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Back of the (Inter)net! Ensuring high-quality connectivity at sporting stadiums across the UK

International Cricket Council (ICC) Cricket World Cup 2019 is in full swing with nations from around the globe competing for the sport’s ultimate prize across various cricket grounds in the United Kingdom.

Over the past few months, English sport has reached new heights – with all four teams in this year’s two European men’s football finals coming from the Premier League, England men’s One Day International cricket side currently reside at the top of the world rankings and the Lionesses currently impressing in the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

But as fans attending the matches want to share every moment, whether it be via live streaming on social media or downloading matchday-related content, sports venues across the country have a new challenge on their hands – how to ensure consistent, high-quality Wi-Fi that thousands of people can access at any one time.

Telent is working with partners around the country to deliver an enhanced Wi-Fi experience for spectators and fans alike through the deployment of bespoke, high-density, scalable solutions.

Bowling over the English Cricket Board

Our most recent project came as a result of Sky Wi-Fi winning the project to roll out high-density public Wi-Fi for English Cricket Board (ECB) in four cricket grounds ahead of the ICC Cricket World Cup and a further seven after the tournament. We have been appointed as technology partner to complete the design and deployment of cabling, switches and access points for the Sky Wi-Fi solution.

Covering Old Trafford, Trent Bridge, in Nottinghamshire, Somerset County, The Bristol County Ground, as well as, Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Sussex, Essex, Worcestershire, Northamptonshire, Durham and Kent cricket clubs, the one-year project gives Telent responsibility for surveying the grounds and designing and installing the networks.

Telent’s experience in delivering reliable Wi-Fi infrastructures in a variety of complex environments was utilised to deploy a robust network architecture cost-effectively and quickly, efficiently upgrading the cricket grounds’ Wi-Fi to meet the strict project deadlines. The work has already improved the matchday experience for attendees of the World Cup, helping them achieve unparalleled and unrestricted access via Sky Wi-Fi and enhancing their overall experience of the sporting competition.

Premiership scores new Wi-Fi

Telent has also completed a Wi-Fi upgrade for a major Premier League Football Club in London to help improve communications for the supporters on matchdays. This project saw more than 200 Cisco Access Points and other equipment installed to deliver Wi-Fi access for up to 42,000 people – the stadium’s capacity on a matchday. The new network was also integrated with club’s existing core network and legacy Wi-Fi infrastructure which had become unfit-for-purpose.

Relying on Telent’s end-to-end expertise, it designed and delivered the network as a whole, providing the stadium with the state-of-the-art infrastructure it sought.

Delivering a knock-out for National Stadium

Telent also helped deliver 4G coverage for a major national sporting venue, hosting a world title boxing match. Successfully installing the infrastructure and providing high-quality mobile coverage to the fans who sat ringside helped ensure the whole stadium could share, download and post content seamlessly.

Typically, fast 4G mobile connections for guests attending is guaranteed at stadia due to antennas mounted across stadiums, allowing event ticket holders access to an expectedly high level of coverage. However, due to the large number of guests sat on the pitch for this particular boxing match, in a position located beyond the reach of standard stadium connectivity deployments, is was vital to make sure everyone attending could enjoy the same connectivity experience.

To combat this, Telent worked over just seven days to install and compete the Distributed Antenna System (DAS) project which transformed the 4G footprint to bring reliable and fast 4G coverage throughout the stadium, regardless of where fight-fans were sitting.


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