[NewsPoster]

Microsoft's widely publicized deal with the NFL took a public relations hit in the media today and yesterday, for reasons unrelated to Microsoft itself. In the beginning of yesterday's championship game between the Denver Broncos and New England Patriots, the entire inventory of tablets belonging to the Patriots failed to connect to the network, preventing the coaching staff and players from seeing footage from the previous plays.

CBS reporter Evan Washburn noted during the game in the second quarter that "on the last defensive possession the Patriots' coaches did not have access to those tablets to show pictures to their players. NFL officials have been working at it. Some of those tablets are back in use, but not all of them." Video footage showed, and Washburn reported that there was "a lot of frustration that they didn't have them on that last possession."

Sideline footage clearly showed that the tablets were functional and on a Windows-like desktop at the Microsoft on-field kiosks, but little was told to viewers at the time. While the Patriots were without the tablets for a brief time, the Broncos were never forced to relinquish the tablets' use, as per NFL rules.

Full network connectivity was restored within 10 minutes of actual time, and four minutes of game time. In a press release about the issue, Microsoft said that "Our team on the field has confirmed the issue was not related to the tablets themselves but rather an issue with the network. We worked with our partners who manage the network to ensure the issue was resolved quickly."

The deal between Microsoft and the NFL stretches back to the launch of the tablet, and is said to be worth $400 million. Initial reports from football reporters frequently called the devices iPads, resulting in corrections being issued by the NFL to broadcast teams ensuring proper branding be made after the gaffes.

[Wingsy]

Network issues, that unaffected the Bronco's tablets but disabled the Patriot's. Since wifi was all over the field, it seems to me to at least be a configuration issue with the Pat's tablets. Something must have changed in the network (they worked in the prior minute, right?) that they couldn't recover from because ... well, let's ask Microsoft why.

[coffeetime]

LOL. They kept calling the Surface iPad.

[Mike Wuerthele]

Originally Posted by Wingsy 

Network issues, that unaffected the Bronco's tablets but disabled the Patriot's. Since wifi was all over the field, it seems to me to at least be a configuration issue with the Pat's tablets. Something must have changed in the network (they worked in the prior minute, right?) that they couldn't recover from because ... well, let's ask Microsoft why.

The NFL configuration of the Unix/Linux-based server that hosts the videos are on separate Wi-Fi networks and hardware to prevent any sort of shenanigans. So, yes, a network failure on one side of the field can not affect one on the other side of the field. A common point of failure isn't the Surface, as there are dozens of them on one side of the field ruling out a configuration problem on the tablets, but the networking hardware.

The video server that the NFL runs is platform-agnostic. They could (and did) use iPads before the Surface rollout, but MS spent about $400 million for the advertising opportunity.

[climacs]

they didn't lose that game because of the Wifi issues, though it surely could have affected any given game since that kind of info is crucial to play calling. Belichick should have kicked a FG on one of the two possessions prior to the last-minute TD. Just sayin'...

[Mike Wuerthele]

Agreed, this is clearly not why they lost.