Wi-Fi services provider Cape has partnered with the Indiana Pacers to improve connectivity at the NBA basketball team’s home arena.
Cape’s services will be used to deliver a superior Wi-Fi experience at Bankers Life Fieldhouse Arena, which also serves as the home of Indiana Fever, of the Women’s National Basketball Association.
It is hoped the partnership will help improve the fan experience at the near-18,000-capacity arena.
The Indiana Pacers will install Cape sensors throughout the arena, which will allow the team to monitor fans’ Wi-Fi experience to detect and deal with issues before supporters complain.
“Reliable, high-speed Wi-Fi is an essential part of the fan experience,” the Pacers’ interim chief technology officer John Schwarten said. “But this is inherently challenging to provide because Wi-Fi performs differently when the stadium is full versus empty. Cape’s sensors and dashboard show us in real time how fans are experiencing our network during events.”
Schwarten added: “Cape has already helped us. We’ve been able to identify and troubleshoot issues with our Wi-Fi performance, and reduce time to resolve issues during events.”
Previously, monitoring Wi-Fi user experience at the arena had proven unreliable, with IT professionals having been required to manually test performance at a sample of locations.
The Indiana Pacers’ vice-president of IT, Kevin Naylor, said: “Cape alerts the IT team to issues as they happen in real time, which eliminates the need for manual Wi-Fi experience sampling during live events. It’s a win for the IT team and the fans.
“Wi-Fi is the enabler of key stadium services, including ticketing, as well as future stadium technologies such as VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality). Assuring a great Wi-Fi experience in stadiums will become even more critical during the coming months and years.”
Image: Christophe95
