Sacramento Kings Future-Proofing Data Center at New Arena

Sacramento's new downtown arena, by all accounts, is state of the art — featuring accoutrements like a high-resolution 4K scoreboard that's the size of two 18-wheeler tractor trailers stacked atop each other, and what's been billed as the fastest Wi-Fi for fans in all of pro sports.

Those high-tech bells and whistles aren't possible without a robust amount of computing power behind the scenes. During a recent TV show, the Sacramento Kings and its broadcast partner Comcast California revealed more details about the 6,000-square-foot data center onsite at the Golden 1 Center, which officially opened its doors in October.

Here are a few quick facts:

• Built to Tier 4 specs

• More than 70 cabinet/rack positions

• Features wide-band, multimode fiber green cable (supplied by CommScope) that's capable of 100 gigabit intra-connections

• More than 700 miles of single mode fiber

• 250 miles of purple CAT 6A copper

• The data center connects to more than 3,000 devices within the arena, many through the cutting-edge 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard

The arena's data center is organized in hubs. In one segment, for example, several racks are dedicated to the broadcast production and the main scoreboard, which delivers video at 38 million pixels. Another area of racks distributes to the network, while others focus on security cameras or the complex's security cameras, explained Sacramento Kings CTO Ryan Montoya.

The data center also powers a "command center" where a dozen or so staff are stationed to monitor all facets of an event at the arena, including customer service, law enforcement and traffic. Employees assess the situation from their workstations and wall-mounted big screens.

Some floor space and racks in the data center are currently empty, though, by design.

"The reason why we have these empty racks right now is because we wanted to be able to grow. We looked at a map and saw this is where technology is going to be in five years and here's where it's going to be in 10 years. So we had to be able to accommodate and grow," Montoya said during a clip aired at halftime of the Kings home game Sunday evening.