{"id":236,"date":"2020-05-28T09:12:20","date_gmt":"2020-05-28T08:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/?p=236"},"modified":"2020-05-28T09:12:25","modified_gmt":"2020-05-28T08:12:25","slug":"arena-scores-crowd-pleasing-services-with-commscope-ruckus-infrastructure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/2020\/05\/28\/arena-scores-crowd-pleasing-services-with-commscope-ruckus-infrastructure\/","title":{"rendered":"Arena scores crowd-pleasing services with CommScope RUCKUS infrastructure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

OVERVIEW <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma is a popular venue for events, from concerts to bull riding competitions. Its resident sports team, basketball\u2019s Oklahoma City Thunder, is known for its commitment to giving fans an outstanding in-game experience. But stakeholders like the Thunder were frustrated with the arena\u2019s limited, unreliable network infrastructure. The IT manager for the stadium\u2019s management company chose RUCKUS high-performance Wi-Fi and switches to enable a big jump in supporting new services and monetization opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CHALLENGES <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The limitations of both the wired and wireless networks made it impossible to support high-density, high-bandwidth demands \u00b7 Applications like point of sales (POS) were constrained by an unreliable wired network \u00b7 Existing Wi-Fi limited support for mobile applications and the ability to collect demographic data and monetize the network<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SOLUTION <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

400 indoor and outdoor 802.11ac access points (APs)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

100 ICX core, aggregation and access switches <\/p>\n\n\n\n

SmartZone controllers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BENEFITS <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

RUCKUS wireless and wired network handles terabytes of data at every event, enabling every arena stakeholder to make the connections they want with anyone from anywhere <\/p>\n\n\n\n

SMG can now monetize the Wi-Fi for backof-house use and new outbound marketing campaigns <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The network supports new services for vendors and guests, including Bypass POS and Ticketmaster Presence<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poor wireless and wired networks limit connections with fans<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On any given day, you might find the floor of the Chesapeake Energy Arena covered in two feet of dirt (for professional bull riding), or a concert stage (for top music artists like Carrie Underwood and Paul McCartney), or a hard-wood court (for the resident Oklahoma City Thunder basketball team).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 581,000-square-foot stadium is located in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The arena has a capacity of approximately 19,000. Christopher Nelson is the Manager, Information Technology for SMG OKC, which manages the arena and the 100,000-sq.ft. convention center across the street for the City of Oklahoma City. When Nelson joined five years ago, the arena had Aruba access points (APs) at gates for ticket scanning. There was no Wi-Fi for fans or staff. They had a Cisco wired network, but the capacity of the Cisco switches was too low and support costs too high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many companies require network services in the arena, including the Thunder\u2019s management, the food and beverage distributors, and Ticketmaster. \u201cOur stakeholders had so many constraints and limitations because we didn\u2019t have the right infrastructure in place,\u201d says Nelson. \u201cWe had to get ahead of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phase one was replacing the wired network. Nelson worked with Rectitude 369, LLC, a national networking consulting company based in Houston, TX, to replace all of the Cisco switches with RUCKUS. They installed ICX switches at the core, distribution and access layers. \u201cWe went from a 1 GB backbone to 20 GB with scalability up to 160 GB,\u201d says Nelson. \u201cNetwork performance went through the roof. The stability was rock solid. But, even with all that power, the network was incredibly easy to manage. CommScope\u2019s RUCKUS solutions were simply in a different league from what we had before.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phase two was an arena-wide Wi-Fi network. They evaluated vendors based on price, security, ease of management, and other requirements. But the ultimate test was actually installing APs in the arena to see what each vendor\u2019s equipment could handle. \u201cOur seats are retractable up to the 200th row. Instead of mounting APs behind the seats, we have to deploy them in the trusses and catwalks at the top of the arena,\u201d says Nelson. \u201cOnly RUCKUS could span from the top of the arena to the floor level, a distance of almost 100 feet. My goal was to create a Wi-Fi cloud around the arena\u2014the perfect blanket of coverage. I wasn\u2019t even sure it was possible, but we did it with RUCKUS Wi-Fi.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nelson says he prefers to standardize vendors when possible, \u201cbut only if you\u2019re getting best-of-breed solutions in each area. We had that with RUCKUS. We evaluated switching and wireless technology independently, and RUCKUS was the best choice in both areas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn order to future-proof our network, we went with the latest 802.11ac access points paired with the multigigabit switches,\u201d said Nelson. \u201cThis allows us to take advantage of the Wi-Fi speeds and positions us to deliver 4K video streaming and technologies like virtual reality in the future.\u201d
Rectitude 369, LLC, based the design of the Chesapeake Energy Arena on the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, CA, which also uses RUCKUS access points (APs) and switches. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A core of the design is silos. The first silo is the corporate network. The second silo is the Wi-Fi network. The third silo, which will be deployed next, is for streaming audio and video. There are about 70 VLANs securing different traffic segments, like point-of-sale (POS) transactions, security cameras, multicast traffic and so on. \u201cIt\u2019s a very streamlined design that gives us a lot of visibility and control. In addition, both the city and the federal government have stringent security requirements. We\u2019ve been able to ensure compliance\u2014and even go beyond what\u2019s required\u2014with RUCKUS,\u201d says Nelson. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to use and easy to administer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE THUNDER COURT FANS WITH NEW WI-FI-ENABLED SERVICES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Oklahoma City Thunder consistently ranks in the top five for in-game experience of all the National Basketball Association teams. \u201cKeeping those metrics high and our fans happy is a top priority,\u201d says Tyler Lane, Director of Technology for the Thunder. \u201cBut, in order to enhance the fan experience, we needed reliable, high-performance Wi-Fi inside and outside Chesapeake Energy Arena. We needed end-to-end connectivity, which would give us the ability to engage fans whether they\u2019re walking to the arena, in their seats or visiting concession stands. We also wanted better coverage in Thunder Alley, an area adjacent to the arena where we hold familyfriendly events prior to games.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Thunder has a mobile app that\u2019s a major channel for communications and engagement with fans. Once the RUCKUS Wi-Fi was deployed, Lane says there\u2019s been a notable increase in fan engagement using the Thunder app. There has also been a welcome drop in complaints about connections and slow speeds. \u201cFans are obviously happier and so are we. We asked for comprehensive connectivity and we got it. We now have reliable connectivity in every part of the arena, from Thunder Alley to clubs and restaurants to the seats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lane says the RUCKUS network has increased confidence in adding features they know fans will love, like interactive in-game promotions, scanning loyalty cards to earn points at concession stands, and increased fan engagement on social media while watching the game. \u201cNow that we have this network, we\u2019re just getting warmed up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TM PRESENCE, BYPASS POS AND MORE MONETIZATION OPPORTUNITIES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the free guest Wi-Fi was available, visitors had to use a cellular provider. But there was no way for SMG to capture and monetize that traffic. With the free guest Wi-Fi, SMG and the Thunder management, in a co-op effort, have created a captive portal. SMG can now collect demographic information for outbound marketing and promotions.
For the first time, SMG can sell Wi-Fi for back of house use. \u201cThe Aruba Wi-Fi wasn\u2019t reliable enough for us to treat as a value-ended capability. Now our Wi-Fi is a marketable, revenue-generating service.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previously, reliability problems affected POS connections and there was no Wi-Fi in the arena to support mobile POS terminals. Today there are 330 wired and wireless tablets running Bypass POS. Ticketmaster also brought TM Presence to the arena. \u201cWe were actually one of the pilot sites, which wouldn\u2019t have been possible before we deployed RUCKUS,\u201d says Nelson. \u201cHaving digital ticketing gives us another source of information to get closer to our visitors, as well as helping to eliminate ticket fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe guest Wi-Fi is handling terabytes of data during any given event,\u201d says Nelson. \u201cAnd our wired network pulls an insane amount of data for all the video, streaming, ESPN, TNT and other networks who come here for games.\u201d The network, as Nelson hoped, will take them a long way in supporting new services. In the near future, Nelson plans to add Bluetooth beaconing support and location-based services to drive more traffic to vendors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur experience with RUCKUS has been absolutely fantastic. We liked RUCKUS before, but this is the largest deployment we\u2019ve ever done and the most ambitious in terms of our vision for the future. Chesapeake Energy Arena is the home of champions and remarkable performances. RUCKUS fits in perfectly here,\u201d says Nelson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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