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US sports venues score with Extreme, MatSing multi-beam Wi-Fi

Strategic partnership delivers stadium connectivity promising increased capacity, simplified operations and reduced infrastructure requirements

Joe O’Halloran
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Published: 26 Jun 2026 15:30

Extreme Wireless has revealed that US sports stadia will soon be making use of its next-generation Multi-Beam Wireless stadium connectivity solution which, in combination with MatSing's lens antenna technology, is said to be able to redefine Wi-Fi performance in the world’s most demanding venues such as football grounds.

Putting the launch into context, Extreme stressed that in the sporting arena, wireless communication is no longer a convenience layer but has instead become a core part of venue operations and how the fan experience is delivered.

The company noted that modern stadiums and large venues demand more from wireless networks than ever before, in particular fast, reliable connectivity for mobile ticketing, concessions, streaming, access to real time team/player stats, and social sharing. And at the same time as such fans’ needs are being met, venue operators are depending on wireless connectivity to support staff communications, operations, security, analytics, and revenue generating digital experiences without Wi-Fi dead zones.

Yet, traditional stadium Wi-Fi designs have often relied on omni-directional and directional coverage as well as dense under-seat deployment models to work around RF constraints. Yet while these approaches can deliver strong results, Extreme said they can also increase infrastructure mounting points, cable management requirements and long-term operational burden.

To address these issues, Extreme claims that Extreme Multi-Beam Wireless can deliver “unprecedented” capacity and precision Wi‑Fi performance for stadiums and large venues using sectorised, overhead coverage.

Fundamentally, this is said to allow stadium owners to deliver targeted, high‑density Wi‑Fi using 16 independently, extending flexibility with a complete Wi‑Fi 7 portfolio for bowl, concourse and outdoor coverage. Built for high-density environments, it is engineered to increase capacity while supporting more devices and higher bandwidth demands with less complexity and “dramatically” less infrastructure, driving substantial capital and operational benefits for venue operators.

It also designed to allow for serviced RF sectors, aligning capacity directly to user density for improved fan and staff experiences. In addition, the technology is attributed with reducing interference with defined coverage zones and controlled RF patterns and simplifying deployments by consolidating infrastructure into centralised overhead systems.

The technology’s multi-beam architecture supports extending high-performance coverage into traditionally hard-to-reach areas, delivered through the strategic relationship with MatSing. This is said to result in the industry's first 16-sector directional antenna system, combining MatSing's lens antenna technology with sixteen Extreme AP5022FX Wi-Fi 7 access points in a one-to-one AP-to-sector architecture.

Targeted overhead coverage

Rather than treating a stadium bowl as a single coverage area, each system divides the environment into 16 independently serviced RF sectors, delivering targeted overhead coverage, predictable RF boundaries and capacity aligned to user density. By deploying multiple systems above the stadium bowl, Extreme and MatSing say operators can extend coverage and maintain consistent performance across large seating areas from a centralised deployment model.

“We’ve created a first-of-its-kind solution that fundamentally changes how stadiums deliver connectivity,” commented MatSing CEO Bo Larsson. “Together, we’re enabling venues to support more fans, more devices, and more data than ever before, while delivering greater efficiency, reliability, and performance for the ultimate fan experience.”

“Every stadium and arena presents unique wireless challenges, so venue operators need more than a one-size-fits-all Wi-Fi design,” added David Coleman, director of wireless in the office of the CTO at Extreme Networks. “Alongside our omni-directional, directional, and under-seat access points, the solution gives venues the flexibility to optimise coverage, maximise capacity and deliver exceptional fan experiences.”

Extreme Multi-Beam Wireless will be available in the fourth quarter of the 2026 calendar year with the Tennessee Titans being the first to deploy the technology at its Nissan Stadium, opening Spring ’27.

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In a separate deployment to ensure high quality coverage for fans and operations, RF ball-shaped lens antennas from MatSing are being deployed in or around 15 out of the 16 host World Cup venues in Mexico, Canada and the US. This includes all 11 NFL stadiums hosting World Cup matches in the US such as AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey and the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.

The antennas - described as “unique” support 5G/4G connectivity for tens of thousands of spectators attending each match, optimising spectrum efficiency and providing coverage throughout the seating bowl, concourses and suites. Unlike traditional sector antennas, MatSing says the spherical lens approach delivers highly focused beams, with the result of enabling operators to “dramatically” increase capacity, reduce interference and simplify network design in some of the most challenging RF environments.

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