When the Cowboys take the field this weekend for their first pre-season home game of 2014, fans will notice something different about AT&T Stadium. As they take their seats, one of the first things they’ll see is a brand-new, 130-foot LED display along the east platform. AT&T and the Cowboys worked with Obscura Digital to design this display, which dazzles and dances in choreographed fashion.

It’s the AT&T fan experience board, and there’s nothing else like it. It’s made of 40 independent, robotic, mirrored, louvered panels that are each able to rotate 360 degrees. Working in tandem with the stadium’s existing displays, it will – among other things – help make touchdown celebrations more exciting, entertain during breaks and build even more suspense for pivotal plays.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

We’ve added even more capacity to the cellular network inside the stadium since last season and we’re continuing to upgrade the network ahead of the Sept. 7 regular season home opener. In total, we will have increased cellular network capacity by more than 50 percent at AT&T Stadium from last summer to the 2014 regular season opener. At AT&T Stadium, we’ve got you covered with a Wi-Fi network of more than 1,500 access points and a more than 1,300-antenna Distributed Antenna System (DAS). Translated, that means the stadium has enough cellular muscle to service a small suburb the size of McKinney, Texas!

Thanks to that network strength, the AT&T fan experience board is the first stadium LED display built to respond directly to fans. We’re introducing an experience that truly mobilizes fans.

Fans will be able to interact with the display simply by downloading the all-new AT&T Stadium app to their iOS or Android devices.  Starting with the Sept. 7 regular season home opener, fans with the app will be called on at key moments to participate in an experience dubbed “Unite This House.” When prompted by the display and a push notification from the app, fans will be asked to opt in. When they do, their profile photos may rapidly appear on the louvered display and other video boards inside AT&T Stadium and their devices will light up with a strobe they can flash in unison with other fans. This will create a spectacular visual of light and movement as the noise level in the stadium builds and the players get pumped up, too. Fans also will use the app for the opportunity to post selfies and other pictures to the AT&T fan experience board when prompted by the call to “Post-a-Pic” and interact throughout the game by answering trivia questions and participating in polls.

We’ve also installed four double-sided 84-inch “immersive columns” on the stadium concourse with multi-touch displays on both sides of each column. With a few swipes of the hand, these columns will allow fans to learn just about everything they’d want to know about the team’s players and cheerleaders. More content, including memorabilia, will be added later. It’s like a life-sized digital yearbook.

We’re excited to share all of this with the fans. Let us know what you think, and we’ll update you during the season on how it’s going. Thanks.

John Donovan
John Donovan CEO – AT&T Communications