I thought there were some good nuggets in this interview.
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Prioritize 7 home games, maximize value to season ticket holders. Expect more Lane Stadium concerts to provide more reasons for fans to return back to Blacksburg.
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He sees a tremendous opportunity in naming rights, but is right now gauging internal appetite and lay of the land.
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Mentioned stadium improvements: removing permanent seat backs and attainable solution on Lane cell service in the near future.
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Those seat backs are the worst things ever created. Whit really thought he was cooking when he added those.
He did specify that he would need to test the seat backs before doing anything about them. Which I see as a reasonable position to have.
I personally didn't find them as terrible as some people, but I understand that one size doesn't fit all.
He also stated that the cell service/wifi in Lane needs to be addressed from a fan experience but also from a safety aspect of not being able to make or receive calls while in the stadium. So this will probably be a priority for them in the next year.
Your last point was what I was going to say in regards to the stadium cell service. I don't need to be able to check instagram during the games, but it's basically a four hour blackout from reliable communication with the outside world.
Ain't you suppose to call a doctor when that happens?
Yea. I never tried to use my phone while I was in or next to Lane when I was going to the games a couple years ago. There was just no point to pull it out and hope I could catch a little signal at that time. There was also always something going on in the stadium to keep my attention. But on the other side if someone needed to reach me, they couldn't do so.
This, I once had to miss a game because my Dad was going into surgery. My brother and Mom attended and so they did not want the additional logistics of having many people there but, I needed to be available by phone in case it went badly and I needed to get my butt to Baltimore.
I salute your sacrifice.
I hope when he goes to test it, he has multiple people beside, in front of, and behind him during this test. I'm willing to bet whoever greenlit those seats did not do that. Because when you're by yourself, it's not so bad. And I know this personally because ohohoh boy was that stadium empty during the ODU second half...But once you put someone in front of and beside you, it becomes unbearable.
On a related Cell/internet service note, I got plenty of reception during that ODU second half! :')
I remember spending much of the second half actually lying down stretched across 4-5 seats watching with my head propped up on my arm as there was no one in front of me to block my line of sight. Most comfortable game I 've ever watched in person (physically- not mentally). Thankfully our season ticket seats were NOT provided the seatbacks so we never had to 'remove them' as many did nearby us.
Hello fellow fan who was present for arguably the lowest moment in our program's history. The atmosphere felt like a funeral by halftime.
It was the first time in my adult life I felt like crying over a VT football result. I literally felt like I was watching my program die in front of my eyes.
But that's all in the past, we are so back baby
Thank you! We should have been doing this for years instead of home and homes with in-state G5s.
I'm not an electrical engineer, and definitely not a cellular designer, but I know enough about wifi to tell everyone that the issue with coverage inside the stadium is the stadium itself. The East and West stands in particular, built with large sections of uninterrupted concrete, with zero overhang, make any kind of micro zoning and beam forming a logistical nightmare. Most modern stadiums handle this through precise antenna/wifi placement under the overhangs and within the concourse for very precise zoning for the client endpoints - basically, this narrows down the client contention to the hundreds (or very low 1000s) as opposed to 10s of thousands. To do that with Lane's design, the answer is smaller antenna towers lining the edge of the lower bowl, and an another similar implementation at the top of the east/west stands. Its ultimately an eye sore, but if you are in the business of selling fiber cable you would be able to retire on this job... That's a long way of saying that its going to take a tremendous amount of cash to retrofit modern technology into a stadium that is over 60 years old.
So you are Saying we need to retro-fit some awnings or some other cover on the stands before improving the can service. I could get behind this. I would love a bit of shade and rain cover over the bleachers.
That's one option. Hard Rock Stadium is probably the perfect example of a stadium that went through major renovations and specifically added the awning. A setup like that would allow for closer proximity of the antennas without interfering with line of sight to the field or just looking obnoxious.
The alternative - we build a new stadium
Ive tested the 4G service in Lane. They have done exactly that. The cell antennas are spread across the interior of Lane. The antennas are visible. Some are literally above the West Stands open section but below the glasse walls in club. There are also multiple sector antennas across both North and South Endzone seating and across the top of the East stands. The East stands got a boost when they added 2 Matsing Lens phased array antennas on top of the West stands (big round radomes cover them) pointed at the East stands. The beams have been tuned to cover a decent chunk of the lower East stands that didnt get great coverage from the antennas above the East stands. There are also more antennas below the stands as well. There are approximately 8 to 10 total different cell sectors across Lane, each covering multiple channels, with the coverage handled by what is called a DAS (Distributed Antenna System). This solves the coverage issues at Lane pretty well.
That doesn't solve the capacity issue which is what we mostly experience on game days. The system at Lane is whats called a Neutral Host Network. All MNOs share the RAN infrastructure from baseband to the antennas and the sector designs. Once the physical baseband is converted to logical baseband and backhaul its converted to MNO specific routing through their Core authorization functions. The brick building behind Lane East Stands houses the NHN content and MNO specific distribution. The issue is that these sectors are fiber-shared across 5 dorms as well.
The capacity issue has improved with 4G to 5G transition (5G can handle more data on same bandwidth) though marginally.
The biggest issue, which most urban areas share with Lane on game day is that most channels for 5G are thesame as 4G and there's not enough contiguous bandwidth. Hence the coming S-band and C-band spectrum auctions. High capacity areas over concise geography/buildings/stadiums will benefit from more contiguous BW in the coming few years.
Go Hokies!
So your saying the issue is not enough students are in Lane stadium during games? /s
But really this is a fantastic breakdown of the issue. Thanks for this.
Your welcome.
Certainly many VT students are not in Lane during a game. My point is that the 5G capacity is shared with several other campus areas. Ive tested those dorms also, they are the same sector IDs as in Lane.. The BandWidth is only so large. So a percentage of available capacity is being used "outside of Lane" from other campus areas. How many Users are in that area during a game? Im not sure, but its not small. Many are probably streaming the game simultaneously. That all adds up.
I'm gonna need the bourbonstreet translator to take on this post. Pls.
I know some of those words! Antenna....geography....stadium....end zone.
New username who dis
It was my old username. I changed it as a hack for the byline when TKP received credentials in 2014. But I made some changes to have both. Also, we have these pretty author pages now: /author/joe-lanza.
Same as I always say, hang up and watch the game. How in the world were people ever able to survive for a few hours without playing with that stupid little box?
Genie is out of the bottle. Society got used to to 100% connectivity to all things at a moments notice and there is no going back now.
Yeah, I know. I'm just raging at the dark as I slip further into it. I understand that what's important to "society" will drive life for all of us, but I'll go shaking my head at some of it while acknowledging the benefits of some of it.
Hell, it's my shtick at this point anyway, might as well keep griping since the fishing's so bad.
Not to mention, your work expecting you to be in contact 24/7. Or, at least some of your clients.
Fuck that noise. I understand needing to be available and supporting clients while you're not physically in the office, but I believe there are certain events, especially ones on a set schedule like concerts or sporting events, where work can take a back seat for a few hours.
Being able to text while with a group in thr stadium is a huge improvement.
I also like to look at other game scores while in the game and thr scoreboard was never showing them enough.
Other than emergency calls, I really just want the two things mentioned.
Why texting in a group? Sure, we have these devices and feel that we need to use them all the time, but what makes it hard on folks not to do it while at the game?
I do understand the convenience of looking up a pertinent score and of course the emergency thing, which could perhaps be dealt with by well known instruction and an emergency contact system in place to help with that.
Either way, a lot of money will be spent, I am sure, and my thoughts are worth what I pay for them. Spend the money on quicker seating flow, upgraded concessions and more comfortable seating for one and all...then field a team that makes fannies stand up most of the game. THEN deal with the obvious desire for perpetual connectivity of today's fans.
Arriving at different times, trying to coordinate meetups, asking for someone to grab concessions, etc.
Completely agree Fish. My no cost old man thoughts..... we spend a lot of time, effort and money to attend the game so why wouldn't you completely immerse yourself in the moment and environment your worked so hard to be in. Being always connected to other places via phone creates a distraction and limits your ability to be present for a few hours. Connectivity is amazing and has done way more good for us than not having that ability. However it sometimes feels like a drug that we need to step away sometimes.