Welcome to a special episode of the Stadium Tech Report podcast. We’re joined by a team of experts from Galtronics, a company with 40-plus years of history in the high quality RF antenna market. And Galtronics is currently in the process of rolling out an entirely new line of hyper directional cellular antennas that will provide lower cost and lower weight options for venue deployments.
With us today are Leighton Carroll, CEO of Galtronics, Whit Martin, Vice President of Sales, and Sadeg Farzaneh, CTO, to give our audience more details about where the company has been and where it sees itself going in the market for large public venue cellular deployments. Only on the Stadium Tech Report podcast!
How hyper-directional antennas are changing the DAS market
While Galtronics has been in the venue RF market for a long time, the recent emergence of hyper-directional antennas has provided stadiums and arenas with a new and possibly more efficient way of covering stadium seating. The ability for more top-down deployments is helping venues solve some of their longstanding coverage issues, Carroll said.
The hyper-directional antennas, Carroll said, “really effectively cover with a ton of frequency, a ton of dedicated radios, and really enhance that fan experience.”
As hyper-directional antennas started making a mark in the stadium space, Carroll said Galtronics saw the opportunity for a model of the antenna that was lighter and easier to deploy.
“We saw the need to bring something really competitive to that [market] in a panel format, meaning it weighs less. And we were able to do it,” Carroll said.
According to Galtronics’ Farzaneh, there are many advantages to a top-down deployment, including easier network planning and deployment.
Instead of having large numbers of smaller antennas, Farzaneh said “now we are replacing all of those with a few antennas mounted on rafters or catwalks. The first advantage is that it’s a lot easier to plan.”
The more centralized location of a smaller number of overhead antennas is also a simpler solution for upgrades, Farzaneh said.
“As technology evolves, let’s say if a new frequency band is coming or you want to add new antennas, it’s a lot easier [to upgrade hyper-directional antennas] than going all around the stadium and recabling,” Farzaneh said.
For more details, listen to or watch the full podcast!
