Making a power play with connectivity at AMALIE Arena, home of the Tampa Bay Lightning

“I think of Spectrum Business as a critical component in making sure that our entire operation is successful.” 

Andrew McIntyre, SVP, Technology & Innovation, Vinik Sports Group

From hosting concerts to sports events to other major gatherings, AMALIE Arena has been a center of the Tampa, Florida community since 1996. That begins with the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team, which calls the arena home. To ensure their many patrons always enjoy the best possible experience, Vinik Sports Group, which owns the Tampa Bay Lightning, has forged a lasting technology partnership with Spectrum Business.

“You can’t operate in today’s world without outstanding technology supporting every aspect of your business,” notes Andrew McIntyre, Vinik’s Senior Vice President for Technology & Innovation. “There’s not one piece of our operations I can think of that is not reliant on technology in one way or another.”

Powering AMALIE Arena’s connectivity solution are two Dedicated Fiber Internet (DFI) circuits, installed by Spectrum Business in different parts of the seven-level, 670,000 square-foot building. One circuit delivers connectivity to the arena itself; the other powers WiFi to users within the arena.

“With WiFi, you get rich data sets that tell you in detail what people who come to the arena look for,” McIntyre explains. “The league wants to know its fan base better, and so do we.”

Another core piece of McIntyre’s technology strategy concerns video. To ensure the best quality service for all these needs and more, AMALIE Arena upgraded to Fiber Connect Plus TV, a highly customizable IP video solution that eliminates the need for on-site equipment.

From leveraging the video feed from a regional sports network throughout the arena to allowing patrons to stay connected to the game while away from their seats, McIntyre describes video as “extremely important.”

McIntyre regards Spectrum Business as a highly useful extension of his own IT group at AMALIE Arena: “We run a pretty lean IT team, so it’s important for us to identify strong partnerships to help us deliver for our fans and for our business operations. Spectrum Business has become a strong partner of ours for quite some time.”