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NFL should take a chance on open APIs and gigabit Wi-Fi if it really wants to engage fans

January 16, 2014 by

When it comes to using technology, the NFL talks a really good game — but when it comes to decisions and deployments, the shield moves slower than a 3-yard cloud of dust. And it’s frustrating fans, who are looking for something along the lines of a run-and-shoot.

This week’s announcement of an agreement with Extreme Networks under which the technology company became the “official supplier of Wi-Fi analytics” is a good example of the NFL’s go-slow philosophy. While the deal is a small feather for Extreme and validation of its stadium Wi-Fi smarts, in the end it really doesn’t move many needles since it’s not a binding deal (meaning teams don’t have to use Extreme gear if they don’t want to) and also since many NFL stadiums don’t yet have fan-facing Wi-Fi. So while the NFL uses press events around such announcements to talk grandly of techno-fan engagement, what it really should be doing is spending some of its hoard of cash to help teams install super-fast networks in stadiums right now, instead of waiting for teams to do so on their own.

I get it that the networks are an asset for stadium owners, and in the long run they will want to reap the full benefits of their costs of deployment. And it’s hard to say there are things the NFL could be doing better, since the sport enjoys immense popularity for both its live and televised offerings. But nothing lasts forever. And if the NFL wants to keep justifying its hundreds-of-dollars ticket prices, it should offer its fans a game-day experience like no other — which should include super-fast, aka “gigabit” Wi-Fi. Fast Wi-Fi that connects instantly, and lets fans share photos, videos and more while at the game.

How much would that cost? Several million dollars to 10 million dollars per team? Even at the high end, it’s not like the league doesn’t have that kind of money to toss around. It does. Just its cellphone live-action rights contract alone — $1 billion from Verizon over 4 years — is enough to cover league-wide Wi-Fi deployments and more. And once those networks are in place, the NFL would be supremely set up to control and benefit from the possible coming explosion of in-stadium mobile device use. An explosion which could be even bigger if the NFL takes another radical step to open up its content and information to third-party developers.

Team apps are losing the battle

Right now whenever a stadium network is launched there is usually a grand accompanying plan for a “team app,” which promises just about everything a fan could possibly want, in the team’s eyes. The problem with these apps — which so far are largely being ignored — is that they are all developed from a team’s perspective, not a fan’s. My biggest complaint with most of the team apps (and this goes for other events and sports media channels as well) is that they try to do too much, and instead of being helpful are just a pain in the butt to use, with too much information and too many choices and constipated navigation.

I haven’t been to that many games lately but at the ones I’ve been to, here’s what I see people using their phones for at the games: Twitter. Instagram. Facebook. And text messaging. What’s the common denominator there? Simple, one-step apps that are already built into the user’s social sphere. And they’re more lively, too, with many pro athletes participating in places like Twitter with real, unvarnished conversations, unlike the team apps which are as boring and as sanitized as the only-good-plays replays on the stadium TV screens. If the NFL really wants to engage fans digitally, it should open up its APIs and free its video content, allowing third-party developers to build apps with real NFL content. (Why not try an open version of Megacast?) It’s a strategy that worked pretty well for Apple and the iPhone, where Apple gets a chunk of profits from an incredible ecosystem that was created simply by allowing the outside world to have access to the iPhone screen.

My guess is that what will happen is the exact opposite — the NFL, watching the success of MLB’s digital efforts, will sometime soon corral all its digital assets into a single NFL-sanctioned bucket, which it will then charge fans even more for. Get ready for your “NFL Digital Package,” maybe $200 more a year to get live video and highlights on your phone. And no, you won’t be able to share that content or create GIFs or Loops or Vines any of the other fun stuff that is going on right now in the sort of Wild West version of the digital sports world. Even though I would probably pay it, that direction sounds like hell. I’d rather see the NFL really embrace the future and let the creativity of all the fans and smart thinkers out there blossom. To revisit our opening metaphor, why not try a few deep downfield passes, NFL? Why keep running the ball inside?

Filed Under: Apps, ESPN, NFL, NFL Mobile, NFL Network, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Extreme Networks, NFL announce deal for Wi-Fi analytics

January 15, 2014 by

Extreme Networks and the NFL today announced a deal that makes Extreme the league’s official provider of Wi-Fi analytics, a non-binding agreement that simply makes Extreme’s diagnostics technology available to teams with Wi-Fi networks in their stadiums.

Extreme will also be the official provider of Wi-Fi analytics for the upcoming Super Bowl at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, one of four NFL facilities currently using Extreme’s analytics technology. Two of those stadiums, the New England Patriots’ Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., and the Philadelphia Eagles’ Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, use Extreme equipment for their entire Wi-Fi installation.

While the deal does not mean that the NFL will be paying for any team to install full Wi-Fi networks using Extreme technology and equipment, it does give Extreme a bit of a leg up and some league-approved exposure as teams continue to look for suppliers to help them build out their internal wireless infrastructures. Wi-Fi analytics technology, typically housed in back-end networking gear, helps provide real-time looks into network performance, along with detailed statistics about how customers are using the networks, from what types of content they are uploading or downloading, to how long they are staying engaged. Operators can use such performance statistics to fine-tune networks as well as to figure out strategies for providing compelling, engaging content and a better overall fan experience with wireless.

“Enhancing the fan experience is one the NFL’s top priorities and the decision to team up with Extreme for Wi-Fi analytics is a great step forward in achieving our goals,” said NFL CIO Michelle McKenna-Doyle, in a prepared statement. “We were impressed with Extreme’s implementations with the Patriots and the Eagles and we believe this agreement will help our clubs deliver on the high standards we have put in place to give our fans the type of experience they deserve.”

In addition to its own deployments for the Eagles and Patriots, Extreme is also providing Wi-Fi analytics at MetLife Stadium and at Ford Field in Detroit, even though the overall Wi-Fi infrastructure at those fields uses equipment from different providers. John Brams, director of sports and entertainment at Extreme, said analytics provide a key component of stadium networks, giving operators valuable insight into performance metrics and into how and what users are using the network do to.

“When you ask questions like how do you measure the return on investment for the network, to answer those questions you need the stats,” Brams said in a phone interview. “One of the biggest things teams can leverage is visibility into their environment.”

Filed Under: Detroit Lions, NFL, Twitter, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Stadium Tech Report: DAS, Wi-Fi puts end to no-signal problem at Denver’s Sports Authority Field

January 10, 2014 by

PeytonThese days, Denver’s Sports Authority Field at Mile High is the new home of the NFL’s most prolific signal-caller. With a record season for passing yards and passing touchdowns, Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning is recognizable for his animated pointing, shouting and line-of-scrimmage audibles, the ultimate practicioner of last-second communication.

Not too long ago, the fans at Mile High might have had to resort to the same tactics to communicate, using hand waving or shouting, since getting a cell signal was next to impossible. “Forget making a phone call, you couldn’t even send a text,” said Rick Seifert, communications manager for the Broncos’ stadium management company. “And it wasn’t just the fans. We [the staff] couldn’t make calls in the stadium to do our jobs.”

But in 2012, the Broncos changed all that with the installation of a full-featured distributed antenna system (DAS) deployed by TE Connectivity, and a fan-facing Wi-Fi network installed by Verizon Wireless.

Russ Trainor

Russ Trainor

The Broncos also put in a huge new digital scoreboard and robust back-end connectivity provided by Comcast as part of their blitz of networking improvements, and this past fall, AT&T joined in by upgrading its connection to the stadium’s DAS. By next year the Broncos hope to add AT&T and Sprint to its roster of Wi-Fi service providers, reflecting what vice president of information technology Russ Trainor sees as a “never ending growth” of wireless in-stadium consumption.

All carriers on board, slowly

One of the biggest problems with DAS deployments in stadiums is convincing major cellular carriers to work together. Since each carrier wants to deploy systems to do the best job for its customers, there is often a difference in opinion on strategy and operations, which is often followed by similar snags in contract negotiations. Trainor said that the stadium, built in 2001, presented unique RF challenges to wireless with its primarily exposed-steel construction. Verizon and Sprint were the first carriers to sign up for the neutral DAS, followed by AT&T this fall.

DAS equipment at Sports Authority Field. Credit: Denver Broncos

DAS equipment at Sports Authority Field. Credit: Denver Broncos

“It was tough to get them [all the major carriers] to agree on DAS, but we have good engineers on the back end and we came up with a nice solution for everybody,” said Trainor. While the antennas and stadium network are neutral, each carrier provides its own back-end gear, much of which at Mile High had to be placed in a building built outside the facility specifically to house telecom gear. In many stadium DAS deployments, the telecom gear can take up thousands of square feet, which can be challenging to find in facilities built before such needs were known.

“There’s no room inside for all the space they [the carriers] wanted,” Seifert said.

The Wi-Fi network, deployed by Verizon, uses Cisco equipment and is also a neutral host infrastructure, meaning that other carriers could use it to provide Wi-Fi connectivity to their clients if they so choose. According to Seifert, AT&T and Sprint will offer Wi-Fi services to customers next season, in part to answer the consistently growing demand. Like in other stadiums, fans at Sports Authority Field know what to do when they finally find bandwidth: Use more.

Steady growth in wireless use

When Sports Authority Field is at its listed capacity of 76,125 on game days, it becomes the 14th-largest city in Colorado, Trainor said. The team has already seen 525,000 downloads of its mobile application, which provides such in-stadium features as four different video replay angles, a connection to the NFL Network’s RedZone channel, and a direct link to the radio feed from hometown sports station KOA. The application is geo-fenced to ensure that the video rights are only used inside the stadium, and to give fans there a unique game-day experience.

Wi-Fi antennas on stadium overhang. Credit: Denver Broncos

Wi-Fi antennas on stadium overhang. Credit: Denver Broncos

According to Trainor, the team usually sees an average of 4,000 simultaneous connections on the Verizon Wi-Fi network on game days, though on colder days when fans need to wear gloves that number can drop in half. Trainor said the Cisco infrastructure is designed to accomodate 25,000 concurrent connections, a number the team hasn’t yet reached. However, the team did have to double the back-end capacity already for the Wi-Fi network, which is being used more as more fans find it.

“Word of mouth really gets [usage] going,” said Trainor, who noted that at a Kenny Chesney concert last year, the stadium crew saw data uploads outpace data downloads for the first time — a sure sign that fans in attendance were using the network to do things like share pictures and videos with their social-network connections.

“We haven’t seen any true bottlenecks yet, but usage is consistently rising, game after game, for concerts, soccer and football,” Trainor said.

Rick Seifert

Rick Seifert

A good sign from the Wi-Fi networking statistics is a shift in usage from the often crowded 2.4 GHz bands to the 5 GHz bands, which Trainor said is likely due to fans using the latest 5 series iPhones, which support the 5 GHz Wi-Fi frequency. And no matter what happens to the Broncos in the playoffs, Trainor and Seifert know what they will be doing this summer: Upgrading the network components, in the never-ending battle to provide bandwidth.

“Verizon and Sprint have already made significant upgrades to their DAS deployments because of demand and changes in technology, like LTE,” said Seifert. “And next year we’ll probably see AT&T circle back again. It’s very dynamic.”

“As smart phones get smarter it’s a never-ending challenge” to provide connectivity, Trainor said. “It’s a job that’s never finished.”

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Apple, Apps, AT&T, Cisco, Comcast, DAS, Denver Broncos, Denver Broncos, MSR Guides, NFL, NFL Network, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

New Year’s Prediction: No wireless data record at 2014 Super Bowl

December 31, 2013 by

Even though the steady march of smartphone and tablet use at sporting events seems to show no sign of decreasing anytime soon, I am going to go out on a small limb here on the last day of 2013 and predict that we will NOT see a new record for mobile data use at the upcoming Super Bowl XLVII.

Why? Because it’s outside, in New Jersey, and it will very likely be cold or snowy — so the lucky fans who get to freeze their behinds off will most likely keep their fingers inside their gloves or mittens, and not expose them to the elements just to text, post photos or view handheld video. Well, some if not many people probably will, since MetLife Stadium has (reportedly) one of the better Wi-Fi installations in the NFL. And maybe there will be a power outage, which is always good for more wireless use. But still — it’s not such a stretch to think that fewer people will be using their phones at MetLife than at the Superdome from last year, right?

Or will new records be set anyway, since probably more fans will have more devices and more people now know that they can get a decent signal inside a stadium? If you are reading this blog you are probably among the select crowd who cares about such statistics, so stay tuned and we will provide you with updates since we usually get them from the cell providers and stadium operators the week after the big game. For now, happy new year to all and here’s to a great 2014 in stadium technology and mobile sports.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, NFL, Super Bowl, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Friday Grab Bag: ESPN adds more SEC programming for 2014

December 20, 2013 by

Not enough SEC Football? ESPN has you covered
ESPN’s top markets for its college football broadcasts are all in SEC football’s heartland and apparently the powers that be at the sports broadcasting giant believe that you can never have too much of a good thing. (Apparently they have never sat by an unwatched plate of fudge.)

So with the kickoff of next season’s NCAA football viewers can expect “SEC Nation” according to SI, a two-hour program that will run from 10 to noon EST as the main component in its SEC Network. It will cover other sports aside from football, which is news to the rest of us that SEC schools

Facebook buys SportsStream
A month ago we mentioned that Facebook was looking to increase its profile in the sports markets in part with a partnership with sports analytics company SportsStream. Well according to TechCrunch it likes SportsStream so much it purchased it.

The move I designed to help it fend off rival social media companies such as Twitter that are increasingly becoming to the go to sites for up to the second news and gossip. Terms of the deal were not revealed.

Are those Twitter numbers real?
Good news! If you have 61 followers on Twitter you are a median poster and if your number has reached 1,000 active users then you, my friend, are in the 96th percentile. Since it seems like there are millions on Twitter what exactly does this mean?

Well according to Oreilly.com it means that the huge percentage of activity is much smaller than it appears. One interesting outtake from the article is that fake posters and infrequent ones often have huge followings.

Will Android fragmentation continue?
Ever wonder how many types of Android operating systems and devices are out there? How about Apple iOS? Well A recent Forbes article points out that there are currently 4,700 different types of devices using the two operating systems.

Now you can probably list the Apple devices off the top of your head, but the dizzying array of Android has caused concern for developers for some time, and the article points out that as long as it stays heavily fragmented it will benefit Apple.

Worst Announcers in the NFL
Some poor soul at SportsonEarth charted announcers for a series of NFL games in order to find out which ones used the most, and the fewest, clichés, leaps of faiths and illogical statements during a broadcast.

I am assuming that author is not now committed and I think most will agree with the general results, although people always have their favorites to dislike-I know that I certainly do.

5 Bars Inside now inside Anaheim Stadium
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have announced that 5 Bars Inside is the official distributed Antennae system (DAS) and Wi-Fi provider for the team and that the stadium will get a makeover so that fans have solid connectivity.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Android, Apple, Apps, Baseball, DAS, ESPN, Facebook, iOS, Los ANgeles Angeles of Anaheim, Monday Night Football, NCAA Football, NFL, SEC, Social Media Data, Sports Social Media, Sports Social Media Data, Twitter Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Stadium Tech Report: Wi-Fi ‘coaches’ help fans find network in New England and Philly

December 17, 2013 by

Wi-Fi coach in the stands at Gillette Stadium. Credit: Extreme Networks

Wi-Fi coach in the stands at Gillette Stadium. Credit: Extreme Networks

What good is a stadium Wi-Fi network if the fans don’t use it? To help avoid the obvious answer, the providers of wireless services in the New England Patriots’ Gillette Stadium and the Philadelphia Eagles’ Lincoln Financial Field are now supplying “Wi-Fi coaches,” roaming groups of helpers who help fans get connected to the in-stadium network. With assistance from the digital sidelines, fans at those two stadiums can now conquer what may be the biggest hurdle to in-stadium connectivity: Just figuring out how to make your device work.

In a phone interview with John Brams, director of hospitality and venues with Enterasys (the stadium networking company recently acquired by Extreme Networks), we asked about what problems the providers had experienced with their new networks at Gillette and the Linc. Perhaps not surprisingly, one of the biggest concerns wasn’t technical, but simply user confusion.

“After we installed the networks, we quietly realized that the [biggest] fundamental issues weren’t with the design — it was user issues,” Brams said. When you consider that the average age of a Patriots fan at the game is 51 or 52, Brams said, it’s understandable that many of them might not know how to do things like download an app or find a Wi-Fi connection for their phone. Communicating with fans at the games is also problematic, he said.

“You can’t just pick up the phone and call people, and you can’t really have a help desk at the stadium,” Brams said. What the Enterasys/Extreme folks hit on was a plan familiar to any NFL fan, who knows all about the long list of assistants for things like offensive line play and special teams: Give the fans their own Wi-Fi coaches.

Coaches roam stands to help fans connect

Wi-Fi coach in the stands at the Linc. Credit: Extreme Networks

Wi-Fi coach in the stands at the Linc. Credit: Extreme Networks

Now at both Gillette and the Linc the Extreme folks have 16 or more Wi-Fi coaches roaming the stands and concourses during games, readily identifiable in team-color jackets that announce them as friendly types to help fans connect to Wi-Fi. According to Brams, it’s not just the fans who benefit from the outreach program — the teams and stadiums also get instant feedback from users, which can help them quickly pinpoint any network problems.

“From a team perspective, the coaches are a great way to interact with the fans,” Brams said. “You get immediate feedback and if there are any problems, you get the information from the fan and quickly close the loop.”

The personal show-me coaching works very well in a stadium situation, Brams said, because fans will quickly pass on successful tactics to those sitting nearby. “If one person learns how to do something, it spreads like a chain reaction,” Brams said. One problem the Extreme coaching team has been communicating to users was a known bug with the team app and Android platforms, which could be fixed with a simple download. The bottom line, Brams said, is to ensure a good network experience the first time out — otherwise, fans might never try to connect again.

“I ran into one fan at Gillette who said the network didn’t work — but the last time he tried it was 2 years ago,” Brams said. “You need to deliver the first time they use it.”

Steady increase in Wi-Fi usage

At both Gillette, where the network was installed last season, and at Lincoln Financial, which is in its first year of Wi-Fi, Extreme is seeing a steady increase in usage, Brams said. An interesting side note is that while numbers of users are rising steadily, the amount of data being consumed overall is growing more rapidly, suggesting that the fans who do connect are starting to do more.

On the coaching front, Extreme is looking into helping its team customers find ways to expand the program, perhaps with some device-charging stations staffed by more Wi-Fi coaches. The idea is also open to possibilities for branding and advertising on the coaches’ jackets as well as at the charging stations, Brams said, with the final options limited only by the stadium owner and operators’ imaginations.

The best part of the program is when a coach helps a fan connect to the Wi-Fi, which is often a game-changing experience in the world of stadium connectivity. “These places [stadiums] used to be such a connectivity black hole,” Brams said. “Now people are excited when they connect.”

Filed Under: Android, Apps, DAS, iPad, iPhone, MSR Guides, NFL, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,
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