February 13, 2018 Leave a Comment
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Digital Transformation

Digital Fans Win Big at the Big Game

Whether you are a New England Patriots fan or cheer for the Philadelphia Eagles; a Justin Timberlake superfan or just in it for the commercials, there’s one thing we can all agree on – this year’s Big Game did not disappoint. In another thrilling event that once again went down to the final minutes, the Eagles prevailed to take home their first-ever NFL Championship.

But the Eagles were not the only winners. The 67,612 fans in attendance at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota hit the jackpot with a network infrastructure that supported unprecedented levels of traffic before, during and after the Game. In fact, digital played a starring role all night long, as fans took to their mobile devices to express their excitement about one of the sporting world’s biggest nights.

Powered by Cisco’s Connected Sports and Entertainment Solutions, U.S. Bank Stadium was more than up to the challenge of hosting the Big Game. The digital-ready Wi-Fi network – designed by AmpThink using Cisco gear – delivered a cutting-edge fan experience with a secure and flexible platform that supported a record-breaking 16.31 terabytes of traffic, the most Wi-Fi data ever used at a single-day event. This represents a nearly 2.5x increase since 2015 – the last time a Cisco-connected venue hosted the Big Game at the University of Phoenix Stadium. And over 90% of all data usage took place just over eight hours – this highlights how engaged fans were from pre-game thru the post-game raising of the trophy! Big congratulations are in order not only for the team at U.S. Bank Stadium, but also to our trusted partners at AmpThink.

“AmpThink, CenturyLink and Cisco designed and built a world-class wireless system for U.S. Bank Stadium that handled record-setting traffic for Super Bowl LII… AmpThink president Bill Anderson and his team of amazing engineers were a pleasure to work with and the experts at Cisco Sports and Entertainment supported us throughout the multi-year planning process required for an event of this magnitude. High-density wireless networking is such a challenging issue to manage, but I am very happy with our results and wish the team in Atlanta the best next year. The bar has been raised.”

-David Kingsbury, director of IT for U.S. Bank Stadium to Mobile Sports Report (February 9, 2018)

An astounding 59 percent of the fans in attendance at U.S. Bank Stadium used the network at some point during the event, also a recording-breaking figure for any single-game network experience. That these numbers continue to increase year-after-year is quite telling. In fact, the past three Big Games represent the top three single-day Wi-Fi events ever.

There’s no doubt that fans demand a robust digital experience across all aspects of the gameday journey to complement the action on the field. Those lucky enough to be in attendance at U.S. Bank Stadium were also engaged by one of the largest Cisco Vision deployments to date, with more than 2,200 HD displays throughout the concourse, concession and club areas of the arena to keep fans on top of all the action and event needs with live video and dynamic content.

The most prominent venues in the world continually turn to Cisco’s Connected Sports and Entertainment Solutions to satisfy not only the fans of today, but also the fans of the future. Next up? The 2018 NBA All-Star Game at the Cisco-powered STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, CA – stay tuned!