Cisco scores with Real Madrid deal

Real Madrid Football Club is using Cisco networking, security and unified communications technologies to deliver video, voice, data and wireless services over a single network to its fans, corporate customers, employees and the press at all its facilities.

The operations for the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium are now completely managed from the main control centre using internet protocol (IP) technology, making it possible to prepare the venue and control all the infrastructure elements for a match with more than 80,000 spectators with as few as eight staff. Cisco’s local partner Getronics carried out the implementation.

“Cisco and Getronics have helped us to shape our vision of the new Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, turning it into one of the most important entertainment and conference centres in the world,” said Real Madrid’s systems and technology manager Enrique Uriel.

“Our goal is for fans to arrive at the stadium and enjoy the match without worrying about all the stuff that’s behind it. Cisco technology has provided us with an infrastructure that gives us real-time information in order to make decisions regarding everything that takes place in the stadium,” Uriel added.

The deployment of the network makes it possible to remotely control the 256 turnstiles and the lighting in the stadium. The public address system, which also operates over the IP network, can adjust the volume of each loudspeaker to the background noise level, giving spectators the optimum sound quality during each match.

Staff can improve crowd safety by monitoring busy areas through IP video cameras and direct spectators to the least crowded exits through programmable video screens.

The club has created a 4Tbyte on-demand audiovisual archive containing a wide selection of footage of the team’s matches. This archive can be instantly accessed from any of the 1,100 network access points that have been installed in the stadium and throughout Real Madrid’s ‘Ciudad Deportiva’ sports complex.

Jordi Botifoll, vice president of the Mediterranean region at Cisco, commented: “This platform allows businesses to generate new revenue through new services and securely connects everyone in the value chain to streamline processes and increase productivity.”

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