Wi-Fi – Page 62

NBA stadium tech reports — NBA West, Northwest Division

May 14, 2015 by Paul Kapustka

Editor’s note: The following team-by-team capsule reports of NBA stadium technology deployments are an excerpt from our most recent Stadium Tech Report, THE HOOPS AND HOCKEY 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.

Reporting by Chris Gallo

NBA WEST: Northwest Division

Denver Nuggets
Pepsi Center
Seating capacity: 19,155
Wi-Fi: No
DAS:Yes

The Denver Nuggets rely on DAS to help fans stay connected at games. As the Pepsi Center turns 16 years old this year, there are no immediate plans to add fan-facing Wi-Fi to the arena. No Wi-Fi means it’s no surprise the Nuggets rank towards the bottom of the league in home attendance.

Minnesota Timberwolves
Target Center
Seating capacity: 19,356
Wi-Fi: No
DAS:Yes

Still no Wi-Fi available at the Target Center. But the city of Minneapolis and the franchise are working toward an estimated $97 million renovation that would be sure to include ways to improve the experience for the fans. Any connectivity upgrades would be welcomed, as the arena enters its 25th year of existence. Maybe Kevin Garnett can help hang some APs as part of his return?

Oklahoma City Thunder
Chesapeake Energy Arena
Seating capacity: 18,203
Wi-Fi: Yes
DAS:Yes

Oklahoma City installed new video boards and reconfigured suites as part of an estimated $2.4 million worth of upgrades this offseason. The updates are a nice compliment for fans, who can connect to Wi-Fi and DAS in Chesapeake Energy Arena.

Portland’s Moda Center, home of the NBA Trail Blazers. Credit all photos: Moda Center (click on any photo for a larger image)

Portland Trail Blazers
Moda Center
Seating capacity: 19,980
Wi-Fi: Yes
DAS:Yes

Owner Paul Allen delivered on a $16 million renovation plan this season, bolstering Wi-Fi and DAS in the Moda Center for years to come. It’s now easier for fans to view highlights during home games from the team’s mobile app.

Utah Jazz
EnergySolutions Arena
Seating capacity: 19,911
Wi-Fi: No
DAS:Yes

The Utah Jazz partnered with Boingo Wireless last spring to deliver a modern Distributed Antenna System to EnergySoultions Arena. The neutral DAS system is a major upgrade for fans and the 24-year-old facility. While Wi-Fi is not yet present in the arena, the franchise is patiently evaluating its needs to make it available in the future.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Basketball, DAS, NBA, Wi-Fi Tagged With: 4G LTE, DAS, Mobile Sports Report, NBA. Moda Center, Portland Trail Blazers, Stadium Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi

NBA stadium tech reports — NBA East, Southeast Division

May 10, 2015 by Paul Kapustka

Reporting by Chris Gallo

NBA EAST: Southeast Division

Atlanta Hawks
Philips Arena
Seating capacity: 18,118
Wi-Fi: Yes
DAS: Yes

Philips Arena features a different kind of video board this season. The court. That’s right, the Hawks are using a 3D projection system to display video on the hardwood and create an experience fans can’t find anywhere else. Atlanta can even use the projection system to bring tweets and Instagram posts from fans on the floor. Imagine seeing your selfie on the court, how cool is that?

The experience is even better after Boingo Wireless outfitted the 16-year-old facility with Wi-Fi and a robust neutral DAS system. The upgrades couldn’t have come at a better time given how the Hawks are performing on the court this season.

Charlotte Hornets
Time Warner Cable Arena
Seating capacity: 19,077
Wi-Fi: Yes (120+ antennas)
DAS: Yes (524 antennas)

With a not-so new name, the Charlotte Hornets continue to benefit from having a cable giant’s name on the front of their arena. The franchise plans to make Time Warner Cable Arena a bigger attraction in the future, and it should have no trouble as the city of Charlotte approved an estimated $33 million renovation project over the next decade. The buzz is indeed back.

Miami Heat
American Airlines Arena
Seating capacity: 19,600
Wi-Fi: No
DAS: Yes

The Miami Heat depend on a powerful Distributed Antenna System (DAS) to keep fans connected during home games at American Airlines Arena. There’s no fan-facing Wi-Fi in the arena yet, but it’s something the franchise is considering for the future, possibly first in a new bar/gathering area attached to the arena. Despite losing LeBron James to free agency, fans are still finding their ways to games, as the Heat rank in the top 10 in the league in attendance this season.

Orlando Magic
Amway Center
Seating capacity: 18,846
Wi-Fi: Yes
DAS: Yes

Orlando Magic in action at Amway Center. Credit: Orlando Magic

Only in its fifth year, the Amway Center is still one of the newest arenas in the NBA. Orlando partnered with AmpThink last year to give its Wi-Fi and DAS coverage a boost. This season, the Magic have joined forces with Chase and E15 Group to be one of the first NBA teams to incorporate Apple Pay into their home arena. Fans were able to make concessions and retail purchases from their phones throughout the arena.

Washington Wizards
Verizon Center
Seating capacity: 20,356
Wi-Fi: Yes
DAS: Yes

Mobilitie brought upgrades to the Verizon Center’s Wi-Fi and DAS systems over the past year, and it’s helping the Wizards connect with fans. Already with free iPhone and Android mobile apps, the Wizards released a native iPad app to help encourage fans to use the franchise’s digital ticketing system. And as a unique thank you to fans, the Wizards placed over 3,000 names of season ticket holders in the baseline logo of the Verizon Center’s court. Nice touch, Wizards.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, Atlanta Hawks, Basketball, DAS, NBA, Wi-Fi Tagged With: 4G LTE, AT&T, Atlanta Hawks, DAS, Mobile Sports Report, NBA, Paul Kapustka, Stadium Wi-Fi, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi

Stadium Tech Report: Los Angeles Angels and 5 Bars build ‘wireless halo’ of Wi-Fi & DAS for Angels Stadium

May 8, 2015 by Paul Kapustka

The iconic sign outside the “Big A,” aka Angels Stadium of Anaheim. Credit all photos, even tilted ones: Terry Sweeney, MSR (click on any photo for a larger image)

Every baseball team wants to notch a win on opening day, and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are no exception. So while the number of runs scored was important to Al Castro, the franchise’s IT director, his eye was also on wireless performance in Angels Stadium, since 2015 will be the first full season with both Wi-Fi and DAS technology in place. The Angels may have lost their opener against the Kansas City Royals, but their wireless networks scored big by handling more than 1.3 TB of data that afternoon.

“Fans expect connectivity these days,” Castro told Mobile Sports Report during a tour of Angels Stadium, aka the Big A, which was built in 1966. Once the home of the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams, the stadium went through and extensive renovation in 1997-98 and now seats about 44,000 for baseball and serves 3 million visitors annually. “If they’re going to come to a ballgame for four hours,” said Castro of today’s fans, “they won’t tolerate not being connected.”

Adding wireless to the ‘Big A’

To get the wireless ball rolling last year, teams of engineers on scaffolding started on the uppermost tier of the Big A (the “View Level”) to mount DAS and Wi-Fi antennas to the stadium canopy. Working from outermost edges of the C-shaped stadium, two sets at of scaffolding at each end leapfrogged each til they met in the middle – a five-week process, according to Castro.

Angels IT director Al Castro, in front of his wireless deployment map

The 15-zone DAS network went live in June 2014 with Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile on board; Sprint is expected to add some antennas in the next several weeks. Currently, there are 122 DAS remotes in 33 locations. Angel Stadium Wi-Fi went live in September 2014 and now counts more than 400 access points around the stadium, according to team figures. Ruckus Wireless is the Wi-Fi vendor; the DAS gear is from Teko Telecom, now part of JMA Wireless.

The Angels worked closely with technology partner 5 Bars, a builder of turnkey wireless networks for sports venues’ wireless needs. Castro would not disclose the budget for the wireless upgrades at Angels Stadium.

In addition to using Major League Baseball’s Ballpark app, Angels fans can post to social media, surf the Web and check email from the stadium’s wireless networks. On the stadium’s club level, spectators can wirelessly order food and beverage from their seats; Legends, which operates the stadium’s concessions, uses an unpublished SSID for 150 wireless-enabled moveable cash registers and more than two dozen handheld point-of-sale devices. Similarly, TicketMaster has its own invisible SSID for wireless scanning of tickets at the stadium’s entry gates; the SSID for the press box is also masked, according to Castro.

Hiding in plain (or painted) sight

The DAS antennas and APs have been strategically installed and well concealed; they’re as discrete as chameleons. Working with Ruckus gear, 5 Bars installed narrow-beam, sectorized-beam and high-capacity APs, all centrally managed by Ruckus’s SmartCell Gateway 200.

A nice view of the field — with antennas in silhouette

The Angels also use SmartCell Insight, a reporting and analytics package that helps the team track number of unique connections to the Wi-Fi during the course of a game, device types, total and average data uploaded and downloaded, and their speeds, Castro said.

Angel Stadium Wi-Fi has been engineered for 20,000 simultaneous users; there’s no throttling of user bandwidth and no filtering for streaming media like Spotify — “yet,” Castro was quick to add with a laugh. Download speeds vary depending on crowd size, according to Tommy Taylor, senior manager, engineering services for 5 Bars. For a game with 36,000 in attendance, for example, average download speed for devices using 2.4 GHz bandwidth is 8-12 Mbps, while 5 GHz connections can run as fast as 18-24 Mbps. On the traffic side, currently the network is seeing upload volume of about 20 percent of the download average volume, Taylor said, in an email to Mobile Sports Report.

The Angels will continue to fine-tune the network and add or re-point APs as necessary. “We are in the process of adding additional APs to cover some areas that, when the stadium is full, do not receive the high level of coverage we are targeting to provide,” Castro said. Those additions should be done by mid-June. Management has an eye on monetizing the network through sponsorships, and extending the in-seat ordering system beyond the club level of the ballpark, according to Castro.

He also wants to add streaming video to the network so that fans can watch replay from multiple angles, which Castro described as “a good incentive — something you can’t get at home.” He also intends to expand his use of analytics and report generation on a game-by-game basis. It’s the sort of thing that the owners and managers of the team are increasingly interested in, Castro added.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Apps, AT&T, Baseball, DAS, Major League Baseball, MSR Guides, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi Tagged With: 5 Bars, Anaheim Stadium, AT&T, Baseball, DAS, JMA Wireless, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, MLB, Mobile Sports Report, Ruckus Wireless, Sprint, Stadium Wi-Fi, T-Mobile, Terry Sweeney, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi

NBA stadium tech reports — NBA East, Central Division

April 22, 2015 by Paul Kapustka

Reporting by Chris Gallo

NBA EAST: Central Division

Chicago Bulls
United Center
Seating capacity: 20,917
Wi-Fi: Yes
DAS:Yes

The Chicago Bulls are atop the NBA in attendance this season, as the United Center benefits from recent upgrades from AT&T. These upgrades included an estimated 400 Wi-Fi antennas to keep Bulls and Blackhawks fans connected. And recently, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and United Center owners announced construction of a new, standalone office building next to the United Center.

The office building will house Blackhawks and Bulls’ employees, as well being the home for retail stores for both teams and a variety of restaurants. The space will encourage more economic development and be a draw for fans before and after games.

Cleveland Cavaliers
Quicken Loans Arena
Seating capacity: 20,562
Wi-Fi: Yes
DAS:Yes

After welcoming home LeBron James, the Cleveland Cavaliers are working to make the Quicken Loans Arena more social in 2015. The arena partnered with TigerLogic Corp. to install four corner board social media displays. TigerLogic’s Postano Platform shares updates from fans and advanced statistics during games.

The Cavaliers estimate an average of 20,000 posts per game are being shared, and connecting to the system is easier for fans with Verizon Wi-Fi and DAS throughout the arena. Plus, owner Dan Gilbert unveiled a new 5,500-square-foot LED HD scoreboard at the beginning of the season. With one of the best players in the NBA and arena upgrades, no wonder Cleveland’s attendance is up almost 20 percent from last year.

The Palace at Auburn Hills. Credit all photos, Palace at Auburn Hills (click on any photo for a larger image).

Detroit Pistons
The Palace of Auburn Hills
Seating capacity: 21,165
Wi-Fi: Yes
DAS:Yes

At a home game in March 2015, lots of Pistons fans found themselves with a dilemma. With the Pistons on the floor and the Michigan Wolverines making a deep NCAA Tournament run, fans wanted to watch both games. No problem, thanks to 238 Wi-Fi access points and DAS throughout The Palace of Auburn Hills. Outfitted by Ericsson, Detroit’s network carried over 450 GB of traffic at the home game last March with fans seamlessly streaming video from their phones. The Pistons also have a mobile app featuring beaconing technology for in-game discounts, a streaming radio broadcast, and digital menu boards. The Palace certainly lives up to its name of royalty when it comes to stadium connectivity.

Indiana Pacers
Bankers Life Fieldhouse
Seating capacity: 18,165
Wi-Fi: Yes, 346 access points
DAS:Yes

Now with a full deployment from SignalShare, Bankers Life Fieldhouse is a clear example of how Wi-Fi can benefit everyone – fans, sponsors, and the franchise. When the Pacers were making another deep playoff run last season, RetailMeNot sponsored the SingalShare Wi-Fi network delivering fans downloadable coupons for a free milkshake at a near by Steak ‘n Shake. A sponsor sees a return on their investments, the Pacers bring in more revenue, and fans feel rewarded for being at the game.

With multiple events hosted at the arena including Disney on Ice, WNBA’s Indiana Fever home games, and the Big 10 women’s and men’s conference basketball tournaments, there’s plenty of fans coming in and out of the arena. The Pacers personnel are able to observe fans’ habits and use that information to make much more relevant offers to them in the future. The team’s official app for both iPhone and Android has also increased in functionality with 346 Wi-Fi access points throughout the arena courtesy of Extricom.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Basketball, DAS, NBA, Wi-Fi Tagged With: 4G LTE, Chicago Bulls, DAS, Detroit Pistons, Mobile Sports Report, NBA, Stadium Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi

AT&T sees almost double DAS traffic for MLB’s season-opening series

April 20, 2015 by Paul Kapustka

Head-end room cabling at AT&T Park. Credit: AT&T/San Francisco Giants

According to AT&T, the season-opening series for Major League Baseball saw fans use almost twice as much cellular data as the year before, across the 19 ballparks where AT&T has in-stadium cellular networks in place.

Remember, these numbers represent only cellular traffic and only for AT&T customers on the AT&T stadium-specific networks, which are almost all of the distrubuted antenna system (DAS) type. Though some stadiums saw much more traffic than others, the average series-long total of 215 gigabytes per venue was almost double the same statistic from the 2014 season-opening series, where AT&T saw an average of 111 GB per venue. And if AT&T’s traffic is doubling you can probably safely bet that all other metrics — Wi-Fi, and traffic for other carriers — has increased as well.

Thanks to our friends at AT&T, here is the full list for series-long DAS traffic at MLB venues where AT&T has stadium-specific networks. Stay tuned to MSR for our Q2 Stadium Tech Report later this spring, when we’ll take a team-by-team look at MLB technology deployments, specifically focusing on Wi-Fi and DAS. So far, it looks like fans are already in mid-season selfie form.

OPENING SERIES DAS TOTALS (AT&T customer traffic only, on AT&T stadium-specific networks)

1. Arlington, TX (Rangers): 655GB

2. St. Louis (Cardinals): 466GB

3. Los Angeles (Dodgers): 396GB

4. Atlanta (Braves): 375GB

5. Anaheim (Angels): 270GB

6. Denver (Rockies): 251GB

7. Philadelphia (Phillies): 250GB

8. Chicago (Cubs): 227GB

9. New York (Yankees): 189GB

10. Cincinnati (Reds): 185GB

11. Miami (Marlins): 183GB

12. Boston (Red Sox): 162GB

13. San Francisco (Giants): 158GB

14. Oakland (A’s): 149GB

15. Seattle (Mariners): 139GB

16. Washington, D.C. (Nationals): 132GB

17. Milwaukee (Brewers): 129GB

18. Houston (Astros): 102GB

19. Minnesota (Twins): 86GB

20. Phoenix (Diamondbacks): 85GB

21. New York (Mets): 80GB

22. San Diego (Padres): 58GB

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, Baseball, DAS, Major League Baseball, San Francisco Giants, Wi-Fi Tagged With: AT&T, AT&T Park, cellular, DAS, Major League Baseball, Mobile Sports Report, Paul Kapustka, San Francisco Giants, Stadium Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi

WrestleMania 31 resets Levi’s Stadium Wi-Fi record with 4.5 terabytes of data used

April 16, 2015 by Paul Kapustka

WrestleMania 31 at Levi’s Stadium, March 29, 2015. Credit all images: 49ers.com (click on any photo for a larger image)

The biggest crowd yet at Levi’s Stadium also reset the venue’s Wi-Fi usage records, as the 76,976 fans at the March 29 WrestleMania 31 event used 4.5 terabytes of data on the in-stadium network, according to representatives from the San Francisco 49ers, the stadium’s owner and operator.

The WrestleMania mark eclipsed the previous Wi-Fi high-water figure of 3.3 TB, recorded during the Niners’ home opener at Levi’s Stadium on Sept. 14, 2014. However, the WWE event’s record should come with a bit of an interesting asterisk, since the Niners said they built a temporary ground-level extension to the Wi-Fi network that was used by approximately 3,700 fans who were sitting in seats on the field, surrounding the WrestleMania stage. The team also put in extra Wi-Fi coverage for the three temporary seating sections that were erected in the Levi’s Stadium southeast plaza, structures that will likely be part of the configuration for Super Bowl 50 next February.

WrestleMania competition

“We considered the event a success from a Wi-Fi standpoint considering the temporary APs served almost 4,000 people and moved a large amount of data,” said Roger Hacker, senior manager, corporate communications for the San Francisco 49ers. “We moved a significant amount of traffic all the while seeing minimal negative comments on social media.”

In a related note, it seems like beefed-up train and bus service from light rail entity VTA kept lines and waits to a minimum, even with a record number of fans also using public transportation to the event. At the very least, the Levi’s Stadium team seems to be back on a positive path after some painful lessons learned during the Feb. 21 Coors Light Stadium Series hockey game. Remember also that WWE did not want in-seat food or merchandise delivery available during the event, which proabably helped make network operations easier.

Under-seat APs and handrail antennas

According to Hacker the field-level network used 76 extra access points, with 69 on the field level itself and seven more on the field-level walls. Hacker said a combination of picocell and handrail enclosures were used for the temporary network, which was necessary since the regular stadium-bowl configuration was never designed to handle traffic for events with fans on the field level.

Hacker also said the temporary network had its own switching infrastructure, with eight portable switching pods connected by both fiber and outdoor Ethernet cabling. The results from the WrestleMania event, Hacker said, will help the Niners and Levi’s Stadium staff prepare for future events with on-field seating, like the concerts scheduled for later this spring and summer.

The Niners said their goal with the WrestleMania temporary network “experiment” (which they believe to be the first ever done for a large outdoor event) was to see whether the Levi’s Stadium under-seat design could be extended to the field for temporary events “in a cost-effective, safe and repeatable manner. From what we experienced with WrestleMania 31, every indication is that we will be able to do that.”

Some more network stats from the WrestleMania 31 event:

— The peak concurrent user mark was 14,800 on the Wi-Fi network at around 8:10 p.m.

— The Wi-Fi network carried 1.61 Gbps of average continuous bandwidth from 2:20 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., also a new stadium record

— The peak bandwidth usage was 2.474 Gbps at 7:10 p.m.

— Usage on the Levi’s Stadium DAS network was not reported.

Overhead shot of Levi’s Stadium during WrestleMania 31, showing on-field seating

Filed Under: DAS, Levi's Stadium, MSR Guides, NFL, NHL, Wi-Fi Tagged With: Levi's Stadium, Mobile Sports Report, Paul Kapustka, San Francisco 49ers, Stadium Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi, WrestleMania, Wrestlemania 31, WWE

NBA stadium tech reports — NBA West, Northwest Division

NBA WEST: Northwest Division

NBA stadium tech reports — NBA East, Southeast Division

NBA EAST: Southeast Division

Stadium Tech Report: Los Angeles Angels and 5 Bars build ‘wireless halo’ of Wi-Fi & DAS for Angels Stadium

Adding wireless to the ‘Big A’

Hiding in plain (or painted) sight

NBA stadium tech reports — NBA East, Central Division

NBA EAST: Central Division

AT&T sees almost double DAS traffic for MLB’s season-opening series

WrestleMania 31 resets Levi’s Stadium Wi-Fi record with 4.5 terabytes of data used

Under-seat APs and handrail antennas

Sign up for our Email Newsletter

Search the MSR Site

e-reports