Athletics, IT Services and Cox Bring IPTV to Campus Sporting Venues

Devyn Moore

TVs in the new OTFC (track expansion) weight room

Athletes and fans now have access to more high-definition TV channels in Bud Walton Arena, Baum-Walker Stadium and Razorback Stadium through a collaboration among Information Technology Services, Razorback Athletics and Cox Communications. Together, they deployed a modern, secure and high quality MPEG2 IPTV solution that offers up to 115 HD3 channels.

"While internet protocol television is not new, our specific implementation of it is a first in the nation for Cox. It has been exciting to have a part in delivering this unique media experience to our partners in athletics," said Devyn Moore, network enterprise systems team lead. "We look forward to expanding this environment even further to benefit more customers."

Besides improving a service for athletes and fans, the campus benefits from decreased costs. Cox Business covered the expense of the gear and licensing. The university supplied a pair of its fiber-optic cables, which allowed Cox Business to use the campus' existing network infrastructure instead of building a new one. This strategy played a major role in achieving the solution within the expected timeline and saving thousands of dollars.

This effort has laid the groundwork for transitioning television and digital signage services across all athletic facilities to IPTV delivery. The centralized deployment also allows for easier management and greater consistency of the content package provided by Cox.

IPTV is the delivery of television content over internet protocol networks. This contrasts with delivery through traditional terrestrial, satellite and cable television formats. Unlike downloaded media, IPTV offers the ability to stream the source media continuously.