If you were lucky enough to have tickets to the New England Patriots home opener on Sunday, there’s a chance you might have missed a play or two. But that’s on you. Many people fall victim to bouts of hunger or bathroom breaks mid-game, but fans don’t have to worry about missing the action this season. The Kraft Sports Group, owners of the Patriots, announced last week that Gillette Stadium is game-ready with a Wi-Fi network that will allow fans to receive instant replays, read real-time stats, and access social media networks directly to their iPhones, iPads, and Andriod devices.
The Kraft Sports Group selected Enterasys Networks, a property of Siemens Enterprise Communications Company, to implement this revolutionary technology. The system includes Enterasys S-Series switches at the core, Enterasys Wi-Fi , Enterasys Mobile Identity & Access Management (IAM) for BYOD authentication services, as well as Enterasys OneFabric Control Center to centrally manage its network. The project took an entire month to complete.
Though replays will take up the most bandwidth, the network is designed to allow 40% of users to send and stream video–an impressive number considering that many soccer stadiums in Europe can only support 12%. That’s why the Krafts chose Enterasys. They needed a provider who could securely and seamlessly deliver all of the elements required of today’s social networking and video sharing while also having the ability to adapt along with Wi-Fi technologies.
Fred Kirsch, VP of Interactive Media, added “Because of our unique need to provide access for tens of thousands of users, we needed a very stable, scalable network that could be easily and centrally managed by our existing IT staff, particularly on game day. The Enterasys solution gives us an end-to-end network solution including all the hardware, software, and wiring needed to provide ubiquitous and reliable Wi-Fi access.”
Only a handful of box seats and club suits have had Wi-Fi access over the past three years, provided by a company that Kirsch wouldn’t disclose but did say that they’ve “had a lot of lessons learned from that experience.”
The multimillion dollar project will afford fans access to not only the above-mentioned streams and sharing perks but will also give them access to Patriots apps and NFL Red Zone, a preemptive move that may take advantage of any new content offerings the NFL could make in the future like exclusive audio and video transmission directly from Gillette, for example.
Let’s hear from the fans. Are you excited about the Wi-Fi developments at Gillette? Will you be using your mobile devices during the game? Are the Pats going to win their home opener?
