NOVEMBER 14, 2006 -- Sumitomo Electric Lightwave (SEL; search for Sumitomo Electric Lightwave) announced the successful deployment of its FutureFLEX Air-blown Fiber LAN infrastructure at University of Phoenix Stadium, the new home of the NFL's Arizona Cardinals.
Unlike traditional fiber-optic infrastructures, the FutureFLEX Air-Blown Fiber backbone provides the stadium with immediate scalability with fiber and bandwidth on demand to support quickly and easily the stadium's advanced Cisco IP technology, distributed antenna wireless network, redundant data centers, broadcast video distribution, and other operations including the stadium's retractable roof and North America's first and only removable field, says SEL.
Commissioned to develop the most advanced, flexible, and scalable network possible, IT solutions provider Insight, Inc. chose the FutureFLEX system to support a wide variety of services. The 1.7 million sq-ft facility, located in Glendale, AZ, includes wireless network access from every seat for fans; voice, data, and video for facilitating Cardinal team-member communications; and quick-response network reconfigurations for the stadium's concession vendors, event customers, and broadcasters who demand quick network changes to meet their continuously changing requirements.
"The FutureFLEX infrastructure makes it possible for us to bring on new capacity in hours or days, rather than weeks or months," comments Mark Feller, technology director for the Cardinals. "It resolves many IT issues by providing immediate scalability and quick-and-easy fiber installations (without construction crews disrupting operations or the facility) for a bandwidth-ready network backbone. The FutureFLEX system also eases the planning and budget process for not only expected network growth, but enables us also to meet quickly any unexpected network expansions, moves, adds, and changes required to accommodate future technology and new projects or events, such as the hosting of the Fiesta Bowl and 2008 Super Bowl XLII. Based upon these benefits, FutureFLEX is changing the way IT views the physical layer."
By eliminating certain limitations of conventional fiber optic infrastructures -- such as the pre-purchase and pre-installation of a certain fiber type and fiber count that presents the costly risks of having installed too little, too much, or soon-to-be obsolete fiber -- FutureFLEX, installed at the stadium by Kearney Electric of Arizona, allows fiber bundles to be quickly blown at speeds of up to 150 ft per minute when and where fiber is required on an as-needed basis. Fiber can be blown out with compressed air and reused as quickly and easily as new fiber can be blown in, preserving the stadium's fiber investment. The stadium essentially can blow in multimode fiber today, blow it out from the highway of tube cable interconnecting the stadium, and blow in singlemode or 10-gigabit fiber that same day in a matter of minutes or hours, eliminating the days or weeks of planning and the high installation costs required to pull conventional cable.
With FutureFLEX, network upgrades, reconfigurations, adds, moves, and changes generally average 1/10 of the time (saving 90% of the labor cost) than that of a conventional cabling backbone, SEL asserts. "The behind-the-scenes FutureFLEX fiber installation provides a seamless process that is unobtrusive in maintaining the stadium's operations as one of the most versatile, multifunctional, technology-progressive sports venues in the world," adds Feller.
"Our goal was to design a technologically advanced network to maximize and enhance the experience for fans, players, management, vendors, as well as the numerous non-football event customers we host," says Feller. "Since our inaugural opening on August 12, 2006, I believe we're succeeding."