Mark McComas, the "lead project manager for the public Wi-Fi installation at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden," is working with engineering help from Hewlett-Packard to build out the venue's network elements, "spending slightly more than" $1M in the process, according to Paul Kapustka of MOBILESPORTSREPORT.com. McComas is "figuring out how to stream video from the four stadiums, and whether they should produce their own video locally; pick up feeds from" the ATP and WTA; or "work with a third-party." The 400,000-plus fans at this year's BNP Paribas Open also will be able to use an app to "enhance their on-site visit, with features like live video from different courts, updated stats and play-by-play audio coverage." It all "runs on the free Wi-Fi service available at the venue." McComas said that the tennis event in '14 had "as many as 9,000 concurrent users on the tournament app, accounting for nearly 3 [terabytes] of data per day from the public Wi-Fi network alone." McComas: “It was insane how may people downloaded the app and were using it.” Kapustka noted Indian Wells also is adding about 20 additional access points "around the venue to relieve potential congestion points." McComas said, "It was very clear that the Indian Wells organization wanted to do it once and do it right the first time, and also accommodate their growth over the next 10 years" (
MOBILESPORTSREPORT.com, 3/12).
