World Cup venues score with Extreme, MatSing multi-beam Wi-Fi

As the group stage of the men’s football World Cup reaches its exciting denouement, Extreme Wireless has revealed a number of the US stadia hosting games has seen the first use of its next-generation Multi-Beam Wireless stadium connectivity service, which, in combination with MatSing’s lens antenna technology, has been engineered to redefine Wi-Fi performance in the world’s most demanding venues.

Extreme stressed that 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 stats and social sharing. And while 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.

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 radio frequency (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. This is said to allow stadium owners to deliver targeted, high‑density Wi‑Fi with 16 access points, 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 16 Extreme AP5022FX Wi-Fi 7 access points in a one-to-one AP-to-sector architecture.

Helping to ensure sufficient coverage for fans and operations, RF lens antennas from MatSing are deployed in or around 15 out of the 16 host 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, Levi’s Stadium, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, MetLife Stadium and SoFi Stadium.

The ball-shaped lens antennas – described as “unique” also 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’s spherical lens approach delivers highly focused beams, with the result, said MatSing, of enabling operators to dramatically increase capacity, reduce interference and simplify network design in some of the most challenging RF environments.