McLane Stadium is the home football stadium of Baylor University, a private higher education institution located in Waco, Texas. Devoted to delivering an exceptional gameday experience to its fans, in the fall of 2012 Baylor University embarked on a $260 million construction project to build an entirely new stadium on campus.
In today’s mobile-centric world, connectivity solutions are paramount in supporting the desired experience of a fan base particularly among the younger, more technology-oriented demographic. Acknowledging this trend, and eager to provide a more engaging in-venue experience, Baylor University chose Extreme Networks’ ExtremeWireless, outfitting the new stadium with a high density Wi-Fi solution to improve connectivity and enable an overall enhanced fan experience. As an added benefit, to guarantee a quality Wi-Fi experience for users and to establish another touch point with their fans, Baylor also chose to implement the Extreme Networks Certified Wi-Fi Coach Program to provide additional support for fans accessing the Wi-Fi network in-venue
With the ultimate goal of establishing an enhanced mobile experience at McLane Stadium, the IT team at Baylor University needed to implement a robust WiFi solution with the bandwidth capacity to support thousands of personal devices simultaneously in a highdensity environment. Ultimately, a robust Wi-Fi solution would establish a platform to build upon, enabling Baylor University and Baylor Athletics to engage with their fan base with streaming video, unique content and value-added services.
To make this project a reality there were a number of challenges and considerations integral to the system’s design and deployment process. The network would allow access for both public and private use, which meant security was an important consideration to ensure the protection of critical infrastructure assets. Since a plethora of organizational functions would leverage the system as well, Baylor needed a solution with an integrated management platform so appropriate policies could be programmed and enforced for respective groups requiring tailored levels of network privileges. Baylor would also be running a number of applications over its network, from mission critical applications to social applications to a custom-made gameday application. Control of and visibility into these applications and their usage were important capabilities to equip Baylor with the proper means to measure network performance and engagement patterns of its users.
Baylor University chose Extreme Networks out of three potential vendors as the wired and wireless infrastructure provider of McLane Stadium. Extreme Networks’ specifically engineered antenna architecture, a proven track record of excellent support, and the company’s recent success in large open-air stadiums were all compelling reasons behind the decision. Unlike some other models, the Extreme Networks solution grants data ownership to the venue operators, an important capability when tracking network and application performance, adoption rates, and bandwidth consumption. The overall cost of the Extreme Networks solution and Baylor’s existing familiarity with core technological components ultimately swayed Baylor to select Extreme Networks.
Through their relationship with Extreme Networks, Baylor University and Baylor Athletics equipped the newly constructed McLane Stadium with the latest high-density Wi-Fi technologies. This dramatically improved the overall stadium experience. Fans now have the ability to access a variety of applications as well as stream real-time content during the game such as instant replays, game day statistics, as well as other exclusive offerings. The installation was successfully completed prior to the 2014 football season.
The Extreme Networks solution includes wired, wireless, network management and network analytics technology. Leveraging the ExtremeSwitching line of products, including 7100 switches, C5 stackable switches, and S4 chassis, Baylor provides the bandwidth required in highdensity environments. The Wi-Fi installation includes access points and wireless controllers, ExtremeControl for onboarding and authentication, as well as ExtremeSecurity for central management and visibility.
The deployment of these technologies supported more than 45,000 people in attendance at McLane Stadium during events and enhanced the overall fan experience.