The New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League have a vision to bring the coveted Stanley Cup to their home arena. Having recently recorded their best regular season in franchise history, the Devils and their fans are hungry for even greater success in the future. As the excitement ramps up during the season, so do the decibel levels at the Devils’ home arena, Prudential Center in Newark.
"You can hear them shouting, 'Let's go, Devils!'", said Stephen Rosebrook, Executive Vice President and General Manager for Prudential Center. "That electricity continues all the way through the event. It was even more intense during some of the big games we played last year. Those were some really special moments when the bowl itself was just as loud as I've ever heard it before."
The NHL and the Devils also have a vision to create an exceptional fan experience. As hockey fans stream into Prudential Center, they expect a modern, world-class experience. To get it, they need ubiquitous, ultrafast Wi-Fi, which accelerates everything from connecting with other fans to checking team news to making concession purchases during the game. Delivering such advanced connectivity requires a world-class network infrastructure.
Devils fans expect a connected experience at Prudential Center
Prudential Center is a modern, multipurpose indoor arena that hosts a range of live sporting and entertainment events, from hockey to motorsports, from concerts to Cirque du Soleil. "We are a busy building," explained Rosebrook. "We put over 2 million people through the building every year. There's a lot of pressure on getting it right every night—not only on the staff but also on our systems, equipment and infrastructure. For the consumer to spend their disposable income with us, it comes with higher expectations. When they get in the building, we've got to be on our toes."
This includes offering a seamless experience from the moment a fan buys a ticket. Upon arriving at the arena, that ticket serves as their parking pass. Then, it grants them entry into Prudential Center. From there, fans expect to be able to use the digital wallet on their smartphone to seamlessly make purchases at the team store or at concession kiosks. "If we don't have those options for them, we're behind the curve," Rosebrook said.
If the Wi-Fi slows down or becomes unreliable, lines form at the concession stands and merchandise stores, potentially causing fans to miss out on crucial moments in the game or show. "When something goes wrong with the Wi-Fi, we hear about it," Rosebrook added.
The way fans are engaging with the arena and with the team has accelerated drastically, and that's really changing the expectations for what we need to provide to empower that fan experience and engagement.
Sasha Puric, Chief Technology Officer for HBSE
The NHL and the Devils knew that in order to improve the fan experience at Prudential Center, they would first need to modernize the arena’s network infrastructure. So, they reached out to longtime partner Verizon for solutions to accomplish this mission-critical goal.
We built an amazing partnership—a partnership based on trust, a partnership based on respect, and a partnership based on the experience that Verizon brings to the table.
Sasha Puric, Chief Technology Officer for HBSE
With the power of 5G, the Devils fans score a world-class fan experience
To solve this connectivity challenge, Verizon recommended that the Devils begin their modernization by implementing a 5G Ultra Wideband network throughout the facility. Ahmed Alagha, Associate Director of RF Design at Verizon, explained how the Devils leveraged millimeter-wave (MMWave) spectrum to enable massive amounts of data at very high speeds, with minimal latency.
At Prudential Center, Verizon did the largest indoor deployment of millimeter wave nodes in the Northeast. We have over 400 millimeter wave nodes here at Prudential Center, which provides customers with an excellent experience.
Ahmed Alagha, Associate Director of RF Design at Verizon
Using the power of 5G to enable fast connectivity across the entire arena, the Devils can improve many aspects of the connected experience that fans expect. "We monitor, live, all the games and events to ensure that the network is performing well during events and busy games," said Alagha. With a consistent, powerful signal, fans are better able to use the team's mobile app inside the arena to interact with the team on gameday—fans can track their fantasy team players, check team news, receive timely updates and even quickly access special deals as they become available.
Ultrafast 5G connectivity lays the foundation for future modernization
The NHL and the Devils are thrilled with how well these new 5G solutions are performing. Puric said, "We have rolled out a phenomenal Ultra Wideband 5G implementation in the building. We are shooting some record speeds on our mobile devices. We've followed that with the private 5G solutions that we utilize for some of the back of the house and game operations presentations."
This network solution also lays a critical foundation for future innovation, according to Mike Ruhnke, Vice President of Enterprise Sales at Verizon. "Building that foundation allows us to give the best possible connectivity, throughput and capacity to those fans and folks that are in those venues. But then what we're able to do is build solutions on top of that," said Ruhnke.
For example, the Devils rolled out frictionless retail to further transform the fan experience. This innovation has allowed fans to quickly enter concession stands and merchandise stations, choose the items they want, and then seamlessly pay for them without having to wait in a lengthy line. "The cashierless lane has been tremendous. The data we got back from the throughput of people going in and increasing their basket size, getting a couple of beverages and then walking out—that transaction time is so minimal," said Rosebrook. "It improves the whole experience for all the fans, even if they don't go in the cashierless lane," he added.
A strong team for future innovation
A strong partnership has made all of these innovations possible. "We were doing these implementations with Verizon while in flight. It was like flying the plane while building the plane," Puric said. "We built an amazing partnership—a partnership based on trust, a partnership based on respect, and a partnership based on the experience that Verizon brings to the table," he added.
Not content to rest on their laurels, the NHL, the Devils and Verizon have more in their gameplan. "What's really exciting about the work we're doing with the Devils is that they're focused on innovation," said Ruhnke. "Prudential Center has become a lab for us to do work on behalf of the NHL, so we can give fans and partners and the entire ecosystem exposure to some of the new and innovative things both the Devils and the League are looking to accomplish," he added.
We put over 2 million people through the building every year. There's a lot of pressure on getting it right every night—not only on the staff but also on our systems, equipment and infrastructure.
Stephen Rosebrook, Executive Vice President and General Manager for Prudential Center
