New 1.8 Million-Square-Foot Ballpark Relies
Upon an Aruba ESP-based Network to Power Giant HD Videoboards, a
Mixed-Reality Baseball App and Other Amenities
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company (NYSE: HPE), today
announced that the Texas Rangers Baseball Club, the Arlington-based
Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise, has deployed an end-to-end
Aruba ESP-based network at its new 40,518-seat Globe Life Field
stadium to power everything from a 5.5-acre retractable roof to an
immersive baseball app that enables delivering modern, digitally
enhanced game day and special event experiences.
This press release features multimedia. View
the full release here:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210809005103/en/
MLB's Texas Rangers' new 1.8
million-square-foot ballpark relies upon an Aruba ESP-based network
to power giant HD videoboards, a mixed-reality baseball app and
other amenities. (Photo: Business Wire)
To create its next-generation venue, the Rangers deployed a
combination of Aruba’s wired, wireless and security solutions that
support the ballpark’s technology infused amenities. Visitor-facing
connectivity includes features like mobile ticketing for speedier
contactless entry as well as two massive Daktronics videoboards,
which display live and replay images plus granular real-time
game-play statistics such as spin rate and exit velocity.
At an operational level, connectivity ranges from sensors that
track paper towel dispenser levels to advanced building automation
systems to keep the ballpark at a comfortable 72 F. The Club also
maintains over 200 business, facilities management and IT
applications, from common cloud-enabled tools like Box, Slack and
Monday to highly specialized systems such as the retractable roof
controls – all of which enable the Rangers to run its lean
organization efficiently and effectively.
“Our network serves as the nervous system for a large public
venue that is chock full of electronic sensors and controls,”
explained Michael Bullock, vice president of Information Technology
for the Rangers. “Aruba’s solutions have enabled us to engineer the
equivalent of a living, breathing facility, while minimizing IT and
back office overhead by giving us intelligent, automated networking
infrastructure.”
In collaboration with trusted technology partners Lumen and KLA
Labs, the Rangers selected and deployed a future-ready wireless
network comprised of Aruba Wi-Fi 6 indoor access points (APs),
outdoor APs, and mobility controllers. For wired networking, the
Rangers implemented Aruba’s access switches at the edge and CX
Series switches for aggregation and in the data center.
With the venue’s high-performance Wi-Fi, fans can enjoy new ways
to share baseball experiences such as with the MLB’s mixed-reality
app that adds a vicarious layer of augmented-reality lenses built
on Snap Inc. technology. “Fans are excited about the new app
features and we anticipate more immersive and personalized
technologies to come,” said Bullock. “That’s why we’ve deployed a
Wi-Fi network suitable for meeting future demands.”
Additionally, the Rangers are using ClearPass for network access
control (NAC) and policy management. They have also implemented
NetEdit for coordinating switch configuration, monitoring and
troubleshooting as well as User Experience Insight (UXI) for Wi-Fi
incident detection using AIOps to pinpoint issues that require
immediate attention.
“Using Aruba’s intuitive automation tools helped us keep Globe
Life Field’s opening day timeline on track,” Bullock said. “For
example, we were able to reduce configuration of over 14,000 switch
ports from months to weeks, which equates to considerable savings
on integration costs.”
“Overall, by automating networking tasks, Aruba enables us to
administer about six times the number of switch ports and double
the number of APs with the same IT headcount, which is a
significant ongoing return,” he added. “The only viable competing
product would’ve required us to hire considerably more networking
professionals.”
As completing Globe Life Field during the height of the COVID-19
pandemic brought unique hurdles, the Rangers also appreciate the
technical support Aruba supplied. “It was a tough project in many
aspects,” said Bullock. “We attribute our success, in spite of
challenges, to our technology partners like Aruba and can proudly
say we’d select the same cohort if we had to do it all over
again.”
Looking ahead, the Rangers expect to continue evaluating Aruba’s
networking innovations such as Location Services to support
real-time crowd intelligence and Air Pass for seamless device
handoffs between cellular networks and Wi-Fi. “We’ll definitely
consider solutions that provide us with more automation and
visibility that give us the ability to meet requirements for fan
experiences that haven’t even been thought of yet,” Bullock
said.
Additional Resources
- Blog: Take Me Out to the Ball Game: Texas Rangers’ New
Immersive Fan Experience
About Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, is the global
leader in secure, intelligent edge-to-cloud networking solutions
that use AI to automate the network, while harnessing data to drive
powerful business outcomes. With Aruba ESP (Edge Services Platform)
and as-a-service options, Aruba takes a cloud-native approach to
helping customers meet their connectivity, security, and financial
requirements across campus, branch, data center, and remote worker
environments, covering all aspects of wired, wireless LAN, and wide
area networking (WAN).
To learn more, visit Aruba at www.arubanetworks.com. For
real-time news updates, follow Aruba on Twitter and Facebook, and
for the latest technical discussions on mobility and Aruba
products, visit the Airheads Community at
community.arubanetworks.com.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210809005103/en/
Kathleen Keith Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company
+1-707-529-4507 kathleen.keith@hpe.com
Jennifer Miu Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company +1
650-236-9532 jennifer.miu@hpe.com
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