Wild fans hope for connectivity boost at Xcel Energy Center

News

MatSing has announced a new deployment at the Xcel Energy Center, a 20,500-seat stadium that serves as the home of the Minnesota Wild.

By: Brad Randall, Broadband Communities

National Hockey League (NHL) fans will notice improved mobile connectivity this year at the Xcel Energy Center.

The increased connectivity at the stadium, which serves as the home of the NHL’s Minnesota Wild, was announced today by MatSing, an innovator in high-capacity lens antenna technology.

The St. Paul-based Xcel Energy Center welcomes approximately 1.7 million visitors annually and hosts 150 sporting and entertainment events annually, according to Bo Larsson, CEO of MatSing.

MatSing’s September 26 announcement indicated that the implementation was made possible through a collaboration with American Tower, a leading global digital infrastructure provider.

American Tower used MatSing lens antennas “as part of the implementation of the new Distributed Antenna System (DAS) on its neutral host network,” the MatSing statement explains.

As a result of the upgrade, Xcel Energy Center attendees and fans will now benefit from multi-operator, multi-band 4G LTE and 5G connectivity across all four seating levels of the stadium.

“One of our key differentiators is that our lens antennas offer high sectorization to ensure comprehensive coverage and capacity anywhere from the fewest possible antenna locations,” Larsson said. “At Xcel Energy Center, for example, we are pleased to offer site-wide connectivity through just nine antenna locations.”

The lens antennas will be turned on for the first time for the Minnesota Wild’s first preseason home game against the Winnipeg Jets, scheduled for Sept. 27, according to the MatSing release.

To receive content like this in your inbox, subscribe to the Broadband Communities newsletter.