Level 3 and Verizon are touting their efforts working with the NFL in conjunction with the big sporting event - c'mon, can't we just call it the Super Bowl and not be copyright retentive about it? - on Sunday. Level 3 is providing its video broadcast services directly for Raymond James Stadium, while Verizon's FiOS has been rolled out outside of the stadium perimeter to support NFL activities surrounding The Big Game.
Level 3's Vyvx video services are being used for the twentieth consecutive year by the NFL to deliver the live event broadcast of the Super Bowl. Vyvx will carry the live event video in standard and HD formats over the Level 3 network to the league offices, broadcast networks and satellite teleport sites for global delivery of the game. In total, over 2,800 hours of video content will be acquired, encoded and transported across the Level 3 Vyvx services platform during Super Bowl coverage.
While Level 3 is inside the stadium, the NFL called Verizon - home town phone company in Tampa - to bring FiOS into the Tampa Convention Center and the north and south parking lots of Raymond James Stadium to support The NFL Experience temporary theme park and the event's media compounds.
Jim Crews, Verizon's area manager for core construction in Florida, said the fiber build took about 70 days from orders and design to live service turn up of 42,000 feet of fiber - about 146 football field's worth in total. The tasks included cutting through bureaucratic red tape with the NFL providing its version of blocking and tackling to make sure permits went through in a timely fashion and putting in all the fiber below-ground to the points where it was needed.
FiOS TV will provide service for 143 TVs spread across the NFL Experience, the Tampa Convention Center and in media tents set up in the parking lots, as well as 138 fiber-optic data lines and nearly 900 digital voice lines. Data speeds for end users varied, with the most popular being 20 Mbps downstream/5 Mbps upstream, but speeds were also available in 50/20 and 20/20 flavors.
Crews said the installation is built to be permanent, but Verizon hasn't decided if it will pull all the gear out or leave it in place for future events.
For more:
- You can find more about the 2009 NFL Experience here.
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