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Case Studies > The Emirates Stadium - Arsenal FC
Arsenal Football Club’s aim was to build a Stadium utilising the latest technology to reduce capital cost and provide lower ongoing cost of ownership.
By choosing Trescray as a single infrastructure supplier to provide one multi-service IP network, significant savings in Project Management and network infrastructure costs have been achieved….
In previous installations of this type separate network infrastructures systems have been installed for Video distribution, Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS) systems and Access Control including Smartcard ticketing.
The new Emirates Stadium has some of the most advanced technology to be found in any stadium today. The active IP network infrastructure, designed and installed by Trescray, enables integrated Access Control, Video distribution to various monitors around the grounds, and an innovative EPOS solution, in addition to the normal Voice and Data requirements of the Club.
Alongside this, an integrated wireless solution enables hospitality staff in the Corporate Boxes to take orders on wireless handheld devices, and to accept payments on mobile credit card machines. It also allows the stewards to have mobile handheld devices, to check tickets anytime, anywhere, and allows public access to the Internet.
With 25 communications rooms, 6,000+ outlets, over 500 EPOS terminals and 450 video monitors, it was clear from the outset that Arsenal would require a team of technical experts to plan and consult at an early stage of the build. Arsenal chose Trescray, a leading IT infrastructure company, to design and install the managed communications network infrastructure.
For the passive infrastructure the Club selected a complete Cat6Plus cabling system combined with Blolite, manufactured by Brand-Rex, the UK’s leading structured cabling systems provider. Blolite is an advanced fibre optic solution that provides the flexibility to reconfigure the topology and spare capacity for network growth without the need to re-cable. SMARTPatch Intelligent Infrastructure Management, a system developed to ensure maximum network efficiency and visibility, was also to be part of the specification for the prestigious new stadium.
Arsenal will primarily use the SMARTPatch system to change the configurations of the technology in the stadium to match the specific requirements of each individual match day. The more important the football fixture at the ground, the higher the number of services required to support third parties such as the media; by using SMARTPatch, Arsenal will be able to track and control usage, and charge for these services. Arsenal can now plan the connections to be used in advance of match days, thus maximising efficiency and eliminating the errors caused by using manual methods.
For the active network and wireless systems, Trescray designed and implemented a high performance system based around Extreme Networks equipment. As the stadium network is supporting multiple systems, continuity of service is extremely important. High performance and quality of service is delivered over multiple 10Gb links, and to ensure the system is highly resilient, mirrored back-up is provided in two main computer rooms.
“Trescray and Brand-Rex demonstrated the full potential of its Cat6Plus cabling system with Blolite and SMARTPatch, which is invaluable to the Club. The system enables us to re-patch services according to media requirements on match days,” said John Beattie, Arsenal’s Stadium Manager. “SMARTPatch facilitates the tracking and control of the services so that fewer are redundant, which in turn is more cost effective for us,” Beattie continued.
Commenting on the completion of the project Matt Flowerday, Chief Executive of Trescray concluded: “We were delighted to be involved with such a prestigious project using technology which we are sure will provide significant benefits to the club over the coming seasons.”