Wi-Fi – Page 40

Comcast bringing backbone bandwith to NRG Stadium Wi-Fi

August 18, 2016 by Paul Kapustka

Free Wi-Fi is something Houston Texans fans will be able to cheer about this season at NRG Stadium. Credit: HoustonTexans.com

With the new Wi-Fi network just getting ready to go live at Houston’s NRG Stadium, Comcast announced that it will provide backbone bandwidth to the network under a sponsorship deal, with two 100-gig pipes that will both be available to the stadium facility.

Michael Bybee, a Houston-based director of external affairs for Comcast, said the company has a large fiber network throughout the Houston area, and a longtime relationship with the NFL’s Texans, making the network sponsorship deal a great fit. Comcast supplies (or will soon supply) similar broadband bandwidth to a number of other large stadiums, including the San Francisco 49ers’ Levi’s Stadium, the Sacramento Kings’ new Golden 1 Center, the Atlanta Braves’ new SunTrust Park, the Denver Broncos’ Sports Authority Field, the Detroit Tigers’ Comerica Park, the Tennessee Titans’ Nissan Field and the Oakland A’s Oakland Coliseum, among others.

In Houston, where integrator 5 Bars is installing a new Wi-Fi network using Extreme Networks gear ahead of next February’s Super Bowl 51, Bybee said Comcast will have two 100-gigabit per second pipes coming into the stadium, where they will feed a main 10-Gbps circuit for the regular-season NFL Wi-Fi needs. Should the stadium require more circuits, Bybee said, the facility will be able to “seamlessly add additional circuits” given the surplus of bandwidth supplied by the 100-Gbps pipes.

Though there hasn’t yet been an official announcement of the network being ready for public use, sources tell us that fans at Saturday’s preseason game between the Texans and the New Orleans Saints should finally find fan-facing Wi-Fi (look for the xfinitywifi SSID), an amenity that had been missing at NRG Stadium in the past. Anyone who goes to the game — send us a speed test!

Filed Under: Comcast, Extreme Networks, Levi's Stadium, NFL, Super Bowl, Wi-Fi Tagged With: 5 Bars, Extreme Networks, Houston Texans, Levi's Stadium, Mobile Sports Report, NFL, NRG Stadium, Paul Kapustka, Stadium Wi-Fi, Super Bowl, Wi-Fi

US Bank Stadium opens with packed house for soccer game, packed lines for trains

August 4, 2016 by Paul Kapustka

US Bank Stadium during its opening event, Aug. 3. Credit all photos: Pat Coyle, AmpThink (click on any photo for a larger image)

The grand opening event for US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis was futbol, not football, but the friendly between legendary clubs AC Milan and Chelsea still provided a packed house as 64,101 fans filled the Vikings’ new home Wednesday in what local media reports called a generally successful debut.

With any new stadium — and especially with flashy new stadiums like US Bank — there are always unexpected issues that arise when you finally fill the place with ticket buyers. Though we weren’t there, a good amount of reporting from the local paper and scans of social media found generally favorable reviews of the building itself, especially the natural-light atmosphere fostered by the large glass roof (OK, it’s actually an advanced plastic roof).

Among scattered reports of food shortages at concession stands, and foot-traffic issues probably caused by many fans taking just-in-the-door selfies, there were visual confirmations that the Vikings’ plan to have fans use light rail to get to the stadium suffered from some of the issues that plagued Levi’s Stadium early on: Not enough trains or cars on trains to handle the big post-game crush.

Number of times I will take the light rail after a game at @usbankstadium = 0. pic.twitter.com/Rt12Ot8f83

— Kris Lien (@tuffer21) August 4, 2016

Apparently plans we heard to offer overflow bus service haven’t yet materialized, but now the stadium operators have some real data to use to prepare for the first Vikings game, an Aug. 28 preseason tilt, followed on Sept. 18 with the first regular-season game at US Bank Stadium, versus the Vikings’ main rivals, the Green Bay Packers.

The new app built for US Bank Stadium by VenueNext was available for download, but it didn’t include any ability for fans to order food from the app either for express pickup or in-seat delivery during Wednesday’s game. According to VenueNext, express pickup and in-seat delivery services will start during the Vikings preseason games, starting first in small select areas and later expanding to more parts of the stadium.

We also didn’t get any speed tests of the Wi-Fi or cellular networks in the building, so if you were there, let us know how the wireless worked (or didn’t). We would like to thank Pat Coyle from AmpThink for the on-the-scene photos below.

Giant video board shows the packed house

Can you spot the railing-mounted Wi-Fi APs?

Good view of the glass (OK, advanced plastic) roof

VenueNext’s ‘Kezar’ scanners in operation at US Bank Stadium

Mobile device use was heavy as expected

How many selfies? Answer: A lot

Filed Under: Apps, DAS, Levi's Stadium, NFL, Wi-Fi Tagged With: AC Milan, Chelsea, Levi's Stadium, Minneapolis, Minnesota Vikings, Mobile Sports Report, NFL, Paul Kapustka, Soccer, Stadium Wi-Fi, Super Bowl, US Bank Stadium, VenueNext, Wi-Fi

Pepsi Center partners with ParkHub for digital parking experience

August 2, 2016 by Paul Kapustka

Denver’s Pepsi Center in hockey configuration. Credit: Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

Fans coming to Denver’s Pepsi Center this fall will be able to prepurchase parking tickets and get mobile-device directions to their reserved spot, as part of a wide-ranging digital parking system from stadium parking technology startup ParkHub.

In a release today, Kroenke Sports and Entertainment (KSE) — owners of the Pepsi Center as well as the main tenants, the NBA’s Denver Nuggets and the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche — said it will use “all of ParkHub’s parking solutions” to help power a list of features that include pre-purchasing capabilities, the ability to take cash and credit card payment options for parking at the gate, real-time views of parking spot availability, and turn by turn directions to the lot locations. Fans will be able to access the parking options via a responsive website optimized for mobile scheduled to debut this fall, according to ParkHub.

(Now that MSR is local to the area we’re looking forward to seeing the app in action, if only because the curved streets in the vicinity of the Pepsi Center have always made parking downtown an adventure for us!)

According to the Dallas-based ParkHub, which is adding rapidly to its list of current customers, the KSE deal is the first time ParkHub will “white label” its entire suite of products, which will be offered from the Pepsi Center and not directly from ParkHub.

Dashboard view of ParkHub’s admin program. Credit: ParkHub

Included on the back end of ParkHub’s system is the ability to administer, approve and analyze all parking activities from a dashboard view. According to ParkHub, parking information is available in real time, allowing venues to fine-tune things like lot availability and direction of traffic as cars arrive at the stadium.

“When I think about the success of an event, the primary goal is to expedite a better experience of getting people parked and in their seats in the least frustrating way as possible,” said Scott Beekhuizen, senior director of events operations for KSE, in a prepared statement. “Not only did we add a reliable pre-purchasing platform, but now all of our fans can use credit cards to pay at the gate. I know they are going to love that.”

Fans at Pepsi Center events this fall will also be able to connect to the Internet via high-speed Wi-Fi from Avaya that was recently installed at the venue.

Filed Under: Apps, Basketball, NBA, NHL, Wi-Fi Tagged With: Colorado Avalanche, Denver Nuggets, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, KSE, Mobile Sports Report, NBA, NHL, ParkHub, Paul Kapustka, Pepsi Center, Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi a winner at Avaya Stadium’s MLS All-Star game

July 29, 2016 by Paul Kapustka

Just before game time at Avaya Stadium for the 2016 MLS All Star game. Credit all photos: Paul Kapustka, MSR

On the pitch it was the Arsenal lads emerging victorious over by a 2-1 score over the Major League Soccer All-Stars, but in the stands it was Avaya Stadium’s Wi-Fi network that won the day at the 2016 MLS All-Star game Thursday in San Jose, Calif.

Unlike a year ago at the Avaya Stadium opening, when we found the fan-facing Wi-Fi a bit lacking, the Wi-Fi network performed at top speeds for almost all of our tests during an MSR “walkaround” before and during the MLS All-Star game. Unfortunately, we can’t say the same about the cellular network performance in and around Avaya Stadium, with many signals so weak on both the AT&T and Verizon Wireless networks that in most places we couldn’t conduct a speed test.

Leaving behind the question as to why there hasn’t been a DAS installed yet at Avaya Stadium, it was great to see the Wi-Fi network consistently hit download and upload speeds in the mid- to high-20+ Mbps range in just about every spot of the U-shaped soccer-centric arena. In the main seating areas, in the concourses below the stands as well as around the huge open-air bar there was solid connectivity, fueled by what looked like a lot more APs than we saw during vists to the venue last year.

While some of the AP installs looked like last-minute fixes (we saw several instances where paper binder clips were used in Phil Mickelson fashion to secure wiring to metal beams) there was certainly a noticeable amount of extra equipment, especially on the stanchions that loom out over the seating area. There, it seemed like every beam or at least every other beam had three sets of paired APs, which no doubt helped produce a speed test of 28.93/27.44 we took in the middle of the seating area (of section 120, in the closed end zone). Last year, it was a challenge to get a good reading in the middle of the seats.

The top speed test we got Thursday night was outside a sausage stand at one corner of the open end zone, where the meter hit 44.00/33.49 just before game time. We were also impressed by the consistent coverage at the huge outdoor bar in the open end zone, helped no doubt by APs on the top of the bar roof on each end, and three APs per side above the bar server areas.

Thats good wifi @AvayaStadium #MLSAllStar pic.twitter.com/bzgTCBywcR

— paulkaps (@paulkaps) July 29, 2016

Somewhat ironically the only place we couldn’t get a Wi-Fi signal was in our assigned “press box” seat, actually the upper back corner in the southwest part of the stadium. While we are guessing the problem may have been due to press-laptop overload (or some APs missing from what looked like normal install points), we noticed that by walking one section away from the press section we were able to reconnect with the regular stadium Wi-Fi network at a reading of 18.27/20.38.

One of the many ‘doubled’ AP installs we saw

Most of the 18,000+ fans in the sellout crowd seemed to have no issues connecting to the Internet, as we saw fans heads-down on their devices in all parts of the venue. We did talk to one fan at halftime who said the lack of cellular connectivity outside the main gate kept him from being able to call up his digital tickets on his phone.

“But once I got inside I connected to Wi-Fi and everything was fine,” he said.

On the upper deck walkways we did finally get a fairly strong AT&T 4G LTE signal — 8.23/8.93 — which may have been due to a clear line of sight to the “eyeball” antenna we saw deployed in the VIP parking lot. And while we could make calls and send texts on our Verizon phone 4G LTE connection, trying to load a web page took so long we gave up. Moral of the story is for Avaya Stadium fans: Make sure you hit the GOQUAKES SSID as soon as you’re near the stadium!

Enjoy the rest of our photos from our quick trip to San Jose, and know that while beers may cost $12.50 and shots of Jameson’s may set you back $12 each, at this year’s All-Star game all the Arsenal cheers and songs you ever wanted to hear were free of charge.

APs like this ringed the lower concourse wall areas

When the players walk through the concourse to take the pitch, it’s snapshot city

At the huge end zone bar, it was SRO all day long

AP visible in middle of roof section of bar

Pictures and selfies were the order of the day

The famed sausage stand AP with the 44 down reading. The bratwurst was good, too

The Avaya Stadium social media wall

Staying connected in the stands

Nice view from the upper deck

I think if I stuck around this group for one more beer I could have learned at least three Arsenal songs

AT&T eyeball antenna sighting in the VIP parking lot

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, DAS, MLS, Soccer, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi Tagged With: 4G LTE, Arsenal, AT&T, Avaya Stadium, DAS, MLS All-Star game, Mobile Sports Report, Paul Kapustka, Soccer, Stadium Wi-Fi, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi

Survey says 75 percent of major sports arenas have Wi-Fi

July 26, 2016 by Paul Kapustka

MOBILE SPORTS REPORT is pleased to announce the STATE OF THE STADIUM TECHNOLOGY SURVEY 2016, our fourth annual look at technology deployments in major stadiums and arenas. Inside the report we have replies from more than 90 leading sports venues to get a snapshot of technology deployments in several categories, including Wi-Fi, DAS, Analytics, Fan Engagement and Digital Signage. Our survey and analysis shows that:

— Wi-Fi deployments have continued to increase, jumping to 75 percent of all respondents

— DAS deployments have reached 95 percent of all respondent venues

— Ticketing programs still dominate sports CRM usage
Wi-Fi analytics and other digital-information tracking programs are still in their infancy, but more teams are deploying digital-communications strategies.

These results are the only statistical breakdown of what’s being deployed in the stadium technology deployment marketplace so… DOWNLOAD YOUR COPY TODAY!

Mobile Sports Report would like to thank all the representatives from the major professional sports leagues, including the NBA, the NFL, Major League Baseball, the NHL and the MLS, as well as representatives from major colleges and universities and other sporting and entertainment arenas who took time to participate in our fourth-annual survey. It’s their sharing of time and information that makes our survey possible, so thanks!

Mobile Sports Report would also like to thank JMA Wireless for their sponsorship of this year’s survey, which allows us to offer this information free of charge to our readers.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, About MSR, DAS, MSR Guides, Wi-Fi Tagged With: 4G LTE, DAS, digital signage, IPTV, Mobile Sports Report, Paul Kapustka, Stadium Tech Report, Stadium Wi-Fi, State of the Stadium Technology Survey, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi analytics, Wi-Fi APs

Fan-facing Wi-Fi on hold as Coliseum gets ready for Rams’ return to Los Angeles

July 20, 2016 by Paul Kapustka

DAS antennas visible on the LA Coliseum’s facade

Normally when a new professional sports franchise comes to town or opens a new venue, preparations move into overdrive pretty quickly — especially for infrastructure like luxury suites, Wi-Fi and DAS.

But this is the Los Angeles Rams, and nothing about the team’s trajectory is normal, including the technology. So after making good on a longstanding threat to move the team from St. Louis, owner Stan Kroenke in January broke ground on a new, $2.6 billion “NFL Disneyland” venue in the LA suburb of Inglewood. It’s expected to be ready in time for the 2019 season. So for right now, the returning Rams will play at the Los Angeles Coliseum.

While it has an established and robust DAS system, the Coliseum has no dedicated, fan-facing Wi-Fi network, just as the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis didn’t. But it’s LA, baby. Kanye. Jack. Celebrity sightings means more bandwidth is needed, not less. But the first appearance of Wi-Fi at the venerable Coliseum won’t be for fans, but for operations.

Relying on DAS for fan wireless

Editor’s note: This profile is from our most recent STADIUM TECH REPORT, the Q2 issue which contains a feature story on Wi-Fi analytics, and a sneak peek of the Minnesota Vikings’ new US Bank Stadium. DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE COPY today!

Artist rendering of the proposed new LA football stadium

So when the Rams play their first pre-season game at the Coliseum in August against the Dallas Cowboys, fans will have to rely on the DAS network for connectivity. AT&T, Verizon Wireless and more recently T-Mobile, are the DAS carriers; Sprint trucks in a COW for USC games.

The Rams will bring in their own Wi-Fi for communications to and from the sidelines, along with their Microsoft Surface tablets, according to Derek Thatcher, IT manager at the Coliseum and an employee of USC, which oversees and administers the venue for Los Angeles County. There will also be private Wi-Fi in the locker rooms and the officiating rooms. Thatcher’s working closely with the Rams and the NFL, including one of the NFL’s frequency coordinators, to ensure everybody has the bandwidth they need.

Separate from the Rams and the NFL, USC is undertaking a major renovation of the Coliseum, home to the university’s storied football team. The $270 million project cost will be funded entirely by USC Athletics from capital gifts, sponsorship revenue, non-USC athletic events at the Coliseum, and donor naming opportunities. “The project will not require any student fees or general university, local, state or federal funds,” the university said on ColiseumRenovation.com.

In addition to significant expansion of luxury suites and press box facilities (which houses most the IT and networking gear for the Coliseum), USC will also be adding public Wi-Fi and is talking with different vendors about their requirements.

DAS antennas inside the concourse

It is worth noting that Aruba Networks provides wireless networking for most of the adjacent USC campus (more than 5,000 APs), including the Galen Center and USC’s healthcare facilities. Thatcher emphasized the bidding was open to all vendors.

Waiting for the new stadium to be built

The Coliseum’s current capacity is 93,600 and the NFL will use 80,000 seats; post-renovation, capacity will be 77,500, due to replacement of all seats and addition of handrails to the aisles. That’s good news for Wi-Fi engineers, since the Coliseum’s bowl design has no overhangs to speak of; DAS antennas are mounted to poles that ring the stadium, and also above the bowl’s entry and exit tunnels. “Underseat AP design is expensive… we could end up with underseat and handrail,” Thatcher told Mobile Sports Report. “We’re looking at all possible solutions.”

The renovation is scheduled to begin right after USC’s 2017 football season ends and is expected to be done in time for the 2019 opener. The university said it will plan the construction schedule so that 2018 season can still be played at the Coliseum.

The other wild card in the Coliseum’s future is the Los Angeles bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The city has already done the honors before (1932, 1984) and the Coliseum served as the Olympic Stadium both times; a third time hosting would be unprecedented. But because of LA’s experience, coupled with plenty of already-built sporting venues to handle a plethora of events and requirements, it was natural for the US Olympic Committee to turn to LA once Boston bailed.

The city’s bid includes $300 million for additional renovations to the Coliseum.

Rome, Paris and Budapest are also competing to host the games. The winner will be announced by the International Olympic Committee in September 2017.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, DAS, NFL, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi Tagged With: 4G LTE, AT&T, DAS, Los Angeles Coliseum, Los Angeles Rams, Mobile Sports Report, NCAA, Stadium Wi-Fi, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi