Notre Dame’s new Wi-Fi, Mercedes-Benz Stadium first look — all in our new Stadium Tech Report!

September 25, 2017 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

We always get excited here at Mobile Sports Report when we have a new quarterly report out, but the stories, profiles and analysis in our Fall 2017 issue just may be our best-ever effort. With a detailed look at the new Wi-Fi network at Notre Dame Stadium, and a first look at the Atlanta Falcons’ new Mercedes-Benz Stadium, our Fall 2017 issue starts off with a doubleheader of deep information profiles and it doesn’t stop there!

In addition to Notre Dame and Mercedes-Benz Stadium, this issue also has a detailed look at the new football stadium at Colorado State University, which also has high-performing Wi-Fi and a neutral-host DAS deployment. We also take a look at the Wi-Fi renovation taking place at the Denver Broncos’ Sports Authority Field at Mile High, a network upgrade that should lift the Broncos’ home to the top of the list of NFL stadium networks. And we’re still not done!

Also in this issue is a well timed, deeply informed essay from Chuck Lukaszewski about unlicensed LTE and what it means to venues. Chuck, the top wireless guru at Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, digs into this developing cellular/Wi-Fi issue and delivers some heads-up knowledge that all venue tech professionals should absorb. We also have one more profle in the issue, a look at a temporary Wi-Fi network being installed at the Los Angeles Coliseum. That’s a lot of reading, so get started by downloading your free copy today!

Part of the reason we’re able to bring you so much good content is the support we get from our industry sponsors. In this issue we also have a record number of sponsors, including Mobilitie, Crown Castle, CommScope, JMA Wireless, Corning, Huber+Suhner, American Tower, Extreme Networks, Oberon, Cox Business, 5 Bars, Boingo Wireless and Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company. The support of our sponsors allows Mobile Sports Report to not only do all the work necessary to bring you these great stories, but it also allows us to offer our reports to readers free of charge! We’d also like to welcome new readers from the Inside Towers community, who may have found their way here via our new partnership with the excellent publication Inside Towers.

Download the Fall 2017 Stadium Tech Report today!

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AmpThink, Aruba, AT&T, Cisco, DAS, Denver Broncos, Denver Broncos, Hewlett-Packard, MSR Guides, NCAA Football, NFL, Super Bowl, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi Tagged With: 4G LTE, AmpThink, AT&T, Atlanta Falcons, Cisco, Colorado State University, Denver Broncos, Fighting Irish, Los Angeles Coliseum, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Mile High Stadium, Mobile Sports Report, NCAA, NFL, Notre Dame, Notre Dame Football, Notre Dame Stadium, Paul Kapustka, Stadium Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi

Patriots, Extreme claim 8 TB of Wi-Fi used during NFL opener

September 15, 2017 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

Credit: Patriots.com

It looks like those NFL stadium Wi-Fi upgrades over the past couple years are paying off, with big numbers starting to roll in as the 2017 season gets underway. Tops on the numbers list so far is a report from Extreme Networks claiming a total of 8.08 terabytes of traffic was seen on the Wi-Fi network at Gillette Stadium for the NFL season opener, a 42-27 win by the visiting Kansas City Chiefs over the New England Patriots on Sept. 7.

The Patriots, one of several teams to significantly upgrade their Wi-Fi system before last season, saw a 5.11 TB mark during last year’s AFC Championship game, which (briefly) made the unofficial top 5 single-day Wi-Fi events list we’ve been keeping at MSR. Since then we’ve heard about a 7.25 TB game at AT&T Stadium for the Packers-Cowboys playoff tilt, and more recently a 6.2 TB mark seen at Notre Dame, for its Sept. 9 game against Georgia.

The Patriots’ 8-plus number came from an impressive number of fans using the network — according to Extreme, there were 41,377 unique users (out of 65,878 in attendance) on the network that day, with a peak concurrent user number of 33,909. Extreme also said the network saw peak throughput of 11.1 Gbps. These numbers are closing in on Super Bowl territory, with Super Bowl LI’s 11.8 TB mark now clearly in jeopardy when the big game rolls back around in Feburary. We are also waiting to see what the numbers are like from Atlanta’s new Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which hosts the Falcons’ regular-season home opener this weekend against Green Bay. Though there are no official reports yet, we have heard rumors that the MBS network did very well in preseason, so we’re guessing the list below will get a number of resets this season.

Got any numbers we need to know about? Send ’em in!

THE LATEST TOP 9 FOR WI-FI

1. Super Bowl 51, NRG Stadium, Houston, Feb. 5, 2017: Wi-Fi: 11.8 TB
2. Super Bowl 50, Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara, Calif., Feb. 7, 2016: Wi-Fi: 10.1 TB
3. Kansas City Chiefs vs. New England Patriots, Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Mass., Sept. 7, 2017: Wi-Fi: 8.08 TB
4. Green Bay Packers vs. Dallas Cowboys, Divisional Playoffs, AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas, Jan. 15, 2017: Wi-Fi: 7.25 TB
5. WrestleMania 32, AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas, April 3, 2016: Wi-Fi: 6.77 TB
6. Super Bowl 49, University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, Ariz., Feb. 1, 2015: Wi-Fi: 6.23 TB
7. Georgia vs. Notre Dame, Notre Dame Stadium, South Bend, Ind., Sept. 9, 2017: Wi-Fi: 6.2 TB
8. Alabama vs. Texas A&M, Kyle Field, College Station, Texas, Oct. 17, 2015: Wi-Fi: 5.7 TB
9. Pittsburgh Steelers vs. New England Patriots, AFC Championship Game, Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Mass., Jan. 22, 2017: Wi-Fi: 5.11 TB

Filed Under: AT&T, Dallas Cowboys, Extreme Networks, NFL, Wi-Fi Tagged With: AT&T Stadium, Extreme Networks, Gillette Stadium, Mobile Sports Report, New England Patriots, NFL, Paul Kapustka, Stadium Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi

Notre Dame sees 6.2 TB of Wi-Fi traffic for Georgia game

September 13, 2017 by Paul Kapustka 2 Comments

Notre Dame logo on Wi-Fi railing enclosure at Notre Dame Stadium. Credit: Paul Kapustka, MSR

The final score on the football field may not have made Fighting Irish fans happy, but on the connectivity side of things the new Wi-Fi network at Notre Dame Stadium scored a big win with 6.2 terabytes of traffic used during Notre Dame’s Sept. 9 home game against Georgia.

Deployed by AmpThink, the new Wi-Fi network is part of a $400 stadium renovation called Campus Crossroads that debuted in time for this year’s college football season. Mobile Sports Report got a look at the new stadium renovations, which include new premium seating areas and a large video board, during an August football scrimmage event that was open to fans.

On Sept. 3, the Irish formally opened the stadium with a home game against Temple, which Notre Dame won 49-16. According to Notre Dame, the new Wi-Fi network saw 4.8 TB of traffic for the season opener, with 21,395 unique client connections and a peak concurrent connection number of 15,800. For the Sept. 9 game against Georgia, a prime-time night game that saw the Irish just fall on the short end of a 20-19 score, the network saw 6.2 TB of traffic, with 25,856 uniques and 19,475 peak concurrent connections.

By our unofficial records, the 6.2 TB mark is the highest Wi-Fi traffic number recorded for a single-day college event. The previous high mark was a 5.7 TB total reported by Texas A&M for a 2015 season game against Alabama. (Any other big marks out there that we don’t know about, please let us know!)

Total attendance for both Notre Dame games this season was 77,622, which sounds like the new sellout capacity for the stadium, a number not previously reported since the renovation. Notre Dame can probably expect another big network experience on Oct. 21, when the Irish host Pac-12 rival USC.

Filed Under: AmpThink, Cisco, NCAA Football, Wi-Fi Tagged With: AmpThink, Cisco, Georgia, Mobile Sports Report, NCAA, Notre Dame, Notre Dame Stadium, Paul Kapustka, Stadium Wi-Fi, Temple, Wi-Fi

MSR at MWC: Come see us in San Francisco!

September 13, 2017 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

If you are attending the Mobile World Congress Americas show this week in San Francisco, make sure you check out the Thursday morning series of keynote presentations moderated by yours truly, including a “fireside chat” with Al Guido, president of the San Francsico 49ers. Al and I will talk about Levi’s Stadium and how the Niners are using their digital strategy to better engage fans… be sure to start your Thursday morning with us! We get underway at 9 a.m. local time, so hit the Starbucks and come on by.

In addition to Al, there are four other keynote presenters who all represent a different part of the customer engagement equation. And later Thursday morning, you can continue your stadium-tech experience by checking out the panel discussion on The Connected Stadium: Enhancing Fan Engagement with representatives from the Utah Jazz, Sacramento Kings, Atlanta Hawks and Soldier Field (home of da Chicago Bears), as well as FC Barcelona. Moderated by Brian Berger, host of the excellent Sports Business Radio podcast, the panel starts at 11 a.m. local time.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, DAS, Wi-Fi Tagged With: 4G LTE, DAS, Mobile Sports Report, MWC, Paul Kapustka, San Francisco, Stadium Wi-Fi

NFL Wi-Fi update: AT&T Stadium adds 667 APs

September 10, 2017 by Paul Kapustka 2 Comments

A row shot of the under-seat APs at AT&T Stadium. Photo: Dallas Cowboys

With today’s main NFL season schedule already underway, here is a quick update on all the NFL stadium Wi-Fi updates we know about that are either finished or still under construction for the 2017 season:

— AT&T Stadium, already the location of the biggest (by number of APs) stadium network we know of, is in the process of adding another 667 APs, a project scheduled to be finished in the next few weeks. According to John Winborn, CIO for the Dallas Cowboys Football Club, the new APs are all the Cisco 3800 two-radio models, and will be installed on the stadium’s 400-level seating area.

When done, AT&T Stadium will have 2,567 APs, with plans to add another 400 in the upcoming offseason. After that, said Winborn, AT&T Stadium will “be out of locations in the stadium to place additional APs without additional spectrum opening up.” (editor’s note: This post has been updated to correct an error in reporting that previously stated that 600 new APs had been installed.)

— In Atlanta, the fans are getting ready for the first regular-season game at the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which will have nearly 1,800 APs total, many of those under the seats in the bowl.

— As previously reported in MSR, Denver’s Sports Authority Field at Mile High is in the process of ripping and replacing its former Wi-Fi network, installing 1,470 new Cisco 3800s in a project scheduled for completion by late October/early November.

— In Philadephia, Lincoln Financial Field is in the process of switching from an Extreme Networks deployment to a new one using Wi-Fi gear from Panasonic. More details on this project are promised later this fall.

— In Seattle, the Seahawks’ IT team is adding additional APs to improve coverage in the four corners of the upper seating sections of CenturyLink Field, according to Chip Suttles, vice president of technology for the Seahawks. Suttles said a full offseason tuning assessment with gear provider Extreme Networks also saw a new channel plan put in place, and “multiple Wi-Fi antenna orientations to improve coverage.”

— Detroit’s Ford Field also got a Wi-Fi (and DAS) upgrade over the past offseason, a revamp that will now allow all visitors, and not just Verizon Wireless customers, to use the stadium Wi-Fi.

— Chicago Bears fans will finally have free Wi-Fi this season, after being forced to pay for access previously.

— Following the announcement that the Arizona Cardinals were switching from CDW to Cox Business as the exclusive technology provider for the University of Phoenix Stadium, the UoP Stadium network was set for some additional APs and some network tuning ahead of the NFL season, according to Mark Feller, vice president of technology for the Cardinals.

Anyone else we miss? Send us the info… and the speedtests!

Filed Under: AT&T, Cisco, Dallas Cowboys, Denver Broncos, Detroit Lions, NFL, Seattle Seahwaks, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi Tagged With: AT&T, AT&T Stadium, CenturyLink Field, Cisco, Denver Broncos, Detroit Lions, Ford Field, Lincoln Financial Field, Mobile Sports Report, NFL, Paul Kapustka, Philadelphia Eagles, Seattle Seahawks, Sports Authority Field at Mile High, Stadium Wi-Fi, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi

The MSR Interview: David Payne, University of Oklahoma

September 8, 2017 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

Welcome to the new season of MSR Podcasts! We are thrilled to start off this season of interviews with one of our favorite people from the realm of stadium technology deployment and operation — David Payne, who is the senior technology strategist at the University of Oklahoma. With “school in session,” join us as we talk with David about how a patient, steady approach to technology deployments allows you to keep the focus on the fan, and improving the fan experience instead of just looking at the next shiny object in wireless tech.

Here is an older story about part of the process David went through:

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

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST:

Here is the link to the podcast on iTunes!

Here are some photos David was kind enough to send us:

Outside the football stadium entrance

A look at some handrail-mounted AP enclosures

Filed Under: AmpThink, NCAA Football, Wi-Fi Tagged With: David Payne, Mobile Sports Report, NCAA, Oklahoma, Paul Kapustka, Stadium Wi-Fi, University of Oklahoma, Wi-Fi