This audio is automatically generated. Please let us know if you have any comments.
Those attending the Super Bowl on Sunday can expect an immersive experience with upgrades Levi’s Stadium has made to its digital signage, lightning and Wi-Fi connectivity, according to stadium and technology company executives.
The stadium was completed last year $200 million in renovations which added 13,000 square feet of LED screens. These screens include 4K video boards at the north and south ends of the stadium that are 70% larger and contain 300% more pixels than previous screens at these locations. The lighting system has grown to include over 55,000 square feet of LED strip boards. The sound and visual production room will help give fans “a brighter, louder and more immersive game experience,” the stadium says.
“We now have the largest outdoor 4K video boards in the world,” San Francisco 49ers executive vice president and chief technology officer Costa Kladianos said this week while standing in the stadium’s Cisco data center, which houses sound system controls, LED screens and production systems. “Almost everything that runs the stadium happens around here.”
These upgrades required a network and security infrastructure that could handle “pretty much anything thrown at it.” according to Ciscowhich said it overhauled the stadium with the first Wi-Fi 7 implementation of its kind.
Digital synchronization
Those digital capabilities are increasingly important for venues that host events beyond their home team’s games, Tom Bingham, director of vertical market sales at LG Electronics, said in an interview.
“There [are] so many things they do [a] The building works perfectly to create an experience,” Bingham said. “It’s no longer just telling me where my seat is or how much my concessions are. All this digital signage is not only informative and does all these things, but now it’s part of the show. It has to be in sync with the audiovisual.”
The purpose of digital updates that occur at high-profile venues is to help make events an experience to be lived and not just watched, he said. “There’s something that ties it all together … into a cohesive synchronized experience so you feel like you’re a part of something,” he said.
In a partnership with America Fujikura, Levi’s Stadium added a 5G distributed antenna system, or DAS, which aims to help ensure fans have “the best connectivity of any NFL building,” according to a press release.
The DAS will help support checkout-less concession stands in the main concourse, which aim to provide a frictionless way for fans to purchase food and beverages, the stadium. said in an announcement when it launched them in 2024. Wireless connectivity and solutions that rely on it, such as checkout-free concession technology, are top targets for venues, according to a 2025 white paper on stadium connectivity from Verizon and Stadium Tech Report.
“Every year we see more traffic, and that requires more wireless network flexibility,” Matt Swartz, Cisco engineer, said in a statement. “It’s paramount in a large-scale sporting event, because people are live from the moment they enter the stadium. It requires a very flexible and scalable wireless infrastructure.”
“Anyone who shows up at an event like a Super Bowl is taking pictures and they want everyone to know they’re there,” said Anish Patel, the NFL’s director of wireless and stadium engineering. “This puts a lot of weight on the uplink of the network.”
Increased cyber security
All this data, and the high profile of an event like the Super Bowl, attracts the attention of cybercriminals, according to Cisco. For that reason, the company worked with the stadium and the NFL to implement extensive security measures, Cisco said.
“When we started, we were blind to a lot of what was going on and decided that this was no way to do cybersecurity,” George Griesler, the NFL’s senior director of cybersecurity, said during a tour of the stadium. “We … basically put Cisco in front of the inbound and outbound traffic. And that has extended to networks that are used for internal vendors, NFL personnel, NFL control. We wanted to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of all the networks.”
The work involved the use of technologies from Cisco affiliates, including Splunk, ThousandEyes, Talos Intelligence Group, Umbrella, Secure Firewall and Meraki, the company said.
Technology and cybersecurity upgrades will have benefits for Levi’s Stadium beyond the Super Bowl; he and many other large venues around the country are working on the changes they need prepare for the World Cupwhich starts in June.
For example, the stadium will be able to update the branding around the venue with the click of a button, rather than upcycling or removing thousands of assets, as older stadiums have to do, according to Cisco. World Cup facilities are mandatory remove all corporate branding from their facilities.
Levi’s Stadium had no comment for this story.
