Stadionwelt, a German journal on sports stadiums, has noted that soccer stadiums are becoming temples of high-tech multimedia. Gigantic data quantities flow as digital TV images from the stadiums to the broadcasters and TV companies during international contests.

Telekom Austria estimates that its fiber optic network transmitted a total data quantity of two Petabytes during the EURO 2008. That is about five times the data quantity in all the books ever written. Yet a stadium does far more than just television transmissions, be they in high definition or 3-D. Today, large stadiums are information hubs producing large amounts of real time data that place tough requirements on infrastructure.

Numerous antennas follow the interactive ball. That is what the plans for a smart stadium say. The antennas are placed around the playing field or in the roof. They communicate over the building network with a computer system that gives the referees live support while they are working.

The same network allows photographers on the sidelines to feed their digital photos from a camera or laptop directly onto the Internet or to their editorial offices within seconds. Access controls, monitoring of viewer stands, alarms, electronic ticket and cashier’s systems, control of light, heating and ventilation systems... all these various systems can now be integrated at the same time in building networks.

“Those are just a few of the applications that can be integrated using the standard Ethernet Protocol and Internet Protocol (IP). Convergence is opening up even further interesting dimensions to managing stadiums, facilities, sports and special events,” says Markus Schlageter, Head of Marketing at R&M.

Now, only a single platform is needed for wireless LAN, phone and broadband Internet, video and audio transmission in the stadium and to points outside it. The same is true of the data traffic generated by the stadium management or the communication conducted by the media.

IT consultants specializing in arenas, stadiums and other large event venues confirm that convergence is a reality for them too, similar to the situation in office buildings and in private homes. Convergence requires appropriate IT infrastructures and multiservice networks all based on far-sighted, competent planning.

In its guidelines for data and communication networks in stadiums where competitions are held, FIFA, the International Federation of Association Football, sets down straightforward rules: “It is usual for the stadium owner or operator to offer, allocate and maintain a standard cabling system for the entire stadium.”

Garima Khanna/ITVOIR Network