Setting up on very large fields, high-interference fields, or especially big stadiums can present some additional challenges to making sure that your network is "air-tight" and able to resist the challenges it faces.
This guide should help you prevent issues related to these challenges.
Purchase and Bring a Long Ethernet Cable
In all circumstances, your round Bridge Antennas must not be behind glass.
Also, the Pressbox "rabbit-ear" Antenna must be inside the same room as all the iPads.
However, in stadiums it is often impossible to open a window to allow for the transmission of data via the round Bridge, or to put the equipment on top of the roof similar to smaller pressbox setups.
This means that the round Bridge antenna must be run outside.
The length required for this varies dramatically. Sometimes a simple 30ft cable will be perfect to get it outside of a side door, other times the distance may be far greater.
There are two things you need to know about purchasing and running a long ethernet cable:
- We Use Cat 6 RJ45 Ethernet cables, but all ethernet cables will work
- The length of ethernet cable will not affect the network speed up to thousands of feet
Ethernet cables plug into the Bridge Antenna by popping open the cover in the center back of the antenna and plugging into the leftmost "Main" port.
Elevate your Endzone Bridge
While most instructions indicate that attaching a round Endzone Bridge to the tower's leg is alright for simplicity's sake, raising it higher may give it valuable clearance above interference that may be present on the ground level including:
- Speaker Systems
- Streaming or television crews
- Concrete posts or barriers
- Chain Link
- People standing directly in front of the Bridge
Raising it up much higher and clamping it onto the second-to-lowest collar ~5ft up the tower may make a big difference in the case of a crowded endzone.
However, raising the Endzone up higher means having a more difficult time estimating what a straight-on angle would be in order to get it pointing directly at the pressbox.
Be sure to estimate low rather than high (by approx 2 degrees)
Use an Adapter for the Pressbox Control iPad
The iPad used to control the Endzone camera should be the most powerful iPad, and should have the best connection to the network. However, sometimes the coaching replay iPads in the pressbox need to be in a different room from the Control iPad.
In order to accomplish this, you'll need an iPad Ethernet Adapter:
This will allow you to have the best connection possible, and be in a different room from the rabbit-ear Pressbox iPad antenna which is used for all other replay iPads up in the pressbox.
Detailed instructions for how to buy and use an iPad Ethernet Adapter can be found HERE.
Finally, if all other attempts to improve network performance while in a large stadium haven't yielded satisfactory results, the only thing left to do is to begin reducing the number of replay iPads being used on the system at once.
Usually the system can handle 3, 5, sometimes even 7 replay iPads between the Pressbox and Sideline, but if a Big Stadium is pushing your network to its limits, reducing the number of replay iPads down to the essential ones can definitely improve download speeds for those still connected to the system, and most importantly improve response time for your endzone filmer.
Be sure to remove the oldest model of iPads first and work your way back from there while testing to find out how many iPads you can handle on the system at one time.