Wideband fiber scores slam-dunk at new basketball venue

08 Sep 2016

Sacramento Kings’ Golden 1 Center "smart' arena hosting first installation of Wideband Multimode Fiber.

A new basketball arena called Golden 1 Center, which will be home to the Sacramento Kings, California, US, is expected to be one of the most technologically advanced sports venues in the world.

Scheduled to open in October, 2016, it is already setting records as the world’s first installation of wideband multimode fiber, according to its supplier CommScope, which develops this network capacity-boosting network technology.

The cabling backbone in the new arena’s data center is based on CommScope’s LazrSPEED 550 WideBand Multimode Fiber and, along with other equipment, the network and communications system will support all wired and wireless communications within the stadium.

Ryan Montoya, Sacramento Kings Chief Technology Officer, commented, . “We believe connectivity is critical to the venue experience of the future. The Golden 1 Center will be the smartest and most connected venue in the world, providing a seamless and intuitive experience for our fans and attendees.”

David Redfern, senior vice president, CommScope Connectivity Solutions, commented, “CommScope is heavily involved in fiber optic standards development, helping drive advancements like wideband multimode fiber from conception to implementation. We congratulate the Sacramento Kings on this first deployment of wideband multimode fiber and expect it to be the networking foundation for an exceptional fan experience for years to come.”

Reduced fiber count

CommScope is the sole supplier of WBMMF for the new basketball venue. The company also supplied other important elements of the communication infrastructure network including:

More than 900 miles of TeraSPEED ZWP single-mode fiber and SYSTIMAX GigaSPEEDX10D copper cabling, supporting more than 3,000 outlets; and

iPatch panels for future imVision automated infrastructure management deployment.

With CommScope’s comprehensive fiber and copper connectivity solutions, Golden 1 Center is ready to support massive fan traffic when the arena opens in October, and future-proofed to support future technology evolution.

Wideband multimode fiber is a technological advancement of signal transmission capacity in fiber optic cables, which, in combination with wavelength division multiplexing, allows for a reduction in the number of fibers needed and an increase in total channel capacity. WBMMF optimally supports the use of multiple wavelengths, reducing parallel fiber counts by at least a factor of four. For example, it supports two-fiber Ethernet at 40 Gbps, 100 Gbps, and in the future, will do so at 200 Gbps.

WBMMF fiber was recently standardized by the Telecommunications Industry Association in a specification known as TIA-492AAAE, and it is also approved for use in cabling by the emerging revision of the North American structured cabling standard known as ANSI/TIA-568.3-D. In addition, CommScope recently received third-party certification of its measurement bench used to determine bandwidth compliance of LazrSPEED 550 WideBand fiber over the full target wavelength spectrum.