MAY 12, 2009 -- Opening this summer, the Dallas Cowboys' new stadium in Arlington, TX, the nation's largest domed venue, will operate a sophisticated, high-performance communications infrastructure.
CommScope (search Lightwave for CommScope) was chosen to provide network infrastructure and cellular coverage and capacity solutions for the Dallas Cowboys' new stadium. Through its Enterprise Solutions and Andrew Solutions businesses, CommScope is furnishing and installing connectivity technologies that will support the stadium's core operations and communications requirements.
The state-of-the-art venue, scheduled to open in June 2009, will use CommScope's SYSTIMAX network products to create the world's largest IPTV installation and operate the stadium's data center and other technical operations. In addition, the stadium will feature an extensive in-building wireless communications network from Andrew that will provide complete cellular coverage in the stadium and its surrounding property for all spectators and team officials, coaching staff, employees, and public safety agencies.
"The Dallas Cowboys' new stadium will become one of the most visible buildings in the world and, as a part of that, we needed the most advanced communications network we could find -- not just for today but also looking into the future," says Jerry Jones, owner and general manager, Dallas Cowboys Football Club. "CommScope helped us craft one of the finest high-performance networks on the planet. We have a vision for a place that reflects the emotion and competition encapsulated by the stadium, and CommScope has helped bring that to life."
SYSTIMAX will provide enhanced network intelligence to systems such as digital audio and video, VoIP phones, HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning), access control, and most building management applications, providing a converged network designed to give the Cowboys' IT staff increased vision, knowledge, and control that heighten the stadium experience.
In addition, the converged network will bring streaming video to the four-sided scoreboard featuring LED HD video displays and the stadium's 2,800 TV monitors.
"We are extremely proud that this first-class stadium also will be a showcase for CommScope and its advanced network connectivity solutions," says Brian Garrett, president and chief operating officer, CommScope. "This is the one of the most prominent examples to date of CommScope's capabilities to support customers with multiple application requirements -- in this case wireless and enterprise connectivity infrastructure. This breadth of solutions is a differentiator for CommScope that delivers great benefit to customers such as the Dallas Cowboys."
The stadium also will use the SYSTIMAX iPatch Intelligent Infrastructure Solution to strengthen stadium and network security. The stadium IT staff will rely on iPatch to eliminate blind spots in the network, detect unauthorized network access in real time and the location of the breach, monitor all network moves/adds/changes, eliminate documentation errors, and quickly solve network troubleshooting. With the Cowboys utilizing VoIP phones in the new stadium, iPatch also handles E911 calls, aiding emergency responders in finding a person in need when emergency numbers are dialed.
Andrew furnished and is installing a complete multicarrier, multiservice wireless system that supports commercial cellular services for general fan and employee usage; public safety services for police, fire, ambulance and federal agencies; and private, internal services for coaching staff and game officials' communications.
The new stadium's infrastructure required more than five million feet of SYSTIMAX copper and fiber cabling, roughly the walking distance from Dallas to Chicago. Of that amount, the stadium will use approximately 2.7 million feet of SYSTIMAX GigaSPEED X10D cabling. That entire cable length would stretch approximately from Dallas to Houston to Austin and back to Dallas.
The new data center at the stadium will serve as the Cowboys' enterprise data center, supporting the stadium and the Cowboys' facilities at Valley Ranch.
The CommScope network installations, which started in September 2008, will have taken nine months to complete.
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