Nearly a quarter of a million people are expected to attend the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix this weekend
In preparation for the thousands of fans expected at this year’s Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix, Verizon has deployed a private wireless network at the Hard Rock Stadium is Miami Gardens. Nearly a quarter of a million people are expected to attend this weekend’s event, and Verizon is confident that its solution will provide robust, high-speed and low-latency connectivity for venue management solutions like ticket scanning and digital sign management, as well as “reduced interference and greater privacy and security.”
“With private networks, venue operators are improving existing operations, allowing fans to quickly get into the venue, purchase merchandise, and get to their seats,” said Kyle Malady, CEO of Verizon Business. “In a sport like racing, no one wants to miss a second of the action, and fans will not only benefit from the private network, our 5G Ultra Wideband network is blanketing the Hard Rock Stadium area so attendees can stream, tweet, and share their experiences quickly and reliably.”
The private network, said Verizon, will also enable real-time communications between race team members and between venue staff for operational purposes.
Verizon customers attending last year’s Formula 1 event used 19 TB of data, and the carrier’s engineers expect this usage to increase this year. Therefore, they deployed additional 4G and 5G service all areas within and around the track, using a combination of C-band and mmWave for the 5G part of the equation.
Further, engineers increased fiber capacity by adding 864 count fiber strands to the northeast, southwest and northwest corners of the Distributed Antenna System at Hard Rock Stadium and in the west lot. Verizon also expanded fiber for cell sites along the track course, and in the parking area, added a performance enhancement technology that “divides crowds into sectors like slices of a pie,” which can each be adjusted individually to handle wireless traffic.
Beyond the stadium, Verizon made recent upgrades to the entire Miami area so that 94% of its customers now have access to 5G Ultra Wideband service, the brand name for the carrier’s mmWave and CBRS network.
