spark360 Behind The Scenes: Telecommunication Properties Inc.

During the six years I worked in Dallas as an anchor/reporter for the ABC affiliate, I would hop in a microwave van or satellite truck every now and then to do a live shot for one of the station’s newscasts. If we were anywhere near downtown Dallas, our truck or van had to make sure it had a clear shot for pointing our dish at the Bank of America building, still the tallest structure in the city’s skyline. All the wireless antennas and relay equipment was at the top of the skyscraper, operated and maintained by Telecommunication Properties Inc.

So imagine the sense of nostalgia I felt as I climbed to the 72nd floor of the BofA building with the spark360 crew for a “Social Business Television” profile of TPI. The very same company that made sure I could be seen clearly on television sets across North Texas for the 6 o’clock news is now making sure that anyone using a smartphone at the new Cowboys Stadium gets a clear signal.

It’s an impressive view of Dallas and the North Texas prairie from the building’s 72 floor, where we shot our opening and closing segments for the TPI profile. And sure enough, once the clouds cleared from a typical spring day in Dallas, we could see the faint outline of the mammoth new home of the Dallas Cowboys. (I had to shed a metaphorical tear for the team’s former home, Texas Stadium, as I drove past the pile of rubble in Irving where my heroes Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman once launched touchdown passes to Drew Pearson and Michael Irvin).

If I’m lucky enough to one day catch a game at Cowboys Stadium, I fully intend to test out the wireless capacity of TPI’s distributed antenna system (DAS) by sending as many pictures of myself and the game action to my Facebook page and Twitpic accounts. I have no doubt it can handle the traffic; TPI’s chief technology officer Jeff Alexander told me that each game day or event at the stadium set new records for the amount of traffic flying in and out of the stadium’s cell sites and antennas.

I can only imagine the challenge in making sure all the pieces of the telecommunications puzzle fit together during a major sporting event. There’s the stadium owner, the wireless carrier companies providing their networks, the broadcasters sending TV signals out to the rest of the country, and all the individual users calling someone on a smartphone, or sending a text message, or visiting the mobile web to check out other scores.

Maybe it’s as complicated as a third-down call from Dallas assistant coach Jason Garrett’s playbook. But for TPI, the stakes are much higher – a clear signal for the fans.

- Renay San Miguel