United Center

CommScope helps the United Center elevate their wireless network to 5G

The largest NBA indoor arena and the second-largest NHL venue by capacity, the United Center is home to the Chicago Bulls and the Chicago Blackhawks. This 960,000-square-foot facility can accommodate nearly 20,000 hockey fans or more than 23,000 concertgoers at a time, and it hosts more than 200 events a year.

For more than 10 years, the United Center has entrusted American Tower (a leading network infrastructure solutions provider) and CommScope to provide optimal connectivity for its fans, visitors and staff. But as smartphones and social media evolved, the arena needed to deliver more capacity and throughput.

The introduction of 5G provided an opportunity to support more speed and higher density to the expanding fan base that attended the United Center. By deploying remote radios with the ability to support C-band and mid-band (2.5 GHz) frequencies, the United Center could accommodate more spectral capacity, which meant higher data transmissions.

In addition to the challenging tech side of the equation came a legacy directive for any deployment: All new technology needed to be hidden from fans and could not in any way alter the appearance of this iconic arena. Plus, with less than 100 non-event days a year, which doesn’t include rehearsals, warm-ups and practices on the court or ice rink—finding valuable pockets of time to deploy upgrades became tricky. But CommScope and American Tower were up to the challenge.

By deploying CommScope’s digital ERA® DAS, the United Center delivers exceptional wireless performance while simultaneously reducing equipment space—cutting down on cooling costs and power utilization. In addition to creating one of the most advanced large public venue 5G networks in the U.S., the United Center also tapped CommScope’s RUCKUS® Networks to revamp their in-house Wi-Fi network.

Now, fans can actively participate in the sports team apps without buffering and also enjoy food and beverage service by ordering digitally on their phones from their seats.