By Claus Hetting, Wi-Fi NOW CEO & Chairman
Imagine deploying and operating mission-critical network infrastructure in just a few days, allowing billions of viewers and thousands of in-person fans to enjoy the world’s most high-profile events, from football and ice hockey world championships to congresses and music festivals. For nearly two decades Swisscom Broadcast has provided the professional stadium and event services invisible to fans but essential for success.
It’s a well kept secret but name pretty much any very large football or other major international sports tournament (outside the US) and it’s likely that Swisscom has had an instrumental role to play in delivering temporary IT infrastructure including Wi-Fi for thousands of professional users. Swisscom delivers the engine room that keeps stadium, broadcast, media, and security services connected and operational. It is often a massive project that nobody pays attention to unless something goes wrong.
“Supporting event operations with extensive temporary wired and wireless networks is among the most complex and challenging tasks in IT and telecommunications. With nearly 20 years of experience, we’ve developed a concept that deploys and operates networks for large sporting events similarly to how the entertainment industry delivers rock concerts,” says Jacques Baehler, Business Developer & Event Program Manager at Swisscom Broadcast.
Swisscom says that a large event network – such as for a major international football tournament – may require several thousand Wi-Fi access points to support tens of thousands of concurrent professional users across multiple locations. This includes hundreds of fiber rolls and LAN drops to support TV broadcast operations, press and media across stadiums, as well as security functions and disaster recovery. Various sensors and other machinery, including ticketing systems, also rely on this professional network, Jacques Baehler says.
Swisscom attributes its success to an in-house developed network architecture, refined and optimised through experience from hundreds of events. “When tasked with delivering a network, we typically have a week or less to deploy it, which means extreme efficiency and speed is needed. We do this by installing hundreds of flight cases with pre-configured network equipment, including switches and access points,” Jacques Baehler says.
Another critical component is Swisscom’s temporary event Network Operations Center (NOC). “This is our ‘event cockpit,’ the heart of the network where we monitor and control all activities. We can also automatically configure our equipment from the NOC. These streamlined processes give us a significant market advantage, allowing us to operate efficiently and maintain a high quality of service, which is essential,” he says.
He also says that a tipping point in the event networking industry happened around 2016 when it became impractical for local integrators to deliver such services. “Since then, events have grown too large and complex for local system integrators lacking the necessary experience and architectural approach. Even some major telecom operators do not possess the right skill set and resources. The industry has become very specialized, and we are one of the few companies globally with the necessary capabilities,” he says.
Swisscom says that strong relationships and proximity to world sports associations based in Switzerland helps but that securing service contracts for each event or championship still requires lengthy and competitive bid processes. Swisscom produces a large number of major international events annually in addition to many more in Switzerland, including music festivals and congresses.
We’re excited to welcome Swisscom to the Wi-Fi World Congress in Geneva Switzerland on September 23-25. Join us and meet Jacques Baehler and team on September 25.
/Claus.
