A secure network built for future challenges — and great experiences

As Sacchetti called out, Cisco ThousandEyes is another critical element, providing expansive visibility all across the network.

“ThousandEyes helps them see deeply into the network in terms of what’s happening traffic wise, what’s happening out on the internet, allowing them to spot problems before they are reported,” he said. “That ability is going to be critical to delivering that fan experience. ThousandEyes allows them to do that.”

Myers considers fan experience to be MSE’s “north star.” And he proudly pointed out that Capital One Arena is among the first of its kind to deploy Wi-Fi 7. And he and his team constantly explore how solutions like Cisco Spaces can be used in new ways.

“Cisco Spaces is a platform that helps us understand traffic flow and people density,” he said. “That helps us within arena operations and seeing where people are going, what they are doing during events. We look at that then historically to understand things like managing congestion, where to deploy police. Even if someone’s looking for a bathroom, we can direct them one that is less crowded. So, we’re using it to, again, support that great fan experience.”

Of course, security is a big part of the fan experience. So, having security purpose built into every layer of the network was another selling point.

“We have over 500 venues across the world that are using Cisco to power the fan experience, to power the network and to protect and secure the environment,” Sacchetti said. “Live sports are natural targets. And Cisco, with our secure networking products, it’s built in. We’re able to help our customers operate with confidence.”

“It’s the same scalable, secure, low-latency network that powers the McLaren MasterCard Formula 1 team to shave milliseconds off of a high-speed race,” added Anne Ristau, Cisco’s head of global sponsorships. “It’s used here to make sure that the millions of fans who visit Capital One Arena get a frictionless experience in everything they do.”

However that frictionless fan experience evolves, Capital One Arena will be ready for years to come.

“AI already helps us get to an outcome much quicker,” Myers said. “We use it quite a bit, but over the next few years you’ll see it become more deeply embedded. The key piece is that we built the foundation, the infrastructure, we got that right first. We have the right network and the layers of compute from Cisco. And we’re ready to further leverage that for AI.”

As Leonsis agreed, this is just the beginning of what’s possible.

“We believe we are building one of the premier sports and entertainment venues in the entire country, if not the world,” he concluded. “So, we’re really excited.”

When the tour ended, thousands of fans streamed into the arena. And as the Capitals took the ice against the Los Angeles Kings, uploading smart phones were everywhere, digital signage, lights, and sound dazzled, and the excitement quickly reached a peak.

The invisible, off-ice MVP enabling it all? The network.