Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants, has been recognized nationally as being among the best places to take in a ball game. Since its opening on April 11, 2000, Silicon Valley's premier MLB venue has been designed in its physical layout and IT installation to present a major-league experience for fans, whether they're watching a game in person, viewing on television, or monitoring it online.

Famously, there are no bad seats at Oracle. The playing field is viewed clearly from anywhere, and most seats have spectacular views of San Francisco Bay and Oakland. Neither are there weak or inconsistent connections to the all-important Wi-Fi network. If someone wants to watch video of the game in real time, place a bet on an online service, or send a selfie or video greeting to friends, the capacity is there – no matter how many people are in the stadium clicking away.

Oracle Park can seat 40,000-plus, and if all of them want to use their smartphones at the same time, then it's Bill Schlough's job to make sure they have powerful internet access. Schlough, the Giants' chief information officer, has worked in this position for all 25 years at the stadium since the Giants relocated from Candlestick Park after the 1999 season.

The Giants have been providing Wi-Fi to fans at their ballpark since 2004, and have been upgrading the system regularly. Extreme Networks has been the provider since last season, and the relationship has worked extremely well, Schlough told SDxCentral.

How the Extreme Wi-Fi installation is set up

Extreme was able to deploy a Wi-Fi 6e network, the first of its kind for an outdoor facility. This shows the company's ability to stay ahead of the technology curve, Schlough said.

The number of access points required at Oracle Park has actually decreased significantly over time, from a high of 1,400 units down to its current 878 units, demonstrating Extreme's ability to provide more coverage and capacity with fewer access points.

Schlough said Extreme has since become the top option for high-density environments, such as sports stadiums, replacing previous leaders such as Cisco, Avaya, and ShoreTel.

“Extreme also enables the Giants to leverage Oracle (networking) – which we do for points-of-sale at the ballpark and other cloud services,” Schlough said. “Without Extreme, we wouldn’t be able to use these Oracle platforms since Extreme provides the connectivity link.”

Extreme handles the internal Wi-Fi network in addition to the distributed antenna system (DAS) cellular network. “It supplies our entire core network at the ballpark, as well as the Wi-Fi network for all the fans,” Schlough said.

The Giants' IT crew over the years has shown a willingness to experiment with and adopt emerging technologies, such as 5G connectivity, biometric authentication, and cashless payments. No longer do those colorful vendors of hot dogs, peanuts, malts, and candy have to carry cash when moving up and down the aisles on their rounds. All sales happen in the sweep or touch of a credit card, keeping workers safe from potential troublemakers. It's all about the connectivity.

Focus on fan experience

Oracle Park seeks to enhance the fan experience through numerous uses of technology, Schlough said. This includes features such as interactive displays, augmented reality (AR) experiences, and personalized offers and promotions through the ballpark app, in addition to high-speed Wi-Fi throughout the stadium and mobile ticketing and ordering for concessions.

Schlough looks at everything IT offers through the eyes of a fan.

“The baseball experience has evolved so much over the years, and being connected at a park is as critical, from our perspective, as providing restrooms or food or a scoreboard or a game on the field,” Schlough said. “We had reached a point with our prior network where it was time for an upgrade of the different options out there. We looked at all the major providers, and we landed on Extreme. They've invested heavily in sports venues. It's one of their core verticals.”

How Extreme does it for the Giants

For the huge Oracle Park job, San Jose-based Extreme Networks was able to deliver the necessary hardware and equipment despite a spate of supply chain issues in 2021 and 2022 that other vendors were facing, allowing them to complete the deployment on time. The company worked closely with Giants partner Comcast to integrate the new network infrastructure, Schlough said.

Extreme Networks' technical assets include:

• End-to-end networking: This provides a full suite of networking products and services, covering everything from wireless access points and switches to routers and network management software.
• Cloud-driven networking: The company's cloud-based management platform, ExtremeCloud IQ, simplifies network management and enables users to monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize their network from any location.
• Flexible deployment options: ExtremeCloud IQ can be deployed in the public cloud, private cloud, or on-premises, giving customers the flexibility to choose the deployment model that best suits their needs.
• Insights: ExtremeCloud IQ uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to provide users with actionable insights into network performance, security, and user experience.

Schlough has handled IT networking for the Giants long enough to have seen many different phases of the operation.

“You know, (at first) people were frowned upon for bringing phones and using phones at the ballpark,” Schlough said. “People were always talking on the phones, and everyone was looking askance at them, but now it's an indispensable part of the experience.”

But that's all changed inexorably.

Overall, the combination of a strong technology partner, a focus on fan experience, data-driven decision-making, and a willingness to embrace new technologies has positioned Oracle Park as a leader in IT innovation within MLB.