Delivering an Australian-first with Marvel Stadium

Challenge

Tackling wireless congestion at stadium concerts

At Marvel Stadium in the heart of Melbourne, the technology team has set a mission to deliver the best fan experience of any stadium in Australia.

The stadium has put in place some incredible technology-enabled features for fans over recent years. Marvel Stadium was the first in Australia to introduce Amazon ‘Just Walk Out’ shopping technology for a faster, smarter food and beverage experience. And the team continues to seek ways to elevate every aspect of fan enjoyment while attending events at the venue.

In 2020, a round of significant network connectivity upgrades were implemented by Telstra as the technology and innovation partner for the AFL and Marvel. These upgrades delivered significant improvements for attendees seated in the stands – perfect for fans at sporting events.

"Through the past three years we’ve installed connectivity throughout the stadium from the gantry right through to the basement to start delivering the kinds of experiences we’ve really wanted to deliver for our fans,” says Pickering.

However, through recent concert events it was observed that thousands of fans with tickets giving access to the field area were still struggling to get a reliable 4G or 5G connection when they were seated on the stadium floor.

With more major concerts scheduled through late 2023 and into 2024, the AFL wanted to deliver enhanced network connectivity for concert goers seated anywhere on the arena floor.

Solution

Careful analysis to design better antenna systems

At a technical level, the 2020 upgrade delivered a network array with 14 sectors covering all Telstra licensed frequency bands, including mmWave. The configuration delivered two large zones for on-field attendees, which suited the general needs of the sports ground but was not creating an optimal experience for fans on the field during concerts.

“We saw that fans on the field of play were seeing suboptimal connectivity compared to people in the stands. So we flagged that with Telstra as our technology partner to look into what we can do to deploy a new solution,” says Rob Pickering, General Manager - Technology at the Australian Football League.

It’s an incredibly complex environment to optimise, given the thousands of user devices all competing in a dense area of activity. Managing cellular flows, reliable connectivity, and bandwidth takes careful layout design of the antenna infrastructure to minimise interference and improve the effective ‘zones’ available to best serve the 19,000m2 arena floor.

In February 2023, Telstra analysed connectivity performance across the stadium during the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Harry Styles concerts, investigating both reliability and speed of 4G and 5G connectivity throughout the stadium field area. This delivered a clearer understanding of the challenge and helped to plan a new antenna map to improve connectivity on the playing field in future.

Approach

An all-new DAS design to help spread the connectivity load and provide better connectivity for concert goers

Based on the initial investigation, the Telstra team moved quickly to design and implement a new solution to give Paul McCartney fans the best possible experience for his concert in October 2023.

“Telstra has engineered this new solution allowing people on the ground to interact with their technology and their connectivity at speeds they’ve never been able to do before while sitting on the field of play,” says Pickering.

Telstra brought an Australia-first DAS design to Marvel Stadium in 2020 that utilises specialised antennas that provided dedicated coverage and capacity on the field. For the upgrade in 2023, they deployed an enhancement that delivered four times the on-field capacity.

This created a total of eight zones to spread the connectivity load far more efficiently than ever before to ensure there would be reduced congestion and more usability for on-field concert goers.

The rollout process met its October deadline and was switched on in time for the Paul McCartney concert tour, ready to give fans far better mobile performance at the show.

Impact

A major improvement in connection usability

In Telstra’s testing of connectivity at the Paul McCartney concert, with 52,000 attendees in total, a large majority of concert goers on the field area were able to achieve a usable connection, allowing activities as talking to loved ones and sharing content, during the busiest period of the concert – a major improvement over the February baseline.

Average 4G download speeds for those on the field were over 13Mbps and 2.5Mbps for uploads, with peak concurrent usage of 10,800 users in the stands and 2,800 on the field. 5G users saw downloads over 51Mbps and uploads of 3.5Mbps on average throughout the evening.

With the new DAS design in place, the Marvel Stadium and Telstra team continues to run further optimisations, always aiming to deliver the best possible connectivity experience in the stands and on the field. Fans of P!nk coming to her concert at Marvel Stadium in February 2024 will be the next to encounter the on-field connectivity improvements and the improved fan experience they help to provide.

“The ability and the willingness of Telstra to bring the most cutting-edge technology to us here at Marvel Stadium is incredibly valuable,” says Pickering. “Having Telstra take on this challenge and then design, deliver, test, and support it. It’s been great.”