MLB – Page 11

Giants: NLCS stadium Wi-Fi usage at AT&T Park quadrupled since 2012

October 21, 2014 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

Giants senior VP and CIO Bill Schlough, at the office

If you build a better stadium network, they will come… and use it even more. That’s what the San Francisco Giants are finding out, with stadium Wi-Fi data usage more than quadrupling this year compared to the last time the Giants were in the NLCS in 2012.

According to Bill Schlough, senior vice president and CIO for the Giants, fans at AT&T Park for the recent National League championship series with the St. Louis Cardinals used more than four times the Wi-Fi data that fans used in the 2012 series. Schlough said that in 2012 (also facing the Cardinals) fans at the four AT&T Park NLCS games used an average of 302 Gigabytes per game; this year, in the three games in San Francisco, that number was 1,247 GB per game.

What makes the jump in data even more interesting is the fact that the number of overall users of the Wi-Fi network only increased about 19 percent from 2012 to 2014, with an average of 16,683 users on the network this year compared to 13,509 in 2012, according to figures from Schlough and the Giants. “It definitely shows how data per connection is what is really exploding,” said Schlough in an email.

Looking back another couple years is also instructive; in 2010, during the NLCS the AT&T Park network only saw an average of 6,511 fans using Wi-Fi per game. (The team did not track data usage at that time.) Though the World Series starts today in Kansas City, fans will have to wait until Game 3 in San Francisco Friday to use Wi-Fi since the Royals’ Kaufmann Stadium is one of the 10 MLB parks that don’t have fan-facing Wi-Fi.

White box at bottom is one of the under-the-seat Wi-Fi access points at AT&T Park.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, Baseball, DAS, Major League Baseball, San Francisco Giants, Wi-Fi Tagged With: AT&T Park, Kansas City Royals, MLB, Mobile Sports Report, NLCS, Paul Kapustka, San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, Stadium Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi, World Series

Texting from games: A look back 10 years ago today, great Red Sox win and a first-ever live view of a fan sending a text

October 17, 2014 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

I want to thank the esteemed Jon Brodkin for reminding me that 10 years ago today a very special night in Boston baseball history was also a watershed moment for me from both a sports fan and a professional capacity. Along with being there live to watch the start of baseball’s greatest playoff comeback ever, I saw for the first time, someone sending a text message during a game.

Yeah, we’ve all come a long way.

To refresh — it was 10 years ago today on a chilly Boston night when the all-hope-lost Red Sox rallied to win Game 4 of their ALCS series against the hated Yankees.

10 years ago today, Millar, Roberts, Mueller, and Ortiz kicked off the greatest comeback in baseball history http://t.co/wiKu16IFBx

— The real Jon Brodkin (@jbrodkin) October 17, 2014

Since Voice over IP was one of my main beats then, I was flying in to Boston that night to attend the VON Conference — and when I got out of Logan I asked the cabbie if the Yankees had finally eliminated the Sox. He told me that even though it was late — around 8 p.m.? — the game hadn’t started yet, because it was scheduled to start after the NL game (St. Louis against Houston). So I dumped my bag in my Back Bay hotel room and hoofed it to Fenway, where I found someone selling one seat in the bleachers for face value. For $50, I was in for the baseball night of my life.

Who texts on a phone?

You probably all know how the game ended — as a Cubs fan I was not attached emotionally to the outcome, but sitting in the Fenway bleachers I was carried along with the agony and eventual ecstasy of the home crowd. What I remember most is: 1. You don’t get up when you’re sitting in the Fenway centerfield bleachers, because it bugs everyone else when you do. (I limited myself to one beer, one bad hot dog and one relief session, all on the same trip, so as not to fall out of favor with my very vocal seatmates.) 2. Boston bleacher fans probably know more baseball than any other place I’ve been (Wrigley, Candlestick, AT&T Park), including the minor-league history of not just their team’s players, but the opposition’s as well. 3. Everybody in the park knew Roberts was going to steal, and he did it anyway. 4. I’ve never before or since heard a fan eruption like the one that happened when Big Papi’s walk-off cleared the fences.

So yeah, greatest baseball game I’ve ever been to, no contest. But something else happened that night — that very cold night where I was glad to have remembered a wool cap and gloves — when I saw, during one inning break, a 20-something woman in the row in front of me doing something with her phone that seemed way more involved than dialing a number. Since she wasn’t talking but staring at her flip phone I had to ask what was up.

“I’m sending my friend a text message,” she said. I had only a vague idea what she was talking about. I mean, I think I knew it was possible to send a message to someone else using those three-tap spelling tricks, but I didn’t know anyone personally who did that. I also knew that anyone who pulled out a cell phone during a game was subject to ridicule, especially if you held the phone to your ear and waved when you knew you were on TV.

She explained that her friend had moved to New Orleans (for work or school, can’t remember) and was part of a loyal group of Bosox fans… and she was keeping him in the loop on how it felt to be in the bleachers, letting him know he was missed. I thought the idea was pretty cool, but it didn’t register with me that more people might want to do the same thing.

Fast forward to last night, when my Facebook feed lit up with friends’ video clips from the Giants’ walk-off NLCS win from AT&T Park. Yeah, we’ve come a REAL long way in 10 years.

I usually tell people my a-ha moment for starting Mobile Sports Report came at a CTIA conference in 2011, where AT&T CTO John Donovan told the crowd that for the first time ever at the Super Bowl earlier that year, there was more wireless traffic leaving the stadium than coming in — meaning that fans were sending texts and pictures out in great number, perhaps more so than ever thought before. That trend, of course, is what’s fueling the current wave of stadium network deployments, and that Super Bowl was certainly a watershed moment. But when I think a bit I remember that night in Boston 10 years ago and think… people have wanted to share these special moments for quite some time. Good to see more people getting the chance.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, Baseball, DAS, Major League Baseball, New York Yankees Tagged With: Boston Red Sox, Fenway Park, flip phones, MLB, Mobile Sports Report, Motorola RAZR, New York Yankees, Paul Kapustka, texting from games

AT&T Park networks averaged 1.24 Terabytes per game during NLDS

October 14, 2014 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

As the San Francisco Giants get set to host the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 3 of the NLCS today (weather pending!) we can be reasonably assured that AT&T Park’s wireless networks will be able to handle whatever load the fans throw at them. According to AT&T, the park’s DAS and Wi-Fi networks carried an average of 1.24 Terabytes of traffic for the two most recent postseason contests, the NLDS games against the Washington Nationals on Oct. 6-7.

According to a recent AT&T local blog post, the DAS network at AT&T Park carried an average of 314 GB of traffic between the two games, with a high of 338 GB on the Oct. 7 game. Remember, these stats only reflect traffic of AT&T customers at the park — the actual total of DAS traffic would include usage from customers of Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile and Sprint, but none of those companies have (ever) reported DAS traffic usage. Still, the AT&T number is pretty impressive all by itself.

On the Wi-Fi side, AT&T said there was an average of 926 GB of data used per game — again, impressive when you consider that AT&T Park is a baseball stadium that only seats about 41,500 folks when it’s sold out. Since the Wi-Fi network is free and open to any wireless service customer, the 926 GB number reflects total data use. Combining the two gives you a figure of 1.24 TB average traffic per game. Now let’s see if Giants fans top that number this week.

UPDATE: We just got some fresh stats from AT&T for Tuesday night’s NLCS game at AT&T Park, and no surprise, more data was consumed. According to AT&T the fans at the Oct. 14 afternoon game used 1.38 TB of total data, with 1,067 GB on Wi-Fi and another 318 GB on the cellular DAS (remember those stats are AT&T customers only on the DAS). We’ll do another roundup after the three games are played this week to get averages.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, Baseball, DAS, Major League Baseball, San Francisco Giants, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi Tagged With: AT&T, AT&T Park, DAS, MLB, Mobile Sports Report, NLCS, Paul Kapustka, San Francisco Giants, Sprint, St. Louis Cardinals, Stadium Wi-Fi, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi

5 Bars helps Angel Stadium get Wi-Fi and DAS to full strength for playoffs

October 2, 2014 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

In addition to a packed house and a top-performing team, the Angel Stadium of Anaheim will have a fully functional Wi-Fi network and a full-strength DAS on hand when the American League divisional playoffs begin there Thursday.

Just as the Los Angeles Angels oF Anaheim built their American League West division-winning record all summer, networking infrastructure provider 5 Bars brought the connectivity in the team’s stadium to the top this season as well, completing the neutral-host DAS in June and finishing the Wi-Fi network in time for the last regular-season homestand, according to the company. As the Angels get set to host the Kansas City Royals on Oct. 2, the 400-plus antenna DAS and the 300-plus Wi-Fi access point network should be able to handle the expected crush of selfies, Vines and other fan-based wireless communications that will course the airwaves during game time at the 45,050-seat facility.

While we hope there’s still time this season to get down to Anaheim for a live visit and test, for now we’ll let some quotes from the prepared press release let you know how the team feels about having better-than-average connectivity for its fans:

“We want to bring the best possible Major League Baseball experience to fans attending our games, and we’re confident this new, high-performance Wi-Fi network will fully meet those expectations when our fans come to Angel Stadium,” said John Carpino, President of the Angels, in a prepared statement.

Though the 5 Bars name is a new one in the stadium technology deployment marketplace (earlier this year the company was calling itself “5 Bars Inside,” but the inside is now dropped from the name), its leadership team claims “more than two decades of practical experience in developing and managing DAS networks for wireless service providers,” according to the press release announcing the Angel Stadium networks. For its neutral-host DAS 5 Bars is using the Teko DAS platform of products from JMA Wireless; according to 5 Bars both AT&T and Verizon will be active on the DAS on Oct. 2. On the Wi-Fi side, 5 Bars used gear from Wi-Fi supplier Ruckus Wireless. The Wi-Fi network will be free to all fans at the stadium.

UPDATE: The folks at Ruckus have an well detailed press release about the Angel Stadium deployment that is worth reading through.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, Baseball, DAS, Los ANgeles Angeles of Anaheim, Major League Baseball, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi Tagged With: 4G LTE, 5 Bars, Angels Stadium, Angels Stadium of Anaheim, AT&T, DAS, JMA Wireless, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, MLB, MLBAM, Mobile Sports Report, Paul Kapustka, Ruckus Wireless, Stadium Wi-Fi, Teko, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi

Stadium Tech Report: MLB stadium technology reports — NL Central

August 22, 2014 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

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 CENTRAL

Reporting by Chris Gallo

Chicago Cubs
Wrigley Field
Seating Capacity: 41,160
Wi-Fi: Yes
DAS:Yes
Beaconing: No

The iconic Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field enters its 100th season in style.
The Chicago Cubs are celebrating all season long with special promotions and the experience is even better with Wi-Fi throughout the historic ballpark. The Cubs do not yet offer iBeacon technology, but the free Wi-Fi is not bad for a ballpark that’s been around for a century.

And with a proposed $500 million dollar restoration and renovation plan, it’s possible that the digital experience at Wrigley might improve in the coming years. Potential enhancements include new restrooms, concessions, a 6,000 square foot video board in left field, which has drawn opposition from neighboring rooftop owners and historic-minded fans, who don’t want to see the old Wrigley ruined. At the very least, pretty much everyone can get behind improved connectivity. But it remains to be seen if the Cubs’ owners will get approval for their renovation plans.

St. Louis Cardinals
Busch Stadium
Seating Capacity: 45,399
Wi-Fi: No
DAS:Yes
Beaconing: Yes

The reigning National League Champions enter their eighth season at Busch Stadium in 2014. Public facing Wi-Fi is absent, but the Cardinals unveiled non-digital enhancements with the Ballpark Village and AT&T Rooftop this year.
Busch Stadium does have several DAS antennas installed and is one of many teams to test out iBeacon technology with MLB At the Ballpark this season.

Milwaukee Brewers
Miller Park
Seating Capacity: 42,200
Wi-Fi: Premium suites only
DAS:Yes
Beaconing: No

Rain or shine, the game is always on at Miller Park. Opened in 2001, the stadium remains one of the more modern ballparks with a retractable roof and a climbing wall as part of the Dew Deck. Unfortunately, the modernizations do not include any public Wi-Fi for fans. Maybe next year Brew Crew?

Pittsburgh Pirates
PNC Park
Seating Capacity: 38,496
Wi-Fi: No
DAS: No
Beaconing: No

After making the playoffs last year for the first time since 1992, the Pittsburgh Pirates are poised to improve stadium connectivity at PNC Park. The Bucs plan to install major upgrades with additional access points and antennas, hopefully
in time for another home playoff series in 2014.

Cincinnati Reds
Great American Ball Park
Seating Capacity: 42,036
Wi-Fi: Yes
DAS:Yes
Beaconing: Yes

Entering its second decade of existence, the Great American Ball Park welcomes fans with free Wi-Fi and more than 60 iBeacons throughout the ballpark. The stadium uses that network to distribute ballpark information and targeted offers to fans throughout the game.

The Reds also partnered with Miami University to build a dedicated social media area on the third-base concourse. The Reds Connect Zone includes Wi-Fi access, charging stations for mobile devices, and more than 25 screens of tweets, Instagram photos, Facebook polls, and Vine videos for fans to stay connected at the game.

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: Baseball, Chicago Cubs, DAS, Major League Baseball, Wi-Fi Tagged With: At the Ballpark, Busch Stadium, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, DAS, Miller Field, Milwaukee Brewers, MLB, MLBAM, Mobile Sports Report, Paul Kapustka, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals, Stadium Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi, Wrigley Field

Stadium Tech Report: MLB stadium technology reports — NL West

August 20, 2014 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

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.