Washington Nationals Rally to Meet Postseason Demand with Fiber-Based Ethernet from Comcast Business Services

Washington Nationals Rally to Meet Postseason Demand with Fiber-based Ethernet from Comcast Business Services

With a high-speed Internet upgrade, professional baseball team situation is able to deliver a seamless user experience to staff, journalists, and fans through postseason • Playoff-bound team sees significant Professional Baseball Team Depends on increase in interest State-of-the-Art Communications Network from fans and media • Significant increase The Washington Nationals are a professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C. The Nationals had never been to the playoffs or had a winning record until 2012, when in Wi-Fi usage during they earned one of the best records in baseball. games • Simultaneous roll-out The team’s home field is the 41,471-seat Nationals Park. Opened in 2008, it is the first of new Internet-driven U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED-certified green major professional sports services for attending stadium in the United States. The ballpark was built with state-of-the-art audio and fans and media video technology, and was originally served by a 50 Megabit per second (Mbps) Internet connection to accommodate the needs of staff, media, and baseball fans. Though its challenge existing communications infrastructure satisfied day-to-day requirements, the team found it needed to support more people and more devices in the ballpark as it headed • Add reliable, into postseason play. high-speed Internet connection Playoff Run Drives Upgrade to High-Bandwidth • Need fast service Ethernet Dedicated Internet turn-up with seamless After winning the National League East and finishing the regular season with the best service transition record in baseball, the organization knew it would need a significant Internet bandwidth upgrade to accommodate the increased interest in October 2012 – not just from Solution fans, but also from the large media contingent who cover the playoffs for a worldwide audience and need reliable and fast online wired and wireless access to research • Comcast Business statistics, submit stories, transfer videos and images, and interact via various social Ethernet Dedicated media channels. With media attendance growing by 25 percent in the weeks leading Internet up to the playoffs, the Nationals needed to move quickly to prepare for the surge on its network that would come once the postseason began. RESULTS In addition to supporting fans and media, the organization also needed more bandwidth • Internet connection for transferring data, photos, and videos for use on its 4,811 square foot, high-definition that is 20 times faster (HD) video board, and to support email traffic and FTP access for sending and receiving • Assured network large files between offices. To improve the fan experience, the Nationals organization availability also wanted to offer in-seat concession ordering via handheld devices from anywhere • Seamless service within the ballpark, but the stadium’s existing infrastructure made it challenging to offer transition this feature because of the excessive bandwidth demands the mobile traffic would • Successful launch place on the Internet connection during each game. of new services and business continuity support “I was dreading “When we first opened the ballpark in March 2008, our fans were not utilizing our Wi-Fi network to the extent that they do now during an average game, which is why having to make an we needed to increase the bandwidth supporting our Internet service,” said Jason Zachariah, vice president of information technology for the Washington Nationals. Internet upgrade mid-season, but the Comcast Installs New Ethernet-based Internet Service Quickly; Supports New Applications and entire experience was a Quality User Experience painless. I’m very With the team continuing to win, the Nationals organization reached out to other colleagues in professional baseball to determine how much speed and capacity they’d happy the way it need to meet the needs of fans, staff and media leading up to, and throughout its playoffs run. Fast time to deployment would be critical. The organization interviewed turned out.” several providers, and ultimately selected Comcast Business Ethernet, as Comcast was able to deliver a fully-functional, fiber-based Internet connection in less than 30 days. Jason Zachariah “We are always looking for ways to enhance the ballpark experience for our guests, Vice President and our local Comcast team was extremely responsive in quickly installing a fiber-based Internet connection that can grow over time as our bandwidth demand increases,” said of Information Technology Zachariah. Washington Nationals Nationals Park now has an Ethernet Dedicated Internet line from Comcast that is capable of providing 1 Gigabit per second of bandwidth that supports the stadium’s press box, as well as video and information feeds for the ballpark’s video board in right field. The high-speed Ethernet connection also delivers enough capacity on its Wi-Fi network to allow thousands of fans to order food and beverages via a website from their wireless devices.

A separate connection is reserved for stadium personnel and – in addition to providing the extra bandwidth needed for its daily business activities – is also being used to expedite the backup of critical data to a remote data center. Previously, the organization was unable to do this efficiently due to insufficient bandwidth, so this new service is instrumental to the organization’s business continuity efforts.

“I was dreading having to make an Internet upgrade mid-season, but the entire experience was painless. I’m very happy the way it turned out,” said Zachariah.