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MSR Behind the profiles: 2019 Final Four, part 1

April 10, 2020 by

On the press bus to the stadium for the semifinals. Credit all photos: Paul Kapustka, MSR (click on any picture for a larger image)

Over the course of the last year, I’ve had several requests from readers to shed more light on what goes on “behind the scenes” on my various stadium visits. Here’s the first in a planned series I’m calling “Behind the profiles,” giving you some flavor of the fun and interesting things and people I experience on my trips to check out stadium technology deployments. In honor of the basketball tournaments we are all now missing, here is my “trip diary” from my visit last year to Minneapolis to see how U.S. Bank Stadium’s Wi-Fi networks held up under the big-game stress — along with some other interesting side trips! Please let me know if you find these interesting or fun to read and I will write some more… 2019 was a true banner year for MSR visits!

Friday, April 5, 2019: Getting to the Final Four, and a Prince tribute

If there was a recurring personal theme to my Final Four trip last year it was: dealing with my hip. After almost a year of putting up with various hip-related pains in November of 2018 my situation went “off the cliff” as one doctor said, rendering me unable to do much walking or any other activity. A subsequent MRI revealed that I had almost zero cartilage left in my right hip, which meant — after other MRIs confirmed it wasn’t a problem with my back, on which I had surgery 10 years ago — that I needed a hip replacement. The good news? It would turn out to be the most pain-free major surgery I’d ever had or heard of. It was done in an outpatient procedure and I was walking without crutches five days later.

The bad news? The surgery didn’t happen until late May. In early April I was still hobbling around in a sidewinder motion, slapping lidocaine patches on and taking anti-inflammatories to make it through each day. But with the downtime associated with the surgery ahead, I had to get enough stories in my notebook to fill our spring issues — so off to Minneapolis I went.

Not all displays are digital. At MSP airport.

I can’t thank the NCAA folks enough for granting MSR a credential (they had also done so the previous year) for the Final Four. There is nothing like being on site for an actual game to see how the networks and other technologies perform. While sometimes vendors and teams are able to find us some kind of pass to get stadium access, at the biggest events having a standard media credential just makes life easier for all involved. The trick is, convincing the powers that be that MSR’s coverage is beneficial to a sports audience. (Someday, Super Bowl, someday.)

After landing at MSP airport I got an almost instant dose of what is generally called “Minnesota Nice.” I had just started ambling up the concourse toward baggage claim when a nice gent pulled up beside me in one of those golf-cart things and said, “I can spot a bum hip a mile away. Get in!”

One of the numerous airport volunteers, the “Minneapolis ambassador” spared me about 15 minutes of pain-walking, a break I welcomed. “When’s your surgery?” he asked. I told him and he replied, “you’ll kick yourself after it’s over for waiting so long. But you’ll love it.” Correct on all counts. As I got out of the cart to go down to baggage claim, a local cheerleading group was doing their moves in the airport’s main atrium. I did a quick check of the Wi-Fi (good signal) and got my bag.

The other nice thing about a real media credential is having a real room at one of the official media hotels. You do pay for it — and are required to pay for four nights no matter how many nights you are actually there — but it’s worth it. Even though our Marriott (sports writers practically live in Marriotts) was close enough to walk to the stadium (about a half-mile or so), in my condition I needed the saturation of shuttles and free rides that are de rigeur for any big event like the Final Four. After checking in I took one of the shuttles provided by Buick (NCAA sponsor) over to the stadium to get my credential and lucked out as there was no line at all, allowing me to get my badge in just a few minutes’ time.

When the Timberwolves honor local legend Prince, they get purple.

Instead of trying to find where the shuttles picked up I tapped my “insider knowledge” of Minneapolis (which I had visited several times over the past couple years) and took the light rail from right outside U.S. Bank Stadium back toward the hotel — there was a station just about a block away. Walking back I noticed one other great maybe-not-a-coincidence about the location of the media hotel I was in: There was not one, but two local brewpubs on the separate street corners from the hotel entrance. And yes, over the weekend I visited them both. Good local beer and good pub-fare food. And of course, friendly people working there.

As if I wasn’t going to see enough basketball, on Friday night I went to the Target Center to watch the Timberwolves play the Miami Heat. It was a great way to relax into the weekend, and for a change I didn’t even go around and test the Wi-Fi (we had done a profile of the arena’s new technology the year before). And the game was one of the several “Prince tribute” events the Wolves had last year, where they wore purple jerseys and a band played Prince tunes at halftime. Very cool, very Minneapolis.

Saturday, April 6: Semifinals and Sally’s Saloon

With the semifinal games not starting until early evening, there was time to kill — so I hopped on the light rail again and crossed the Mississippi River over to the University of Minnesota area, where I had a late lunch at Sally’s Saloon, one of the several iconic U of Minn watering holes. Since it was rainy and chilly out I went with a good bowl of chicken soup while I watched the end of the inaugural women’s tournament at Augusta National — what a great way to get psyched for the Masters. And what great golf! Would love to come back and tip one at Sally’s pre- or post-football game. It just has that perfect college-bar feel.

Would love to get back here to see a Minnesota hockey game. Sieve!

After the local-scene interlude I went back to the hotel and boarded an early bus to the stadium, more to get the lay of the land than to file any stories. The great thing about my work as opposed to most writers there is that I wasn’t on deadline — my profiles wouldn’t appear until our June issue. After finding my assigned seat — way back in the back row of the press area behind one of the hoops — I went down to the floor to walk around before it got closed off. It’s cool to see the setup up close, the raised playing court, the band areas and wander right up to the NBA on TNT set in one corner, where Ernie, the Jet and Chuck (no Shaq that day) were holding court, live.

The terrible sight lines from my seat were not an issue — after all, my work was not to watch the game but to wander the stadium as the games went on, testing the wireless networks while the fans gave them the ultimate selfie workout. It’s just nice to have a place to rest (especially if your hip hurts), so it’s a nice perk. As it turns out, my seating arrangement was about to get much better (for me) in short time.

I did make it back to the “press working room,” a cordoned-off wide space in the bowels of the building. Think: concrete floors, hanging-drape walls, plastic row tables and folding chairs. Those are the typical conditions for big-time sports writers, photogs, bloggers and others at the big events. With something like 2,000 credentialed media, a standard press box won’t do.

During pregame, pretty much any press pass gets you close to the floor.

While spartan, the press rooms do have everything you really need to get the job done: Nearby access to interviews (a separate stage where they bring players and coaches in), power strips everywhere for laptops and phones, and serious Wi-Fi coverage in the form of temporary antennas on poles throughout the room. There’s also a basic but efficient food and drink service, which I avoided other than getting sodas and coffee. I’d just rather get stadium food instead of steam-tray stuff, to get a sense of the venue’s “flavor” if you will. Plus as I said earlier I’m not on deadline and usually not sitting in a seat so it’s easier to just grab something as I walk around.

I next went to find my networking types and was directed to the football press box, where David Kingsbury, director of IT for the stadium, had set up the NOC HQ in what looked like a coaches’ box. Like any good general David had set up his troops for success with a wide array of healthy and not-so-healthy snacks, which I was allowed to partake in. I did enjoy my fair share of Kind bars over the weekend, and was reminded (after a taste test) just how tooth-twistingly sweet a Twinkie is. (Rejected after one bite.)

While waiting for David and his team to find some time for a quick interview I noticed that the football press box was completely empty — and thought, why not set up here as a base for my stuff and to watch the games when I needed a break? For someone who wanted to spend the day roving around the venue, the football press box was a much better base location than my official press seat (which involved a series of tunnels and stairs to get to). Plus it had comfy office-chair type seating and lots of room to spread out. Sure the court was far away, but all the multiple TVs in the press box were live, giving you as good a view as anyone’s living room couch.

The press working room was well covered by temporary Wi-Fi APs.

Sometime during the night the press folks let the rest of the media know they could sit in the football press box on a first-come, first-serve basis, and while some others eventually joined me the place never got full. While there was none of the food or beverage service usually in place for Vikings games, the added bonus of the football press box was that it has its own restrooms — something not available near the courtside seats. And in the temporary official press room, the facilites were a trucked-in port-a-potty trailer.

Since I had only made it to the final game of last year’s championship I was interested to see what the crowds would be like for the semifinals — would the second game fans skip the opener and arrive after halftime? The answer — not a chance. If you’re at the Final Four, you do the Final Four, and the stadium was packed by tipoff of game 1. And for the first time, the Final Four was allowing alcohol sales, and beer was very popular at the many concession stands and kiosks around the venue. AmpThink, which in addition to having done the regular stadium Wi-Fi had also constructed a temporary Wi-Fi network for the additional courtside seats, put all the switches it used under the stands inside waterproof cases — in part to protect from inevitable beer spills.

Over the course of the first game, I wore myself out completely, overdoing it a bit with stadium laps to see if the network held up everywhere, from the courtside seats to the highest seats up in the rafters. What impressed me was how many people were really into the games, even from far-away seats. I tried to find the perfect picture from behind, of a fan using a phone to record the action, but truthfully my opportunities were few and far between, as most people really paid attention to the action on the court. One thing that surprised me was how fast the Final Four gear sold out: There was one hat I thought was really neat, and thought “well, I’ll get one Monday.” Rookie move. By the second game Saturday, there were almost no hats at all of any kind available, with the design I wanted long gone. Next time, I’ll buy any swag on Friday at the media hotel, where there was a pop-up stand for one day only.

In between games I retreated to my football press box seat, and found some time to interview David Kingsbury and his staff about not just the Wi-Fi and DAS but the displays as well, including the temporary centerhung board which was pretty amazing for a once-only apparatus. In addition to multiple screens it also had the capability to project images onto the court itself, an extra kind of screen that really brought pregame ceremonies to life.

With the games finally over and Monday’s championship between Virginia and Texas Tech set, I walked out with the AmpThink team, skipping the masses that formed a huge line at the light rail station outside the stadium. However, we didn’t do much better trying to hail an Uber or Lyft, having to walk nine blocks away from the stadium before we could get clear enough from crowds to get an SUV driver to pick up all seven of us. A late-night dinner at an excellent brewpub capped a great night of hoops and networking. More later this weekend on the rest of the weekend, including trips to a soccer stadium and the Mall of America!

Here’s the link to part 2 of the story.

More photos below!

Up close and personal with the NBA on TNT crew

The good, bad and the ugly at the NOC HQ snack table


Some of the $5 million in curtains U.S. Bank Stadium had to set up to keep the light out


Kept trying to find the perfect ‘fan with a camera’ shot. Bonus geek points if you can spot the MatSing ball antennas


Republic, one of the two brewpubs on either side of the media hotel


My football press box perch

The crush at the light rail station after the semifinals

Filed Under: About MSR, AmpThink, Basketball, Cisco, Digital displays, Final Four, NBA, NCAA Hoops, NFL, Super Bowl, TNT, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

JMA invents emergency ventilation system for Covid-19 treatments

April 8, 2020 by

JMA, a company best known in the stadium-wireless industry for its telecommunications gear, has led a joint effort to build an “emergency” ventilation system for Covid-19 patient treatment, using existing medical equipment that is then married to “a unique mechanical apparatus” that can help keep patients breathing until they can be transferred to more robust ventilator.

JMA’s initiative to develop an emergency ventilation system highlights their innovative approach in responding to critical healthcare needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Leveraging their expertise from the stadium-wireless industry, JMA has collaborated on adapting existing medical equipment with a specialized mechanical apparatus. This apparatus plays a crucial role in providing essential breathing support to COVID-19 patients, bridging the gap until they can receive more advanced ventilatory care.

The integration of precision metal fabrication in this project is essential for crafting durable and precise components that ensure the reliability and functionality of the ventilation system under demanding medical conditions. The use of metal fabrication techniques in manufacturing the mechanical apparatus underscores the importance of robust engineering in medical device development. By employing high-quality metal components, JMA ensures the ventilator’s structural integrity and performance, crucial factors in medical equipment designed for life-saving purposes.

This collaborative effort not only demonstrates the versatility of JMA’s technological capabilities but also exemplifies how industries can mobilize expertise to address urgent healthcare challenges, emphasizing innovation and adaptability in times of crisis.

In these uncertain times, having access to essential medical supplies has become more important than ever. E-First Aid Supplies, for instance, plays a pivotal role in ensuring that individuals and healthcare facilities are well-prepared to handle medical crises. Their extensive range of first aid kits and medical gear provides the necessary tools to address immediate health concerns, from minor injuries to critical situations like respiratory distress caused by Covid-19. As the pandemic continues to challenge healthcare systems globally, the integration of innovative solutions and reliable first aid resources becomes indispensable in safeguarding public health and ensuring timely medical intervention.

With headquarters in Liverpool, N.Y., located near Syracuse in upstate New York, JMA said it led a joint effort to develop the design and manufacture of an emergency, mechanical ventilation system. Called PREVAIL NY, for “Pandemic Response Emergency Ventilation Assembled In Liverpool, New York,” the project includes Dr. John Callahan, a physician of internal medicine, and Syracuse University, according to a JMA press release.

Given the prevailing shortage of ventilators for Covid-19 treatment, it seems like even a device that provides temporary help could be incredibly useful. Here is the lead explanatory paragraph from a paper JMA has posted about the system:

The PREVAIL NY device is a robust mechanical system mated to an FDA-approved ventilatory circuit. The PREVAIL NY system is a mechanically-actuated ventilation device based on a conventional bag valve mask (BVM) that is connected in-line to an endotracheal tube (ETT).This device is designed to provide controlled minute ventilation to an intubated patient utilizing standard FDA-approved components mated to the PREVAIL NY mechanicalapparatus. This design is not intended to replace an FDA-approved ventilator; rather, it is intended to act as a rescue device with an indication for providing emergency ventilation.

Until we can talk to JMA further, some more basic info from the press release:

PREVAIL NY is designed to augment the existing ventilator supply in the short term when no other traditional U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved ventilation options are available, providing key basic ventilation functions to relieve doctors of the need to make life-and-death decisions due to ventilator shortages.

According to JMA, the company has submitted an application to the FDA seeking approval for emergency use of the device. The PREVAIL NYC LLC set up by JMA and its partners was formed to facilitate manufacture of the device, the design of which is also available as an open-source project.

“The team is ready to jump-start manufacturing here in New York state, and devices can also be built at our facility in Bologna, Italy, for their local needs,” said John Mezzalingua, CEO and founder of JMA, in the prepared statement.

“This emergency ventilation system takes advantage of existing medical equipment and marries it to a unique mechanical apparatus,” said Dr. Callahan, also in the prepared statement. “I am excited about its familiarity to physicians around the world and that it has many of the same technical components that are common to existing ventilators. I am amazed by its creation in only 10 days.”

Filed Under: coronavirus Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Remote worker support at forefront for venue IT during coronavirus shutdowns

April 1, 2020 by

With almost all work now being done remotely, it’s no surprise that team and venue IT staffs have virtual operations support at the forefront as the coronavirus shuts down most business operations.

In emails and calls to a small group of venue, team and school IT leaders the task of making sure that staffs could work online in a virtual fashion was the one common response from every person who replied to our questions. According to our short list of respondents that task included getting mobile devices into the hands of those who needed them, and setting up systems like virtual private networks (VPNs) and virtual desktop environments (VDI) so that work could proceed in an orderly, secure fashion.

Since many of the people we asked for comments couldn’t reply publicly, we are going to keep all replies anonymous and surface the information only. The other main question we asked was whether or not the virus shutdowns had either delayed or accelerated any construction or other deployment projects; we got a mix of replies in both directions, as some venues are taking advantage of the shutdowns to get inside arenas that don’t have any events happening now. In addition to some wireless-tech projects that are proceeding apace, we also heard about other repairs to systems like elevators and escalators, which are more easily done when venues are empty.

But we also heard from some venues that shutdowns right now will likely push some projects back, maybe even a year or more. One venue that is largely empty in the summer will have to skip a planned network upgrade because it expects that normally empty dates in the fall and winter will be filled by cancelled events that will need to be rescheduled. Another venue said that it has projects lined up ready to go, but has not yet gotten budget approval to proceed.

Following our editorial from earlier this week, when we encouraged venues to make their spaces available for coronavirus response efforts, it was clear that many venues across the world had already started down that path. One of the quickest uses to surface was using venues’ wide-open parking lots as staging areas for mobile coronavirus testing; Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium, Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium and Washington D.C.’s FedEx Field were among those with testing systems put in parking lots.

Some venues have already been tabbed as places for temporary hospitals, with deployments at Seattle’s CenturyLink Field and New York’s Billie Jean King National Tennis Center already underway. Other venues, including Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland and State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., have hosted blood drives.

Using venues to support coronavirus response efforts is a worldwide trend, with former Olympic venues in London being proposed as support sites, as well as former World Cup venues in Brazil. Perth Stadium in Australia is also being used, as a public safety command center, like Chicago’s United Center, which is being used as a logistics hub.

Many other venues are stepping forward to offer free public Wi-Fi access in parking lots so that people who don’t have internet access at home can safely drive up and connect. Ball State University and the Jackson Hole Fairgrounds are just two of many venues doing this.

Venues are also offering their extensive kitchen and food-storage capabilities for the response effort. The Green Bay Packers have been preparing and delivering meals for schools and health-care workers, while the Pepsi Center in Denver offered cooler space to store food. Many other venues have contributed existing stores of food to charitable organizations and support efforts, since those items won’t be used at any of the many cancelled events.

Filed Under: coronavirus Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

DIY method brings Wi-Fi to Rutgers basketball arena

March 30, 2020 by

The Rutgers Scarlet Knights men’s basketball team takes on the Indiana Hoosiers at Rutgers Athletic Center on Jan. 15, 2020. (Click on any picture for a larger image) Credit: Ben Solomon/Rutgers Athletics

It was a bit more complicated than a trip to Home Depot, but when the Rutgers University IT team wanted to bring fan-facing Wi-Fi to the school’s basketball arena but didn’t have the budget for a big-name contractor or vendor deal, it did what many weekend warriors do when faced with the same build vs. buy decision:

They did it themselves.

By purchasing lower-cost Wi-Fi gear and doing almost all of the design and deployment work in-house, the Rutgers IT team was able to bring a satisfactory level of coverage to the 8,000-seat Rutgers Athletic Center for a total price tag of about $62,000, according to representatives from the school’s athletic IT department. The Rutgers team first told their story at this year’s College Athletics IT peer conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and then provided more details in a follow-up interview with Mobile Sports Report.

The success of the DIY Wi-Fi deployment now has the Rutgers IT team looking at a similar method for bringing Wi-Fi to the school’s football stadium, starting with a localized deployment in the student section where it anticipates needs will be the highest. In parallel, the team has been researching innovative platforms, drawing inspiration from a best uitbetalende goksite, where seamless digital integration and user satisfaction are paramount. While fans at events in the “RAC” are probably happy for the connectivity, what might even be more important is the confidence and experience gained by the IT team by rolling up its sleeves and finding a way to deliver the network at a very reasonable price.

“The practical experience of doing this ourselves was just so much more interesting than attending conferences or networking classes,” said Jonathan Beal, systems administrator for the Rutgers athletics IT team. “I’d encourage smaller schools to look into something like this.”

Turnkey system prices ‘out of range’

Editor’s note: This profile is from our latest STADIUM TECH REPORT, which is available to read instantly online or as a free PDF download! Inside the issue is a profile of Dickies Arena in Fort Worth and a recap of a record Wi-Fi day at Super Bowl LIV! Start reading the issue now online or download a free copy!

A look at the tilt angles for the Wi-Fi APs. Credit: Rutgers Athletics

Though Rutgers isn’t exactly small (enrollment is just more than 50,000 at the main campus in New Brunswick, N.J.) and while its teams are part of the major Big Ten conference, the school simply doesn’t have the athletic-department budgets that some of its conference brethren do. And while Beal said that the school is regularly approached by technology vendors with stadium Wi-Fi pitches, the million-dollar-plus price tags for deployments are a non-starter for Rutgers.

“We get approached year after year, but the quotes are always out of our [budget] range,” Beal said. But at the college IT conference in 2019, Beal said the Rutgers team was interested in a presentation from the IT department at the University of Virginia, where that school used lower-cost equipment from Wi-Fi gear provider Ubiquiti to bring Wi-Fi to Virginia’s football stadium.

While Beal said the Virginia team detailed some initial failures in their deployment program, eventually they got it on track, and inspired the Rutgers crew to see if they could chart a similar path.

“We took notes, came back to New Jersey, made some phone calls, and asked ‘how far could we go?’,” Beal said. At the beginning, the team guessed they might be able to get the school to “absorb the cost” of a test deployment either in the basketball arena or the football stadium. What tipped the project in the basketball arena’s favor was the existence of some recently installed conduits leading to the rafters, where some biometric tracking equipment and some previous DAS gear had been installed.

“For the football stadium, the [conduit] pathways are challenging – it’s going to be costly when we do that,” Beal said.

After trying out a few test APs sent over by Ubiquiti the Rutgers team felt confident in their choice of hard- ware, and submitted a budget for $60,000 – which was quickly approved. “It was an easier sell than we thought,” said Beal. “They [the administration] trusted us.”

Overhead vs. under seat

Choosing to put Wi-Fi in the rafters pointing down instead of under the seats pointing up was another con- scious choice Rutgers made after noticing a difference between how football fans and basketball fans use in-venue wireless.

“We noticed that at football games fans download [data] and watch stuff, then go back to watching the game,” Beal said. “For basketball it’s a totally different user experience. People aren’t watching things on their phones, but they are uploading to Instagram.”

A look up at some of the Wi-Fi APs. Credit: Rutgers Athletics

So instead of solving for density and coverage (where under-seat offers a generally better experience) the Rutgers team aimed for the best upload experience for the money – which meant they could do top-down APs using line-of-sight tuning.

With a blend of a 3D rendering of the entire seating bowl (done with 360-degree cameras) and some help from Ekahau survey tools, the Rutgers team pinpointed the optimal placement points for the APs in the rafters. Since the seating in “The RAC” is mostly only on the two sides of the court – and not behind the baskets – the deployment became a fairly uncomplicated tale of two halves, with two APs for each sector.

Some tuning revealed a need to tilt the top AP down from a straight horizontal mount top since the tin roof of the RAC (which contributes to the venue’s historic reputation for being loud and an intimidating place to play) also reflects RF signals.

“Everything bounces around up there off the roof, including the RF,” said Beal. With 20 APs in the rafters (and four more down at court level for other areas) Rutgers was able to get the kind of coverage they wanted. After installing the APs with help from campus technicians – including installing backup chains to keep APs from falling onto any guests – it was time for the next step: Seeing what happened when fans joined the network.

Captive portal or free access?

Like almost every other venue that has installed Wi- Fi for guests, Rutgers struggled with how to make access available. Should it just be free to use with no restrictions, or should they try to use some kind of captive portal to get an email address or other identifying information so that the school could market to event attendees?

Joe Vassilatos, unit computing manager for the Rutgers athletics IT team, said there was some favor of a Facebook sign-in method from the Rutgers marketing team, because of the ease of identification. But Vassilatos said the IT team was “wary” of using a Facebook method, something Beal agreed with.

“We got some feedback from other schools that if you put that [Facebook sign-in] in, nobody uses the network,” said Beal.

Instead, the team opted for a sign-in method that uses a one-time SMS code with a 4-digit number that fans must enter to get access to the network. But both Beal and Vassilatos hoped that in the future there might be other ways to monetize the network – like doing offload for cellular carriers – that would allow them to make access even easier.

A top-down look at the mounting solution for the APs. Credit: Rutgers Athletics

With the network in place during this past basketball season, Rutgers saw good numbers on the usage side, with anywhere from 600 to 800 people using the network at games this winter. Beal said network statistics showed that at most games, 20 percent of the visitors connected to the network at least once, with 10 percent having dwell times in the 20- to 50-minute range.

“That shows they’re a real user, and not just a visitor,” Beal said.

For the last three games of the season, the Rutgers network got a promotional boost from a pregame light show that included fans using their mobile devices. Part of the promotion included instructions to log on to the Wi-Fi.

But according to Beal, the network wasn’t ever a secret.

“The first thing people do in any place is check for free Wi-Fi,” Beal said. “And if people are happy with it, it’s good enough.”

Next steps: Planning for football

For this offseason, the new project for the Rutgers IT team is bringing Wi-Fi to the student section of the football stadium, where they are planning to go with an under-seat approach. According to both Beal and Vassilatos deployment there is going to be more of a tuning challenge since Rutgers students rarely sit in one place, but instead crowd the area and even stand on bleachers trying to cram in.

But with a functional Wi-Fi network now inside inside the basketball arena, a place known as “The Trapezoid of Terror” (for its unique sloped-walls architecture), the Rutgers IT team is confident of its deployment chops, and takes great pride in knowing that more events can be held there with good connectivity, including more potential money-making events like career fairs and concerts.

“In the past when we had graduation ceremonies or other events [in the RAC] we had to bring out portable Wi-Fi,” Beal said. “Now we can take that load on the sta- dium network.”

For Vassilatos, the Wi-Fi is a reason for a little bit of chest-beating.

“IT is usually very inward-facing, and this was our chance to utilize our skill set to add to the bravado of the athletic experience,” Vassilatos said. “We took this on our own to implement, and we’re better from the experience.”

Filed Under: Basketball, NCAA Hoops, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Chicago’s United Center to serve as Covid-19 logistics hub

March 25, 2020 by

It seems like many venues are already stepping up to assist with the public battle against the coronavirus, something we wondered about in an editorial on Monday. In Chicago, the United Center — home of the NHL’s Blackhawks and NBA’s Bulls — will act as a logistics hub for first responders and for food distribution.

According to a post on the United Center site, “Our arena and outside campus will be transformed into a logistics hub where we will be assisting front line food distribution, first responder staging and the collection of critically needed medical supplies.”

Minutes after we posted this, saw another item: Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland will be hosting a blood drive on Friday.

Any other venues doing anything similar? Let us know if you know and we will add to the list.

Filed Under: coronavirus Tagged With: , , , , ,

Commentary: Venues should step up to the plate to assist with Covid-19

March 23, 2020 by

Hard Rock Stadium, home of Super Bowl LIV

Is there a way that sports venues could assist with the public challenges being caused by the coronavirus? I’m not a public policy expert but it seems like there are some inherent characteristics about big, open places that could actually assist in combating the spread of the disease and helping ease the pain it is causing and will likely cause.

Already we are seeing reports of venue parking lots being used as staging points for mobile testing for Covid-19 infection. Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, recently home of Super Bowl LIV, is just one place where local agencies are taking advantage of the wide-open parking lots to set up mobile testing areas. Another one is being set up at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, the scheduled home of Super Bowl LV. As many venues have dedicated parking lots that basically aren’t being used at all right now, it seems like a good place to set up such activities.

UPDATE: Brazil isn’t waiting: Sao Paulo Stadium to Be Used as Hospital to Treat Coronavirus in Brazil

Shelter, medical care and food?

Let me restate the fact that I am not an authority on any of these subjects, but I am hoping that perhaps some venue types can weigh in and comment on the reality of using venues as possible places for people to shelter, receive medical care or maybe just a meal. I was struck by an editorial I read in the New York Times written by Jose Andres, who is a chef, a restaurant owner and founder of the nonprofit World Central Kitchen. I encourage all venue owners and operators to read his editorial, which basically says that one big way to fight the effects of the disease is to mobilize restaurant workers and use federal aid and large kitchens — like those in arenas and stadiums — to help feed the public.

Some of his bullet points, which represent lessons learned in trying to help Puerto Rico recover from Hurricane Maria:

In Puerto Rico we used three clear approaches to feed our fellow Americans that can be a guide to heading off an economic and food crisis today:

— Support the private sector as quickly as possible when the economy crashes, as it did after Maria: activate kitchens with federal dollars to serve the people.

— Repurpose and deploy community facilities, while expanding their mission: use the kitchens in schools and arenas to feed more people, more quickly.

— Solve the informational and logistical challenge: Matching demand and supply — by getting food to the people who need it most — is even more challenging than cooking in a crisis. Distribution is the Achilles’ heel of any disaster response.

Since most stadiums have multiple kitchen resources, it seems like venues might be a great place to set up operations for free or low-cost meals that are most likely going to be needed as more people find themselves out of work while most private restaurants face extreme challenges trying to operate on only a take-out or delivery basis. Sports teams and venues have already stepped forward ahead of government in pledging monetary support for the stadium workers who won’t be able to be at events. I would suggest that venues, teams and owners should also take the lead in mobilizing the currently empty venues as facilities for public good, maybe starting with acting as meal centers.

To Mr. Andres’ final point above, it strikes me that setting up larger kitchens and food-preparation operations might be a good strategy as we try to keep supply and delivery systems uncontaminated by the virus. I’m also wondering out loud here but might it also not be possible to use venues as temporary shelters for workers, so that they don’t have to risk spreading or contracting the virus? In-house testing could be set up to keep the venues a sort of enclosed space free of the disease. It might not be the most comfortable place to be, but again it strikes me that venues are somewhat already designed for public distancing, with wide walkways meant to handle crowds that could now serve as enclosed spaces with plenty of room to roam. Most venues also have multiple shower and restroom areas that are relatively easy to clean, perhaps making them easier to keep disinfected.

Again, let me stress — I don’t know what I don’t know about most of this, but I am hoping that perhaps venue owners and operators are already thinking along these lines. I am happy to help foster a discussion, you can use the comments below to chime in, or send me an email with longer thoughts and I will keep this thread going. But I do think, like in the case of providing for arena workers, venue owners, teams and others need to act first instead of waiting for government officials to figure it out.

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