Background Challenges

German Football Club’s ‘Smart Stadium’ Delights
Spectators with Wi-Fi Benefits
Established in 1904, the football club FC
Schalke 04 strives to serve their fan base
with real-time information. Before, during,
and after matches, the club seeks to unite
fans, players, sponsors, staff and its large
number of volunteers with high-density
Wi-Fi solutions.
Background
FC Schalke 04 (S04) is one of Germany’s top tier football
clubs in the Bundesliga system. The team is part of the
sports club that originated in the Schalke district of
Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club has some
139,000 members, making it the second-largest sports club
in Germany and the sixth-largest sports club in the world.
Three years ago, FC Schalke 04 started searching for a
partner who could transform the club’s stadium, the
Veltins-Arena, into a “Smart Stadium” with a high-density
Wi-Fi network.
Challenges
Unlike common office networks, a stadium’s Wi-Fi network
is characterized by complicated and demanding real-time
service delivery.
A network is an important chain in the Schalke stadium’s
IT infrastructure since the club has ambitions to capture
data and harvest new opportunities via Big Data mining
opportunities.
A Wi-Fi network in a stadium faces several challenges.
The signal must be strong enough to penetrate tons of
reinforced concrete. But the greatest challenge is the
extremely high user density.
Executive Summary
Industry
Smart Stadium
Challenges
• Link offline and online revenue opportunities before, during,
and after a football match
• Create a digital information highway for broadband traffic
with a wireless IT network
Solution
• Huawei’s Agile Controller provides fine-grained rights and
bandwidth policies for VIP users and areas, employees, and
other audience members
• Wired and wireless convergence
• Quality awareness: iPCA technology assures IP network
quality and quickly locates faults
Benefits
• Enhanced in-stadium experience for fans
• Higher revenues due to new business opportunities
Veltins-Arena can hold 62,000 spectators — and user density
can be hundreds of times greater than in offices, dormitories,
or hotels. High user density requires that a Wi-Fi network
provide large bandwidth and reliable core nodes, and be robust
enough to defend against potential security threats from
internal network terminals.
Huawei proposed an Agile Network Solution featuring
architectural innovations specifically designed for a large,
densely-populated Wi-Fi network:
•
Additionally, the use of wireless terminals must be effectively
controlled on the Wi-Fi network. Considering the enormous
variety of users, terminals, services, and locations, a Wi-Fi
stadium network must be able to recognize users, control user
access, and deliver differentiated services.
Solution
The club and Huawei tested wireless services for 20,000
visitors. Huawei anticipated typical incidents and calculated
the number of Access Points (APs) needed. The company also
conducted comprehensive site surveys with Schalke’s engineers
to create a detailed network design.
To fit well into a high-density stadium, a Wi-Fi network solution
must offer processes such as product capability, network
planning, network deployment, configuration optimization,
and testing and verification. The products and devices used
must include high-density features and large bandwidth. In
short, a Wi-Fi network plan must match stadium characteristics
and provide easy access to applications.
“Wi-Fi is not easy to implement in a football stadium. We had
to spend a long time on testing and planning to accomplish
comprehensive Wi-Fi for the fans.”
— Sergej März, Head of IT, FC Schalke 04
“Over a century ago, our founding fathers were coal miners.
Today we are looking for new business opportunities via data
mining.”
— Alexander Jobst, CMO & member of the Managing Board at
FC Schalke 04
• Huawei’s Agile Controller that centralizes policy and
resource control. It also enables new services to be
provisioned without replacing hardware.
• Airtime scheduling technology assigns equal time to all
wireless terminals, ensuring fairness in channel usage.
• Combines airtime and Quality of Service (QoS)
scheduling. For wireless services, QoS scheduling is
implemented first, then airtime scheduling. In addition,
access points implement cyclic scheduling of voice,
video, and data services at low, medium, and high rates.
• The Auto Radio feature adjusts radio resources to ensure
optimal access and high user bandwidth.
Benefits
It is expected that Schalke’s Smart Stadium will be ready in
2016. With the help of the network, fans can access a local
video server to share game highlights and interact with family
members, friends, and other club members through social
networking websites.
The stadium will incorporate a high-density hotspot for a WiFi network offering functions like seamless communications
between the stadium, fan club, and the fans. This free publicity
is galvanizing brand awareness for the club in new markets like
Japan and China.
Working closely with Schalke’s marketing department also has
been key to Huawei’s growing brand awareness.
“For the German market, Huawei is relatively a young brand.
The area of sports marketing and, especially, supporting a team
that plays in the Bundesliga, is an ideal way to increase brand
awareness very fast. Co-operating with Schalke 04 has certainly
contributed to this goal.”
— Claas Hansen, Director, Channel Marketing, Huawei
Enterprise Germany
Hansen also is impressed by the way FC Schalke 04 connects
fan experiences with new digital concepts. These include:
•
Moving about the stadium with wireless terminals without
losing Wi-Fi connection
•
Multiple fan Apps
•
Websites in five languages
•
An online TV channel
•
Large numbers of followers on social media
•
Purchasing club memorabilia or ordering food through a
customized stadium App during a game or concert
•
Helping fans find their parking places and seats with the
indoor navigation system
Full Wi-Fi coverage at the Veltins-Arena is not the only benefit
of co-operation between FC Schalke 04 and Huawei. The
Schalke conglomerate consists of several different companies.
One company owns the arena and another is in charge of TV
production and distribution. Just recently, the club migrated
Microsoft’s Navision software to Huawei servers and storage
technologies. As a result, the Schalke companies employ
a private cloud solution running on Huawei hardware that
replaced the previous slow silo storage system.
“The Schalke conglomerate is very ambitious and tech driven.
The different companies within S04 are well integrated with
entrepreneurs in the region and the municipality. There is
opportunity to grow together.”
— Hans Hallitzky, Deputy Sales Director, Huawei Enterprise
Germany
About FC Schalke 04
The football club FC Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04, commonly
known as FC Schalke 04 (or S04), is a professional
German association-football and multi-sports club based in
Gelsenkirchen.
The “04” in the club’s name derives from its formation in 1904.
FC Schalke 04 began as a club for coal miners. For this reason,
the club encourages supporters from all social backgrounds
to participate in the life of the club and to attend football
matches.
Schalke has long been one of the most popular sports clubs in
Germany and plays in Germany’s top tier Bundesliga football
league system. With more than 139,000 members, Schalke 04
is the second-largest sports club in Germany and the sixthlargest sports club in the world in terms of membership.
“The moment our star striker, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, scores
a goal, a spectator will be able to use his mobile phone to
order a signed jersey, then pick up the jersey by the end of the
match.”
For more information, please visit: schalke04.de
— Alexander Jobst, CMO & member of the Managing Board at
FC Schalke 04
About Huawei Enterprise Business Group
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