Reconnecting visitors to an iconic West Coast entertainment district. Crypto.com Arena is an award-winning venue and home to many sports teams including the Los Angeles Kings, Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Sparks. Adjacent to the iconic arena is the multi-property sports and entertainment district, L.A LIVE.

Together, they are home to sports and music venues, night clubs, restaurants, a bowling alley, museum and movie theatres. L.A. LIVE. Making the district the premier destination for live entertainment in downtown Los Angeles, collectively the district hosts more than 20 million guests annually. Whether at home or in-venue, fans expect to engage in real-time social media and photo sharing, live video streaming and more. To ensure a modern, connected experience, the district needs a reliable wireless connectivity backbone. To cater for this number of visitors, the venues’ operations teams needed a partner that could vastly improve network capacity, so visitors could experience ubiquitous high-speed mobile internet indoors and outdoors across the entire area.

The wireless network integrates with all carriers. And it’s fully future-proofed, built to support next-generation interactions for fans. Ensuring the 20,000-seat arena and its 4 million square foot entertainment district can provide a seamless connected experience everywhere. Supporting 5G New Radio (NR) technologies on low-band, mid-band, C-Band (including Auction 110), and ultra-high band millimetre wave (mmWave), the neutral host distributed antenna system (DAS) provides an unparalleled user experience for fans and staff alike. This took a multi-phase approach, working around a heavy schedule of live events, which started with Crypto.com Arena and is currently expanding across the L.A LIVE entertainment district. 

Massive scale of venue  

Mobilitie needed to ensure seamless coverage for visitors as they moved through the precinct, indoors and outdoors. The network also needed to also be inclusive of all current carrier frequency bands and support future demands.  

Solution: Mobilitie installed robust indoor and outdoor coverage elements that met venue and carrier needs. A rigorous OEM selection process ensured the equipment met current needs and supported new frequency bands (such as C-band) that will need to be deployed as new technologies emerge. Seamless connectivity between the indoor and outdoor sections of the district also required a complex design. To optimise coverage the indoor network design more than doubled the number of sectors, from 9 to 24. Significantly increasing capacity within the venue. The outdoor distributed antenna system (ODAS), which includes 8 sectors of both neutral host DAS elements as well as a D-RAN layer to support 5G mmWave. Further maximises coverage to support outdoor events and foot traffic in and around L.A. LIVE and Crypto.com Arena.  

Limited venue access  

Crypto.com Arena hosts 250 events alone every year. So, construction teams could only work on a restricted schedule.   

Solution: Working closely with the venue operations team, Mobilitie were able to schedule installation and deploy infrastructure in accordance with the ongoing events. The team’s expertise ensured an efficient and timely roll-out.  

Legacy equipment used by carriers  

Each carrier had their own equipment at the property, and Mobilitie needed to ensure continuity of service while the new wireless build was underway.  

Solution: Building a transition network allowed each carrier network to still work during the construction phase. To ensure a seamless transition from the existing networks to the neutral host DAS, Mobilitie’s engineering and deployment teams worked with the venue’s staff to design and deploy a temporary coverage layer in the bowl seating area to provide wireless coverage during the transition process. Despite the complexities and demands of the project, Mobilitie completed the new 5G wireless network build ahead of schedule. 

Putting visitors and fans in focus with 5G everywhere

Combining next-generation technologies with a collaborative, team-based approach to design, deployment, testing and operations, BAI has delivered high-quality connectivity throughout the entertainment district.

Mobilitie’s wireless infrastructure enables Crypto.com Arena and L.A. LIVE to unlock innovative new technology to significantly enhance day-to-day operations and improve overall efficiencies. Some of the capabilities that are delivered as the result of the network that was designed from the ground-up include:

The fastest, uninterrupted multi-carrier wireless network.

The updated network equips Crypto.com Arena and the entire L.A. LIVE campus with one of the fastest, most advanced multi-carrier wireless networks in the country.

Innovative experiences

Future applications of wireless technologies are endless. Enabling new opportunities for fan engagement, like interactive augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR) experiences. Meaning spectators in the arena and at home can feel like they are part of the action.

Expanded digital initiatives

The network has improved venue operations by accelerating their tech-forward initiatives and fan-enhanced experiences for visitors and at home fans alike. Whether it’s to seamlessly live-stream performances, provide new camera angles, share the memories via social media, make contactless payments, or request rideshares.

Our team of hands-on, on-the-ground experts has a proven track record of building networks in the most complex environments with innovative network infrastructure solutions.

Our customer-first approach means we understand what customers value. From flexible and on-time installations to Day 2 support, we ensure a white glove experience from beginning to end.

*Mobilitie was acquired by BAI Communications in October 2021. It was then rebranded to Boldyn Networks (previously BAI Communications in the Northern Hemisphere).