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It’s About the FansFirst and foremost, the goal of the wireless deployment is to better serve spectators. “For many fans, there’s nothing more frustrating than wanting to upload the photo from the go-ahead touchdown to share with friends and family, only to have their phone crawl at a snail’s pace and get a message a few minutes later that the upload failed,” Adkins says.

Upgrading the Georgia Dome’s Wi-Fi network had been on the organization’s radar for several years. The World Congress Center Authority board approved the proj-ect last April, work began in June and a new Cisco network went live at the start of the 2012 NFL season.

Covering the arena with Cisco Connected Stadium Wi-Fi was an ambi-tious initiative and a dramatic upgrade for the Georgia Dome, Brown says. Until last fall, the Georgia Dome had various wireless hotspots throughout the stadium, mainly for the press box, meeting rooms and barcode readers at the ticket turnstiles.

Brown describes the Georgia Dome’s Wi-Fi network as the “ultimate BYOD project” because it provides open access to the public on any mobile device they bring, while keeping the internal network secure. “We use Cisco ASA firewalls to separate the public traffic from the pro-duction network,” he explains.

Do the Wireless WaveCisco visited the stadium to explain the technology, and the World Congress Center Authority contracted CDW•G to conduct the site survey, spectrum analysis and design. “CDW•G did the integration

With the rise of home theaters and mobile apps, sports fans have more choices today. The best seat may not always be in the stadium — it’s often right at home or in a more convenient location.

That’s why the Georgia Dome, home of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons and host of the 2013 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Final Four, moved aggressively to blan-ket the stadium with a high-density wire-less network. Patrons in the 72,000-seat stadium now stay connected with their mobile devices, easily accessing their favorite sites and applications, including an in-venue app for sports scores, stats and video replays.

“There’s a growing emphasis by the NFL on enhancing the fan experience,” says Sam Brown, IT director for the Georgia Dome, which is operated by the World Congress Center Authority.

“When fans come in, all they have to do is set their smartphones to connect to the Georgia Dome’s Wi-Fi network, and they are up and running. It’s that easy.”

Georgia Dome General Manager Carl Adkins underscores that the NFL has taken a strong, proactive stance on improving the overall stadium experi-ence for fans.

“They recognize that if they’re going to continue to grow market share in the future, they need to engage fans of all ages through whatever means necessary,” Adkins says. “Affordable personal devices and other emerging technologies present an opportunity for the league and the member clubs to reach out to and con-nect with the fans in ways never before imagined.”

design requirementsWhen designing wireless networks for large venues, there are many unique considerations. CDW•G’s Mike Krummrey offers five best practices based on his experience deploying Wi-Fi at the georgia Dome.

• Startwithcapacity. review the organi zation’s goals for Wi-Fi access and understand the demo-graphics of the users to settle on an expected take rate today and into the future. A take rate is the percentage of visitors who access the Wi-Fi system. some venues today expect to have a 20 to 30 percent take rate, a number that’s steadily increasing.

•Focusoncoverage. With hundreds of access points often needed to satisfy capacity for a stadium venue, coverage is the major chal-lenge. Most organizations want to contain coverage within small, targeted sections and minimize over-coverage, which leads to interference. Wi-Fi designers must reduce power on the Aps and use antennas to direct coverage.

• Bejudiciousaboutplacement. Discovering acceptable mounting locations can be challenging, but Wi-Fi designers should keep the distance between the user and the antennas at a minimum. Also consider the aesthetic requirements of the venue.

• Buildfollow-upintotheplans. stadiums are organic facilities and are often reconfigured to accom-modate a variety of events. Design the Wi-Fi system to anticipate the various configurations of the venue. plan on continued support to ensure seamless performance as the radio frequency characteristics of the stadium change.

GameC o v e r A g e

To better engage audiences, the georgia Dome rolled out a wireless network that fans can use to access data, view replays and communicate via social media.

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and helped us get all the wireless configurations set up,” Brown says.

The Connected Stadium Wi-Fi solution com-prises Cisco Catalyst 3750 series switches, Cisco 5508 wireless controllers and 500 Cisco 3500-series access points. The APs came with a mix of antenna options, including a dual-band, high-gain antenna designed specifically for high-density stadium environments. The antenna offers high-speed wire-less connectivity throughout the venue, with total capacity limited only by the wireline backhaul. Third-party provider CCLD Networks manages the wireless network with Cisco Prime Network Control System.

“The biggest challenge for us when we were deploying the Wi-Fi equipment was to determine how many people will be on the network at any one time and how many will be heavy users,” says Mike Krummrey, a senior network engineer for CDW•G who led the company’s work on the implementation.

Brown says Cisco’s high-density wireless solution is specifically designed to tackle the technical chal-lenges of wireless coverage in stadiums. For example, the wireless APs are connected to antennas that establish “micro cells” throughout the venue that target specific seats and sections.

Bill Seed, mobility technical lead at Cisco Sports and Entertainment, says the high-gain antennas

focus radio frequency transmission and reception on a relatively small section of seats. This enables the creation of Wi-Fi micro cells that together deliver a high-quality Wi-Fi experience to all fans in the sta-dium, resulting in superior mobile experience even in the stadium’s highest density areas.

Crowd ControlThe Georgia Dome purchased licensing for 14,000 concurrent users. The peak usage to date: the National Football Conference Championship game (Falcons versus the 49ers), during which 8,800 con-current users were on the network. “Most of the usage is for tweeting, web browsing and for fans to take pic-tures and send Instagrams,” Brown says. “I imagine as usage expands, we can increase the license.”

Gearing up for the NCAA Men’s Final Four, the IT group performed systems diagnostics and anticipated making some tweaks to accommodate a basketball court instead of an open football field.

“We want to ensure that everyone at the event has a great time on all fronts and never has a second thought about the wireless experience,” says Adkins. “They shouldn’t be able to tell the difference [in connectivity] from the comfort of their own homes with one big exception — nothing replaces being there live.” lStl

SamBrownsaysCiscoConnectedStadiumWi-FiletsGeorgiaDomevisitorseasilyaccessdataandstayintouchwithfriendsandfamily.

The Difference makerAfter the game, people enjoy watching highlights and playing armchair quarterback to analyze the strategy of the coaches. iT pros also enjoy learning what makes the technology tick. With that in mind, Bill seed, head of mobile innovations for Cisco sports and entertainment, outlines some of the factors that differentiate stadium-grade Wi-Fi access points and antennas from other wireless gear.

• Good aesthetics With a low-profile design similar in size to an Apple iMac, the antennas blend in well with flat-panel Tvs spread across the stadium and can be painted to match the background. All the fans see is the antenna because the Ap can often be tucked away in the ceiling.

• Multiband support Cisco’s gear operates in both the 2.4 gigahertz and 5GHz spectrum, which means it supports all modern Wi-Fi devices. For example, a ticketing person may only use a barcode reader that operates in the 5GHz band, while smartphones connect over both the 2.4GHz band and 5GHz bands.

• Support for 802.11n The stadium Wi-Fi gear features multiple-input, multiple-output technology, which uses multiple transmitters and receivers to transfer more data simultaneously. 802.11n transfers data at the high speeds users typically enjoy at work, home or at a local coffee shop.

100,000 fans who can text, make calls and use the Internet on the wireless network

Several2013NCAAMarchMadnessvenuesofferhigh-speedwirelesstoboostthefanexperience,includingafewNFLstadiums:

630 access points installed

28,000maximum simultaneous Wi-Fi connections

884 access points installed

2 distributed antenna systems – one for inside the stadium and one for outside

GeorgiaDomeAtlanta

CowboysStadiumArlington,Texas

LucasOilStadiumIndianapolis

400antennas supporting 3G, 4G and LTE voice and data networks

500access points installed

hosTs wiThThe mosT

14,000 Maximum number of simultaneous connections

1.5Mbps Per-user download speed on the

high-density Cisco Connected Stadium

Wi-Fi network

CarlAdkinsoftheGeorgiaDomesaysthefacilitycaterstofans.

Discover what technology greeted March Madness spectators: statetechmag.com/finalfourtech.

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