New arena Wi-Fi expected to be '17,000 times faster' than home Internet

The Sacramento Kings released a report Wednesday detailing some of the technology advancements of the Golden 1 Center.

Key to the report was highlighting how fast the Wi-Fi in the new arena is expected to be, primarily through a variety of "Wi-Fi access points," a 6,000-square-foot command and data center and hundreds of miles of fiber and copper cabling. For an example of the type of Internet speeds at the arena, the report claims the Internet at the Golden 1 Center will be more than 17,000 times faster than the average home Internet connection, with the "ability to handle more than 225,000 Instagram photos per second."

The Kings will play in the new arena next season and owner Vivek Ranadive proclaimed in a piece on Medium that he wants to build a modern-day Roman colosseum equipped for "Civilization 3.0 ".

"Using cutting-edge technologies and data, we are completely transforming how fans in the arena and beyond will experience the game, making them the first fans in the NBA to experience the future of sports."

Below are some of the technology details about the arena found in the report.

• A 160-gigabit "backbone" that will support all of the services in the arena. This is said to "allow fans to post to social media quickly and reliably; for example, the network can handle over 500,000 Snapchat posts per second. This infrastructure will ensure that all fans experience the fastest speeds available - no more Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter posts that don't send or real- time statistics that don't load."
• More than 1,000 Wi-Fi access points throughout the arena, public plaza and surrounding mixed-use development.
• A 6,000-square-foot command and data center. "Data from the arena's smart sensors and other sources will flow through the command center and be analyzed and utilized in real-time to enhance the fan experience." This will come into play when providing fans with food, in-game statistics and more.
• More than 900 miles of fiber and copper cabling, including 670 miles of single mode fiber. This is claimed to be "more than any sports venue of this capacity in the world."
• "First arena in the world" to implement wide-band, multimode fiber technology. This is said to "future-proof" the arena by creating an infrastructure that will accommodate future technology.
• "First of any indoor sports and entertainment venue in the world" to combine both distributed antenna and small cell technologies into one complementary system.
• The Golden 1 Center will have more than one million square feet of Wi-Fi and cellular coverage, which is "double the office space of the Transamerica Pyramid."

Many fans have complained that the Internet at Sleep Train Arena has been less than ideal, often leaving smartphones near useless when it comes to posting on social media and following real-time data. The Kings have been testing new Wi-Fi technology at Sleep Train Arena, but it hasn't been noticeable, at least to me while I have been at games. That being said, it is my understanding that Sleep Train Arena wasn't built to withstand the type of demand that current technology puts on a building.

We're about 10 months away from seeing what this new arena can do.