The 49Ers' New Stadium Is A Temple Of Football And High Technology

[Spartan]

 

Looking for a metric of how far technology has come in recent years? Take a look at your local sports team's home field and compare it to Levi's Stadium, the new home of the San Francisco 49ers. It's a shiny new stadium, sure, but it's also a coliseum designed to cater to a generation of fans that carry tiny computers in their pocket. With over 400 miles of cable and more than 1,200 WiFi access points throughout, Levi's Stadium is an arena made for smartphone users -- though the jury is still out on the team's app-supported fan experience.

 

So, what does it take to deliver WiFi to tens of thousands of fans simultaneously? We dropped by the Santa Clara stadium to find out. Check out the gallery below to see what we saw.

 

Sitting on the signal

 

 

Look under your seat, you just won free internet! WiFi access points are peppered throughout the stadium's bowl -- about one for every 100 seats.

 

According to Dan Williams, the VP of technology for Levi’s Stadium, they laid out 400 miles of cabling, 70 miles of which are just dedicated to connecting the 1,200 distributed antenna systems that serve the Wi-Fi routers that are placed to serve every 100 seats throughout the stadium. Levi’s Stadium features a backbone of 40 gigabits per second of available bandwidth, easily scalable to accomodate event attendance, which is 40 times more Internet bandwidth capacity than any known U.S. stadium, and four times greater than the standard for NFL stadiums that’s been mandated by the league to be in place by 2015.

[Spartan]

 

Access points are spread throughout the stadium every 100 seats, serving up wireless Internet service to fans during the games

 

Repeaters placed throughout Levi’s Stadium pass Internet service along from section to section 

The stadium also has about 1,700 high-tech beacons. Using the latest version of the Bluetooth Low Energy standard, these beacons can be used to give people pinpoint directions to their seats as well as to any other place in the stadium. They can also be used to send them alerts about specials from concession stands and other promotions from time to time.

[Hyderabad_Nawab]

Too Much Undhi Kadha..>Go Niners.... :4_12_13:

[Spartan]

The infrastructure

 

All this data isn't easy to maintain, however: the stadium is supported by 48 small server rooms and connected to one larger data center,Naturally, the sever room is extremely loud -- the hum of fans drown out all but the loudest of conversation.

 

The stadium's Brocade network supports the entirety of its IP infrastructure -- including all of its video content. There isn't a coax cable to be found.Most of the stadium's 400 miles of cabling can only be seen in employee areas, hidden in rafters between water pipes and support hardware.

 

The stadium can handle 40GB/s of traffic, but it's not all dedicated to fan WiFi. Some of it is needed for IP and security systems.

 

[Spartan]

Security in isolation

 

All of Levi's Stadium's racks are isolated for specific purposes: WiFi doesn't collide with security or video feeds, and every system has its own firewall system to protect 49ers data and fans.

 

[Spartan]

You’ll watch that footage on the stadium’s enormous LED screens, positioned on either end of the bowl. Each measure 200 wide by 48 feet high, but only one outputs sound — a concession made to limit noise pollution to a local residential neighborhood.

[Spartan]

The stadium's "green roof" is a 27,000 square foot nod to sustainability. Its plants rely on reclaimed water -- lets hope they fair better than the stadium's turfgrass.

[Spartan]

Bridges leading to the stadium's parking lots are outfitted with solar panels, too. 

[ILAQAT_MUFLIYA]

vuncle kotha stadiums obviously alane untay .. Minnesota kuda will rock when done..

[Spartan]

vuncle kotha stadiums obviously alane untay .. Minnesota kuda will rock when done..

 

done ayyaka veddam..kaani ippatikaite ide rocks...

[ILAQAT_MUFLIYA]

done ayyaka veddam..kaani ippatikaite ide rocks...

annitla wifi adding kada .. dallas has it too .. deeni perendi candlestick ee na ? 

[alpachinao]

football endi ra ayya rugby ani dani peru... 

[PegaMan]

hahaha the difference.... Netherlands lo football stadiums lo wifi pedthunte dengeyamannaru fans....... you have to cheer for the team not upload pics in instagram ani while in the stadium ani..... american football stadiums lo wifi pedthunnaaru... :lol:

[PegaMan]

football endi ra ayya rugby ani dani peru... 

its handegg 

[Spartan]

hahaha the difference.... Netherlands lo football stadiums lo wifi pedthunte dengeyamannaru fans....... you have to cheer for the team not upload pics in instagram ani while in the stadium ani..... american football stadiums lo wifi pedthunnaaru... :lol:

 

people need that ati man..

 

Footboll/Soccer lo breaks undavu..

 

American Football lo prati 5-10min ki break ki potar kada...a time gap lo em cheyalo telvaka..selfies, twitter, instagram Fb lu kaval kada..

 

dani kosame idanta...