl APs. Backhaul for the network will use 5-gigabit Ethernet pipes that are burstable to 10 Gbps, McGaffigan said. Verizon Wireless, which runs the DAS at NRG Stadium, is also apparently going to have its own Wi-Fi bandwidth at NRG like existing deals it has in place at NFL stadiums including Green Bay’s Lambeau Field and Seattle’s CenturyLink Field.

For 5 Bars, the deal is a signature win, a big second step up from its Wi-Fi and DAS deployment at Angels Stadium. While McGaffigan said the small startup-ish firm based in Irvine, Calif., has some other interesting projects afoot — including wireless infrastructure for tollroads and downtown city areas — she said the company is “excited to win a big deal like this.”

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Basketball, DAS, Extreme Networks, NFL, Super Bowl, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

NFL Stadium Tech Reviews — NFC West

December 21, 2015 by

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.

NFC WEST

Reporting by Paul Kapustka

View from the Levi's 501 Club section seats, 2014 season. Photo: Paul Kapustka, MSR

View from the Levi’s 501 Club section seats, 2014 season. Photo: Paul Kapustka, MSR

San Francisco 49ers
Levi’s Stadium
Seating Capacity: 68,500
Wi-Fi – Yes
DAS – Yes

Though the San Francisco 49ers didn’t quite live up to expectations last year, the team’s new stadium delivered on its technological promise, especially on the Wi-Fi network front, where service was solid from day 1, supporting the innovative stadium-app features like food delivery to every seat and instant replays. And while there were no complaints about the stadium’s DAS, carrier customers paid deployment firm DAS Group Professionals to completely replace the system this offseason, to better handle even more traffic expected at Super Bowl 50, which will take place at Levi’s in February.

Arizona Cardinals
University of Phoenix Stadium
Seating Capacity: 63,500
Wi-Fi – Yes
DAS – Yes

If you want great Wi-Fi, by all means have your facility host a Super Bowl. The latest recipient of a high-fidelity network (using Cisco gear and deployed by CDW), the University of Phoenix Stadium set Wi-Fi records last February at the big game, with more than 6 terabytes of data used.

Seattle Seahawks
CenturyLink Field
Seating Capacity: 72,000
Wi-Fi – Yes
DAS – Yes

CenturyLink Field, once a joke because it was a stadium named after a phone company that had poor connectivity, is now into its second year of a Wi-Fi deployment from Extreme and Verizon Wireless, where Verizon customers get their own part of the network. Watch for more innovation in Seattle on the app side, with multiple camera angles available for replays.

St. Louis Rams
Edward Jones Dome
Seating Capacity: 66,000
Wi-Fi – No
DAS – Yes

Still no Wi-Fi at the Edward Jones Dome, as the team continues to ponder its future and whether or not it will stay in St. Louis.
Fans should still have good cellular connectivity thanks to the Mobilitie neutral-host DAS installed last season.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, Cisco, DAS, Extreme Networks, Levi's Stadium, NFL, Seattle Seahwaks, Sprint, Super Bowl, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi, Xfinity, YinzCam Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

University of Phoenix Stadium sees another 2 TB Wi-Fi game with big events on the horizon

December 21, 2015 by

University of Phoenix Stadium before Super Bowl XLIX. Photo: Paul Kapustka, MSR (click on any photo for a larger image)

University of Phoenix Stadium before Super Bowl XLIX. Photo: Paul Kapustka, MSR (click on any photo for a larger image)

Call it maybe a warm-up before the storm hits? The University of Phoenix Stadium, home of the Arizona Cardinals, racked up another 2 terabyte Wi-Fi traffic event during a recent Thursday night game, but bigger wireless days are no doubt on the near horizon.

With playoff-consideration regular season home games coming up against the Green Bay Packers and the Seattle Seahawks, the beefed-up Wi-Fi and DAS at UoP is sure to get a workout, though there might be even bigger numbers chalked up during the Notre Dame-Ohio State clash at the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 1, 2016, and the College Football Playoff championship game, scheduled for Jan. 11. According to Mark Feller, vice president of technology for the Arizona Cardinals, the two college events will use the stadium’s expanded seating, which increases capacity from the NFL-game level of 63,500 to 75,000.

Last February during Super Bowl XLIX, the University of Phoenix Stadium (located in Glendale, Ariz.) recorded the highest single-game Wi-Fi traffic mark, a figure of 6.23 TB, while the inaugural College Football Playoff championship game at AT&T Stadium hit 4.93 TB. With the Packers coming to town Dec. 27 followed by the Seahawks on Jan. 3, it might be interesting to see how much Wi-Fi traffic is carried at UoP in the two-week-plus span.

For the Dec. 10 Thursday night game against the Minnesota Vikings (won by the Cardinals, 23-20), Feller said the Wi-Fi network recorded 28,497 unique clients, an almost 45 percent “take rate.” The peak concurrent user number that night was 25,333, Feller said, occurring just before halftime. The total bandwidth used was 2.0 TB, Feller said.

We’ll be interested to see what happens in the “15 days of bandwidth,” a series of events Feller and his crew are facing with excitement, as well as probably some pots of coffee and/or energy drinks.

“We are excited to be hosting all these games, but won’t be sleeping much,” Feller said in an email.

Filed Under: AT&T, Cisco, DAS, NCAA Football, NFL, Seattle Seahwaks, Super Bowl, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Comcast to provide back-end bandwidth for Kings’ Golden 1 Center

December 17, 2015 by

Golden 1 Center in Sacramento takes shape (screenshot from Sacramento Kings video)

Golden 1 Center in Sacramento takes shape (screenshot from Sacramento Kings video)

The Sacramento Kings have signed Comcast to a deal to provide the back-end Internet bandwidth for the Golden 1 Center, the new basketball arena that is scheduled to open in time for the 2016-17 season.

In a deal that sounds similar to the one Comcast signed with the San Francisco 49ers to provide service to Levi’s Stadium, Comcast Business will provide the Sacramento stadium with bandwidth to drive the planned fan-facing Wi-Fi network, among other services. While the press release claims that Comcast will use two 100 gigabit Ethernet circuits to supply the stadium, we suggest taking the claim that the venue’s Internet connection “will be over 17,000 times faster than the average home Internet connection” with a grain of salt and the warning that your mileage may vary.

The press release today did not confirm our earlier report that Ruckus Wireless will be the vendor supplying the Wi-Fi gear for the stadium, nor did it offer any specifics on what kind of bandwidth fans might actually get during a sellout game; but with Comcast on the back end whatever network is built should have no problem getting enough connectivity, especially with two 100-gig pipes.

From the looks of this cool video the stadium is taking shape nicely… roof on and everything!

Filed Under: Comcast, Levi's Stadium, NBA, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Nebraska’s 2015 season Wi-Fi stats: Two 4+ TB games, 3.4 TB average

December 16, 2015 by

Memorial Stadium, University of Nebraska. Credit all photos: University of Nebraska.

Memorial Stadium, University of Nebraska. Credit all photos: University of Nebraska.

The high-density Wi-Fi network at the University of Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium saw a lot of action during the 2015 football season, racking up an average of 3.4 terabytes per game with two games going past the 4 TB mark.

According to figures provided to us by Chad Chisea, IT operations manager for Nebraska athletics, an early season game against South Alabama carded 4.2 TB and a Nov. 7 matchup against Michigan State (which Nebraska won, 39-38) hit 4.1 TB of Wi-Fi usage to set the high-water marks for the seven-game home schedule. Chisea noted that both 4+ TB Wi-Fi events were during night games, an interesting stat to ponder. The low Wi-Fi usage mark came during the final game of the season, a 28-20 Cornhuskers loss on Nov. 27, a day that Chisea said had temperatures that stayed below freezing in Lincoln.

The average number of unique devices connected per game was 31,358, an impressive “take rate” given that the average announced attendance during 2015 was 90,012 per game. The Michigan State game saw the highest single-game unique device total, 35,781, as well as the biggest number of peak concurrent connections, 29,666. For the entire seven-game season, the Nebraska network saw 219,504 unique devices connected, and it carried a total of 24.1 TB of traffic.

(Click on image to see larger version)

(Click on image to see larger version)

Filed Under: Cisco, NCAA Football, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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