AT&T – Page 47

Niners: More than 1,000 fans used in-seat food delivery at 2nd Levi’s Stadium preseason game

September 3, 2014 by Paul Kapustka

Screen grab from Levi’s Stadium app showing in-seat food delivery option. Credit all photos: Paul Kapustka, Mobile Sports Report.

One of the more unique features the San Francisco 49ers are introducing at their new home this year is the ability for all fans to have food and drink delivered to them, no matter which one of Levi’s Stadium’s 68,500 seats they are in. And according to the Niners, the feature is quickly catching on, with more than 1,000 in-seat orders delivered at the second preseason game at Levi’s on Aug. 24.

At a Levi’s media technology tour Wednesday, the Niners’ tech staff provided an in-depth and up-close look at some of the new stadium’s network infrastructure, including a quick glimpse of one of the several data-center rooms. Dan Williams, vice president of technology for the Niners, said that at the first preseason game at Levi’s on Aug. 17, more fans used the “express pickup” service to order food that they could then pick up at concession stand windows than the seat-delivery feature. But at the second game against the San Diego Chargers, more fans went for the in-seat option, perhaps a sign that Niners fans are learning and testing the new stadium services as they go.

“It’s going to be an ongoing education process,” said Martin Manville, business operations analyst for the Niners and one of the key tech leaders on the Levi’s app team. Manville said the Niners had learned a lot about food delivery in test situations at Candlestick Park last season — and some of those lessons are now evident in the Levi’s delivery menu, which is stripped down to ensure the food runners can get grub to fans before it gets cold (or warm, in the case of cold beverages). According to Manville the average delivery time at the Aug. 24 game was between 10 and 12 minutes, but the team expects that “normal” delays during the regular season will be closer to 15 to 20 minutes per order.

Still, that’s not a bad option if you don’t want to leave your seat and you don’t mind the extra $5 delivery charge. One early interesting stat from the food-delivery process is that the Niners found more orders coming from the “cheap seats” in the north and south stands at Levi’s than from the 50-yard-line seats where the high rollers sit. According to Manville, since the fans in the club seats have easy access to numerous uncrowded concession stands they may not see the need for the in-seat options.

Wi-Fi APs: 600 in Levi’s bowl seating

Under-seat Wi-Fi AP at Levi’s Stadium.

Some other news nuggets from the tech tour day: According to Williams, of the 1,200 Wi-Fi access points at Levi’s, 600 of those are distributed in the seating areas (aka “the bowl”), with the other 600 placed in suites, concourses and other stadium areas. Williams said the Aruba Networks Wi-Fi antennas are basically split into three types — regular enterprise-type APs for suite and office areas, regular outdoor APs for concourse areas, and more specialized versions (including the under-seat APs) for bowl placements.

— For the app itself, the Niners said that there have been 80,000 downloads so far, with almost half of the season ticket holders having put their ticketing information into the app. The “NiNerds,” the geek-dressed help squad that provides fans with personal assistance with the app, is now at about 50 or 60 strong at each event (originally the team had said it wanted to hire 150 such Wi-Fi coaches). The Niners said the NiNerds will be doing more pro-active app education going forward, doing things like approaching fans in concession lines to see if they know about the express line or in-seat ordering options.

— Though Comcast’s 10-year deal with the Niners calls for the cable provider to bring in two 10-gigabit backbone pipes, the Niners are often quoted as saying they have 40 GB of backbone bandwidth. We solved this mystery today: According to Comcast, the other two 10-GB pipes are a redundant channel from another (unnamed) provider. So: the stadium does have four 10 GB bandwidth pipes, by far the most capacity in any stadium we’ve heard of.

— More traffic stats: Though we will break these down in a separate post, the Niners said that for the Aug. 24 game fans used 1.96 Terabytes of Wi-Fi traffic, just a bit lower than the 2.13 TB used at the first preseason game on Aug. 17. The team also provided some DAS stats, claiming fans used another 1.02 TB of cellular data at the two preseason games combined.

Tech tour photos follow… including a sighting of some (shhhh!) Cisco equipment in the data center racks… click on photos for larger images.

Niners VP of technology Dan Williams (left) and COO Al Guido kick off the Wednesday tech tour.

Ted Girdner, Comcast VP of business services for California, talks stadium networking.

Dan Williams talks Wi-Fi while the Levi’s Stadium new turf grows silently behind him.

Mystery Cisco gear inside Levi’s Stadium data center. Alert! Intruder!

Brocade router at Levi’s Stadium data center. One of many. As in, many many.

Wi-Fi gear in Levi’s Stadium data room.

Franks and DAS: DGP DAS antennas above food station.

Screenshot of food feature on Levi’s Stadium app. Note the green light buttons to show expected wait times for express option.

Obligatory Levi’s Stadium selfie. MSR shirts complete the style.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Apple, Apps, AT&T, Cisco, Comcast, DAS, NFL, Wi-Fi Tagged With: Aruba Networks, Brocade, Cisco, Comcast, Comcast Business, DAS, DGP, Levi's Stadium, Mobile Sports Report, NFL, Paul Kapustka, San Diego Chargers, San Francisco 49ers, Stadium Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi

Holy Terabyte! First football crowd at Levi’s Stadium uses 2.13 TB of Wi-Fi traffic, with nearly 25K fans on Wi-Fi at once

August 21, 2014 by Paul Kapustka

Levi’s Stadium from Section 244. All photos: Paul Kapustka, Mobile Sports Report

All those predictions about Silicon Valley people using a stadium network more than other fans? It looks like they’re true.

The network numbers are in for the first football game at Levi’s Stadium, and they are pretty amazing: According to Dan Williams, the vice president of technology for the San Francisco 49ers, the Levi’s Stadium Wi-Fi network carried 2.13 terabytes of data during last Sunday’s preseason game, with a peak of 24,775 fans on the Wi-Fi network at the same time. Those numbers are comparable to the latest Super Bowl at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, where according to AT&T and Verizon there was approximately 2.5 TB of data used on wireless networks.

The kicker to the Niners’ stats — they do NOT include any traffic figures from the Levi’s Stadium DAS, the distributed antenna system that is meant to provide enhanced cellular coverage in the stadium. What follows is an email Q-and-A with Williams, who kindly answered our extensive list of questions. The real question is, if Niners fans are hitting terabyte levels during preseason games, what’s going to happen when the season starts for real? And the instant replay function in the team app is live? Read on for some great insight from Williams. Additional editor’s note: The companies talked about include Aruba Networks, the provider of Wi-Fi gear; Brocade, provider of back-end networking gear and integration; DAS Group Professionals, the integrator and deployment team behind the DAS (the network of small antennas that improve in-building cellular coverage).

Mobile Sports Report: what was the peak number for simultaneous Wi-Fi connections? The average?
Dan Williams: We peaked at 24,775 (roughly 38% of attendance) concurrent connections with an average of 16,862 (roughly 25% of attendance).

MSR: When did connections spike? When did they start and then tail off?
Williams: We had two spikes, 1:02 p.m. [editor’s note: kickoff was 1 p.m.] with a system wide peak of 2.3Gbps and then again at 1:53 p.m. with 1.7Gbps. We averaged more than 1Gbps for more than two hours.

Niners VP of technology Dan Williams attempts to fix my Droid 4 Wi-Fi issues (while trying not to laugh at the fact that I actually have and use a Droid 4)

MSR: What was the total data tonnage on the Wi-Fi network?
Williams: We offloaded 2.13 Terabytes during the event.

MSR: What were the usage patterns with the app — which feature did people use most?
Williams: We had a great deal of usage throughout Sunday. The food ordering app usage was top of the list with ticketing being a close second while video would take third from a feature standpoint.

MSR: What are the plans with the instant replay feature… when will it be live (and can you explain why it was held back)?
Williams: We felt a lot of folks were happy with the livestream, so we wanted to focus more on a couple of core features with food ordering and ticketing a bit more at this point. Replays will be available to all by the first regular season home game.

MSR: Can you explain exactly how the location feature works… does it require Bluetooth to be on?
Williams: The location service is mainly built around low-energy Bluetooth, BLE. We have a number of beacons placed throughout the open areas and points-of-interest which allow the app to identify your location through proximity. Aruba helped us build this as well. GPS is also used but the primary resource is Bluetooth. The app prompts users to enable Bluetooth to provide improved location awareness.

One of the big screens in Levi’s Stadium.

MSR: Can you provide any stats on the DAS performance?
Williams: The DAS held up really well. Like WiFi, we found some areas that need tuning. Unlike WiFi, the carriers protect a lot of their specific data but they have told us they are very happy with the system DGP helped us with. It is important to note our DAS and WiFi have been built to compliment each other and I think between Aruba and DGP, we did that very well. Most come here looking to connect to WiFi but our story internally has been we are going to have an awesome connectivity play regardless of medium.

MSR: Could you guys see any [more] of the 2.4 GHz issues like the one I had?
Williams: As you know, 2.4GHz is limited with non-overlapping channels so we suspect a number of legacy devices may have some problems. That said, we had a ratio of 2:1 with respects to 5GHz to 2.4GHz [usage] which shows a good deal of 2.4GHz usage. We know we still have some optimizations to do in the upper bowl and upper concourse while we continue to fine-tune the main bowl and concourse as we noticed our cell edge was weaker than expected when the stands were full. Our Aruba team did a great job capturing real-time data during the event as there is really no other way to test this stuff without a full venue. We will make some tweaks and continue to learn more from every event we host. Between Aruba, Brocade, and the 49er tech staff, we are not resting on our laurels. We know there is more to do.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, DAS, Denver Broncos, MSR Guides, NFL, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi Tagged With: Aruba Networks, AT&T, Brocade, Dan Williams, DAS, DAS Group Professionals, Levi's Stadium, MetLife Stadium, Mobile Sports Report, Paul Kapustka, San Francisco 49ers, Stadium Wi-Fi, Super Bowl, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi

Dallas Cowboys, AT&T add more tech to AT&T Stadium, add fuel to ‘most-connected stadium’ debate

August 21, 2014 by Paul Kapustka

AT&T Stadium, North Texas, USA

During last Sunday’s first “real” football game at Levi’s Stadium, I was asked several times if I thought the San Francisco 49ers’ new home was the “most connected” venue ever. I hesitated and hedged my answer a bit, because when it comes to wireless networks and tech innovations I think AT&T Stadium — home of the Dallas Cowboys — needs to be mentioned in the same sentence as Levi’s.

This week AT&T and the Cowboys announced more enhancements to AT&T Stadium’s already powerful network, and a new toy for fans to interact with. First on the network side, AT&T said from last summer until now it has increased the capacity of the stadium’s DAS by 50 percent, with 1,300 DAS antennas now in place. On the Wi-Fi side the stadium now has more than 1,500 access points, which may be the most in any stadium anywhere, to the best of my knowledge. (According to the Niners’ press guide, Levi’s has 1,200 Wi-Fi APs.) Throw in the big TV hanging from the center of the roof and AT&T Stadium has to be part of any discussion about “the most connected stadium” in football, if not in all of sport.

AT&T Stadium’s new “Fan Experience Board” in louvering position. Credit all photos: AT&T/Dallas Cowboys.

(I’d also include AT&T Park in San Francisco in that argument, which has somewhere north of 1,200 Wi-Fi APs in a much smaller venue; from what we hear the two AT&T-sponsored stadiums have a friendly competition when it comes to tech deployments.)

On the new-toy side it should be fun to see the new 130-foot “AT&T Fan Experience Board” in action — according to AT&T and the Cowboys this contraption is built of 40 mirrored louvers which can rotate in sync, and can show ads, fan pictures and will also be part of what the team and AT&T are calling the “Unite this house” feature on a new fan app. We’ll let the Cowboys blog explain how this will work, on plays where Tony Romo is throwing to teammates instead of to opponents:

The “Unite the House” fan interaction feature on the app will alert fans at pivotal moments of the game through their mobile devices. As the stadium app vibrates, a message will be displayed providing the particular context and immediacy of the action. Fans will be guided to unlock their phones, hold their fingers on the Dallas Cowboys star and as more phones power up, the stadium will be full of strobes, not only from mobile devices, but also on the ribbon displays and the HD video board. The visual will gain intensity and speed as more fans join in, energizing the stadium and culminating in a final eruption of light and motion provided by the louvers that will canvas the entire stadium.

AT&T Stadium interactive screens

AT&T and the Cowboys also announced some large interactive screens — the Cowboys blog called them “life-sized iPhones” — where fans can swipe to learn more about Cowboys players, or Cowboys cheerleaders. Our guess is that both will be immensely popular. At Levi’s, there are some interactive displays and features — one, sponsored by Yahoo!, asks fans to answer trivia questions. While it’s neat to see these things emerge, I wonder if instead of fluffy features some interactive boards could be converted into things that could help you — like with stadium maps, or an app that would let a phone-less fan send a message to someone else’s device. Our guess is that you will see more, not less, of these interactive screens in the near future.

If nothing else, the Cowboys and AT&T seem to be showing that even off the field, the NFL is a competitive league — we will be interested to see how the technology deployments at other stadiums, like Jacksonville, play out. Look for more coverage and anlysis in our upcoming Q3 Stadium Tech Report issue, which will focus on… football. AT&T technology photos to follow.

AT&T Fan Experience board with single message

Message board showing photo compilation

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, Cisco, Dallas Cowboys, DAS, iPhone, NFL, Wi-Fi Tagged With: 4G LTE, AT&T, AT&T Park, AT&T Stadium, Dallas Cowboys, DAS, Levi's Stadium, Mobile Sports Report, NFL, Paul Kapustka, San Francisco 49ers, Stadium Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi

Stadium Tech Report: MLB stadium technology reports — NL West

August 20, 2014 by Paul Kapustka

Editor’s note: The following team-by-team capsule reports of MLB stadium technology deployments are an excerpt from our most recent Stadium Tech Report for Q2 2014, which focuses on Major League Baseball. 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.

NL WEST

Reporting by Chris Gallo

San Francisco Giants
AT&T Park
Seating Capacity: 41,503
Wi-Fi: Yes, 1,289 access points
DAS: Yes, 196 antennas
Beaconing: Yes

The San Francisco Giants continue to be a pioneer in stadium connectivity. The club calls AT&T Park home, where it features over 1,289 Wi-Fi access points throughout the stadium. The park seats more than 41,000 fans, which means there is one Wi-Fi access point for every 32 fans when at full capacity.

AT&T has also installed 196 DAS antennas as part of its wireless network. Combined with Apple’s iBeacon technology, fans can easily order concessions or upgrade tickets with the MLB At the Ballpark app. When it comes to stadium connectivity, the San Francisco Giants set the standard.

Los Angeles Dodgers
Dodger Stadium
Seating Capacity: 56,000
Wi-Fi: Yes, 1,000+ access points
DAS:Yes
Beaconing: Yes

For the second consecutive year, Los Angeles Dodgers president Stan Kasten promised fans Wi-Fi would be installed by opening day. And the second time proved to be a charm. Dodger Stadium now includes more than 1,000 access points transforming the half-century old ballpark into one of the baseball’s most well-connected parks.

The 52-year-old stadium underwent a $100 million renovation a year ago, including improved connectivity and a cellular distributed antenna system. Fans can even take advantage of the MLB At the Ballpark app using their smartphone to pre-pay for parking and tickets to get into the game with iBeacons installed in Dodger Stadium.

San Diego Padres
Petco Park
Seating Capacity: 42,455
Wi-Fi: Yes, 423 access points
DAS: Yes, 460 antennas
Beaconing: Yes

After a significant upgrade in 2012, Petco Park features more than 400 Wi-Fi access points and more than 400 DAS antennas throughout the stadium. The San Diego Padres were also one of the first teams to install iBeacon technology.

The club is rolling out the technology slowly and experimenting with the MLB At the Ballpark app. When strolling through Petco Park, Padres fans can receive the day’s lineup card and real-time coupons for the team store. Backed by Qualcomm, the Padres are bringing a consistent connected experi- ence to its fans.

Arizona Diamondbacks
Chase Field
Seating Capacity: 49,003
Wi-F: Yes, 278 access points
DAS: Yes, 460 antennas
Beaconing: Yes

One of the more versatile stadiums in baseball, Chase Field turns 16 this season. Since 2011, the Diamondbacks have partnered with AT&T to make it easier to fans to enjoy the ballpark and game.

This season fans are encouraged to be part of the Ultimate Dbacks Digital Experience. This includes logging on to one over 200 different AT&T hot spots to order concessions with MLB At the Ballpark and watch instant replays of Mark Trumbo’s home runs using MLB At Bat.

Colorado Rockies
Coors Field
Seating Capacity: 50,455
Wi-Fi: Yes, 600 antennas (by July 15)
DAS: Yes for AT&T; Undergoing renovation and will have VZW and T-Mobile soon. Beaconing: Yes – Install will be complete by June 30.
The lone team in the NL West without Wi-Fi over the past few seasons, the Colorado Rockies are going to change that in 2014. The club plans to install more than 600 Wi-Fi access points by July 15. But that’s not the only upgrade to the 19-year old park.
The Rockies removed 3,500 seats in an $11 million dollar project to build the Rooftop Party Deck. This 38,000 square-foot area is open to all fans to socialize, grab a bite to eat, and watch the game. The best news is Rockies fans should be able to stay connected with iBeacon installs and improved DAS antennas also planned for deployment by this summer.

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.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Apple, AT&T, Baseball, Cisco, DAS, Los Angeles Dodgers, Major League Baseball, San Francisco Giants, Wi-Fi Tagged With: Arizona Diamondbacks, At Bat app, AT&T Park, Colorado Rockies, Coors Field, DAS, Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles Dodgers, MLB, Mobile Sports Report, Paul Kapustka, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Stadium Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi

Stadium Tech Report: MLB stadium technology reports — NL East

August 19, 2014 by Paul Kapustka

NL EAST

Reporting by Chris Gallo

Atlanta Braves
Turner Field
Seating Capacity: 50,096
Wi-Fi: Yes
DAS:Yes
Beaconing: Yes

The Atlanta Braves recently announced plans to build a new stadium in Cobb County, but the defending NL East champions are still improving Turner Field. In its 17th season, the TED is now outfitted with iBeacons throughout the ballpark.

Braves fans are encouraged to download the MLB At the Ballpark app to use their smartphones to get into the game, upgrade tickets, and pay for concessions. Fans do not need to be worried about data connectivity with multiple Wi-Fi access points, DAS antennas, and mobile charging stations.

Washington Nationals
Nationals Park
Seating Capacity: 41,888
Wi-Fi: Yes
DAS:Yes
Beaconing: No

On the heels of several Wi-Fi upgrades from a year a go, Comcast continues to expand connec- tivity throughout Nationals Park in 2014. But there are no specifics about connectivity just yet.

The ballpark is still young (in its sixth season) and the club is exploring where to make improvements. A proposed plan for a retractable roof that would cost an estimated $300 million was denied in 2013.

Philadelphia Phillies
Citizens Bank Park
Seating Capacity: 43,651
Wi-Fi: Yes
DAS:Yes
Beaconing: Yes

Just up the road in Philadelphia, Comcast is taking care of its home park. The cable company installed hundreds of Xfinity hotspots inside Citizens Bank Park in 2013. This year the experience is even better with iBeacons throughout the ballpark.

Phillies fans can order a cheesesteak or upgrade tickets as they walk down Ashburn Alley with the MLB At the Ballpark app. And the Budweiser Rooftop, Harry The K’s, and Games of Baseball all include strong Wi-Fi for you to tweet while fans there watch the next Cliff Lee strikeout.

New York Mets
Citi Field
Seating Capacity: 45,000
Wi-Fi: Yes, ~ 500 access points
DAS:Yes
Beaconing: Yes

Built in 2009, Citi Field was one of the first big league stadiums to be outfitted with Apple iBeacons. Installed last September, Mets fans can use beacons to download the MLB At the Ballpark app to use their smartphones as a ticket to get into the game and receive a coupon for a hot dog.

The experience is even more useful now that Citi Field has more than 500 Wi-Fi access points and multiple DAS antennas distributed throughout the stadium. Now when the home run apple lights up, fans can take photos and share instantly across social networks.

Miami Marlins
Marlins Park
Seating Capacity: 37,000
Wi-Fi: Yes, 254 access points
DAS: Yes, 246 antennas
Beaconing: Yes

Marlins Park is the newest stadium in all of Major League Baseball and welcomes fans with increased connectivity in 2014. There are 254 Wi-Fi access points courtesy of Meru Networks and 246 DAS antennas put in by neutral host provider ExteNet Sysyems than host the five major cellular carriers to accommodate Marlins fans.

This season the Marlins worked with Major League Baseball to install iBeacons at every gate and entrance to Marlins Park. The MLB At the Ballpark app allows fans to pay for parking and use their phone for tickets to get to and from the game with ease.

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.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, Baseball, Comcast, DAS, Major League Baseball, Wi-Fi Tagged With: Atlanta Braves, Citi Field, Citizens Bank Park, DAS, Marlins Park, Miami Marlins, MLB, Mobile Sports Report, Nationals Park, New York Mets, Paul Kapustka, Philadelphia Phillies, Stadium Wi-Fi, Turner Field, Washington Nationals

Extreme, YinzCam team up for Baylor Wi-Fi and app deployment

August 18, 2014 by Paul Kapustka

Screen shot of proposed Baylor app

When the new $260 million McLane Stadium at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, opens for this season it will have full-facility Wi-Fi and a custom mobile app, designed and deployed by a partnership between Wi-Fi gear and analytics provider Extreme Networks and app developer YinzCam.

In an announcement today, Extreme and YinzCam said fans in McLane Stadium will have access to real-time replays via the team’s new app, a functionality made possible by high-quality Wi-Fi. The network and app are expected to be live for the Baylor Bears’ first home game of the season, an Aug. 31 date with SMU. The stadium will also have a distributed antenna system (DAS) hosted by AT&T; according to Baylor, Verizon Wireless has already agreed to participate in the AT&T-hosted DAS.

While we are working on setting up an interview with the Baylor folks to hear more about their new stadium in general and their network in particular, here are some of the prepared quotes from the participants:

Pattie Orr, Vice President for Information Technology, Baylor University:

“2014 is a monumental season for Baylor University and Baylor Athletics as we officially open McLane Stadium and deliver our fans the ultimate fan experience. Using a hand-picked collection of innovative technology, Baylor fans will stay connected with the ultra-fast Wi-Fi network as well as a robust cellular distributed antenna system. Fans can direct their own mobile experience using our new Baylor In-Game application throughout the stadium.”

Norman Rice, Senior Vice President of Business Development, Extreme Networks:

“Baylor University is one of the pre-eminent academic and athletic institutions in the country and has put together one of the most exciting experiences in sports with the debut of McLane Stadium. Extreme Networks is proud to let our wireless technology extend the connectivity that fans and media consider a ‘must have’ whenever they attend a game.”

Priya Narasimhan, CEO and Founder, YinzCam:

“This is a major first in college sports. The Baylor In-Game App is pushing the envelope by being the first college athletics app to provide instant replays from multiple views to Baylor fans, right at their seats, at the new McLane Stadium.”

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Apps, AT&T, BCS, DAS, NCAA Football, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi Tagged With: AT&T, Baylor University, DAS, Extreme Networks, Mobile Sports Report, Paul Kapustka, Stadium Wi-Fi, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi, YinzCam