NAB 2022 Perspectives: Crown Castles Anush Sarabakhsh on Powering Connectivity Within SoFi Stadium, Other Sports Venues By Kristian Hern ndez, Associate Editor
Thursday, May 12, 2022 - 8:00 am
Print This Story
Professional and collegiate sports venues in the United States continue to pop up every year. As buildings continue to fill up with fans returning to their seats, sure-fire connectivity has become an essential piece of the gameday puzzle. As one of the more active companies in the market, Crown Castle is supplying services and solutions for high-profile facilities across the nation. Since 1994, the company has worked to build and maintain their infrastructure of towers, small cells, and fiber to give customers essential data, technology, and wireless service.
At NAB 2022, Senior Account Executive Anush Sarabakhsh highlighted some of their high-profile partnerships in the sports market, how the company sidestepped the pandemic to complete their work at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, how supply-chain issues were no match to their preparedness, and more.
The Crown Castle team highlighted high-quality services and flexible solutions at Booth W8626 in the West Hall.
How has Crown Castle performed in the sports market recently?
In my role, I'm primarily responsible for coming up with unique and customized solutions for our clients. SoFi Stadium was a really great win for us, but the biggest take away is the fact that we bring in about $8 billion in revenue per year. CEO Jay Brown and Vice President, Sales Jeff Baker have really put it upon us to be creative, take our assets, reach across the aisle to our fiber, small-cell team, macro site, and venue teams, and ask, How can we come together to come up with a really outside-the-box solution?
How did the COVID-19 pandemic impact your role at SoFi Stadium?
That was a 150% team effort. We have the ability to have two different data centers coming out of there, which means it's fully redundant. In regards to the installation process, our teams moved mountains to have us ready for the opening season [at the end of 2020]. I've been doing this for 15 years and I've never seen a team move in such a way that prioritized [the completion of] this network. When Super Bowl LVI was there, we took those two circuits to stop other traffic on our network and prevent anything else from affecting it.
Is the company involved at any other sports facilities?
The Arizona Cardinals' State Farm Stadium is our client, and right across the street, they're building something called Crystal Lagoon that's akin to the campus of SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park with a lake, condos, hotels, and retail space. We're currently working with them right now to expand their entire network [to reach] over there. Currently, we have the LA Coliseum, so we installed a ton of fiber optics and small cells around there for whenever the USC Trojans play there.
Is the current state of supply chain affecting your work?
Crown Castle did a very good job of foreshadowing the implications, so we bought excessive inventory in advance. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we never had any supply-chain issues and actually grew [our business]. The only issue we did have was needing extra lead time on all of the opportunities that we received. Businesses with remote workers realized that [their network] can't be down, we were getting deal after deal as soon as they were free to make a decision because they understood what we're capable of.
What goals are you looking to achieve by the end of 2022?
Whether it was too expensive or wasn't viable at the time, we want to go out there and uncover solutions that we have never done. What we once tried to do and had on our wishlist is now something that we're capable of doing now, so by this time next year, we'll have some more success stories.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
More from Sports Video Group
02/06/2026
Tennis Channel has completed a transition from satellite-based distribution to a...
02/06/2026
Daktronics has announced the 2026 High School Video Summit, a two-day educational event for high school educators and student production teams, taking place Jun...
02/06/2026
Fandango will bring Telemundo's live Spanish-language coverage of the FIFA W...
02/06/2026
All Women's Sports Network (AWSN) has announced the live television schedule...
02/06/2026
Spalk, a cloud-based multilingual commentary and production platform, has announced three new partnerships: Ligue 1 (English and Portuguese highlights), Eurolea...
02/06/2026
NHL Network's 2026 Stanley Cup Final coverage began June 1 with NHL Tonight: Stanley Cup Final Media Day from the Carolina Hurricanes' Lenovo Center at ...
02/06/2026
Matrox Video has announced the Maevex MGX Series, a lineup of IPMX-ready video e...
02/06/2026
Marshall Electronics will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7521), showcasing a lineup of 4K and HD compact POV cameras for corporate, education, hospitality, wo...
02/06/2026
The Professional Audio Manufacturers Alliance (PAMA) and Shure Incorporated have...
02/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C50...
02/06/2026
Advanced Systems Group (ASG) has announced the promotion of Joe Marchitto to Western Regional CTO. In his new role, Marchitto will oversee system design across ...
02/06/2026
The NHL has announced that Brothers Osborne will headline a free outdoor concert...
02/06/2026
CP Communications has announced the appointment of its first two female executives in the company's 40-year history. Tabitha Coleman has been named Vice Pre...
02/06/2026
The Lighting Design Group (LDG) has announced the completion of Studio C at Yahoo's headquarters at 770 Broadway in Manhattan. The studio launched April 24 ...
02/06/2026
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (Z) has announced a partnership with FIFA to broadcast FIFA World Cup 2026, FIFA World Cup 2030, FIFA Women's World Cup 2...
02/06/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, including new deals, departures, and assignments compiled from press releases and repo...
02/06/2026
The department is broadcasting NCAA Baseball Super Regionals at Plainsman Park this weekend
Broadcast and production crews at Division I institutions are busy ...
02/06/2026
The initiative is extends beyond the league's arenas to team training rinks,...
01/06/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
01/06/2026
Designed to solve a common problem in broadcasting, the automated workflow detects, identifies, removes, and documents copyrighted music
AudioShake has introdu...
01/06/2026
The sports-analytics company combines its data with proprietary AI to help leagu...
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
29/05/2026
Solid State Logic will showcase its new compact, fly-away TCA Tour audio product...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, passed away last month on April 12 ...
29/05/2026
Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women's Super...
29/05/2026
Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters ...
29/05/2026
Swiss broadcaster Canal Alpha has deployed Harmonic's award-winning, software-based XOS Advanced Media Processor to modernize playout operations across cant...
29/05/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17-19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
29/05/2026
Arizona's Family has launched the Arizona's Family Sports (AZFS) streaming app, a new direct-to-consumer destination for live, local sports. The app is ...
29/05/2026
Starting in 2027, DAZN will be the exclusive home of The Canadian Football Leagu...
29/05/2026
Comcast Business has detailed the advanced network infrastructure it has deploye...
29/05/2026
In two-day event, leaders from academia and industry explored solutions to chall...
29/05/2026
The Basketball Tournament (TBT), now entering their 13th year of competition, ha...
29/05/2026
Roku has launched FOX One as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel in the U.S. Roku customers can now subscribe to FOX One using their Roku account for liv...
29/05/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
29/05/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent ratings news and is derived from press re...
28/05/2026
FOX Sports' MLB coverage dominated the night at the 47th Annual Sports Emmy ...
28/05/2026
One of the most memorable postseasons in baseball history would have had no memo...
28/05/2026
NBC's Sunday Night Football is among the most-decorated and most-watched pro...
28/05/2026
The 2026 Sports Emmys marked a watershed moment for Prime Video Sports. After bu...
28/05/2026
Hosted by ESPN Senior Writer Ryan McGee, the ceremony honored winners from athletic departments, conference offices, professional networks, production companies...
28/05/2026
Major rights-holders rolled out their 2026 college football slates today, offering a first look at marquee windows, kickoff partners, and conference distributio...
28/05/2026
The 4 Nations Face-Off, an international competition that launched in February 2...
28/05/2026
Soccer is a truly global sport, and, to match the U.S. viewing audience's in...
28/05/2026
The NFL Today, CBS Sports' top-of-the-line NFL studio show, has a storied hi...
28/05/2026
Prime Video is no stranger to innovation, and, within the realm of live streamin...
NAB 2022 Perspectives: Crown Castles Anush Sarabakhsh on Powering Connectivity Within SoFi Stadium, Other Sports Venues By Kristian Hern ndez, Associate Editor 
