- November 22, 2018
- Posted by: SportsV
- Categories: Case Studies, Features, Home News, Industry News, Press Releases
In this latest case study, Zeetta Networks analyses how multi-event venues, such as stadia and arenas, are delivering the best possible user experience.
There is no such thing as a single-event venue in today’s world. When shopping malls host multiple tenants of different sizes, sports stadia host sporting events and music events often within the same week, and hotels struggle to manage conferences and weddings on the very same day, the challenge to management often comes at a cost: user experience.
Legacy buildings created decades ago were constructed with one type of event in mind, and as management attempt to diversify the usage of that building, the infrastructure itself is often lacking. Many sports stadia simply aren’t designed to offer the same high quality experience to conference delegates as sports fans. Hotels built as stately homes certainly never expected to fit projectors in every room. Theatres constructed hundreds of years ago do not have the requirements of cinema in mind.
And as if that wasn’t enough of a challenge for multi-event venues, the requirements for different types of events change across every vertical: from hospitality and catering to audio visual, to networking and security, lighting, staffing…
Creating an infrastructure that is designed bespoke for just one type of event then automatically creates a negative experience for every guest at other types of events. When a sports venue attempts to improve the visitor experience for people on game night, their infrastructure choices are naturally not designed to create a positive experience for someone hosting a wedding there. They are just too different.
So what is the solution? One approach is to simply tear down a venue that is outdated and unable to immediately cope with managing multi-events within the space, and build a new one from scratch. Although this would give the opportunity to design the perfect venue for their current requirements, it eats up precious time and monumental costs – and ignores the challenge of future-proofing. In fact, timelines from initial designs right through to opening night can be so lengthy that even in that time, requirements from a multi-event venue could change.
The alternative is by investing in the infrastructure of the venue before you, upgrading it to become fully programmable. Whether you’re dealing with a sports stadium or a wedding venue, a programmable network enables it to be flexible to each event’s needs.
This could mean allocating VIP Wi-Fi to honoured guests at sporting events whilst ensuring high bandwidth to the media, and then spreading it across a specific hospitality suite the next day for a wedding. It looks like apportioning five additional check-in tills at the front of a hotel during busy periods, and then requisitioning this to the entertainment room hours later when dinner is over. It empowers staff to alter the network at a theatre to maximise efficiencies in lighting during a Shakespeare play and ramping up the capacity during a Rolling Stones tribute act. This is exactly what Zeetta Networks’ NetOS® delivers.
Zeetta’s advanced NetOS® platform allows network owners to free themselves from the constraints of the past, enabling the sorts of flexibility, agility, and control that were unimaginable just a few years ago – within a programmable infrastructure.
A programmable infrastructure makes a venue flexible to each event’s needs, no matter what they are, delivering and over-delivering on your guests’ expectations.
When installed properly, a NetOS® enabled programmable network gives an infrastructure that does not need experienced IT staff to manage, but can instead be accessed by any member of staff using a dashboard on a tablet. This creates the perfect balance for a venue’s management: a positive experience for their visitors and guests, as well as their own operations team.
About Zeetta Networks
Originally a Bristol University spin-out, Zeetta Networks is now a world leader in Open Networking technologies with pioneering solutions in Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Virtualization (NV). Its cutting-edge NetOS® platform has recently won entry to the Facebook- and BT-led Telecoms Infrastructure Project, set to transform global connectivity.
Zeetta Networks’ vision is to be the leading facilitator of network as an open programmable platform, and a key player in the emergence of smart infrastructure in smart cities.
Zeetta Networks’ co-founders have been awarded the Charles Kao award (2016) for their pioneering work in SDN. Zeetta’s core technology was developed by the High Performance Group at Bristol University as part of European-, UK Government- and industry-funded research.
The company is led by Dr Vassilis Seferidis, CEO, who has over 20 years’ experience leading commercial ventures in blue chip companies and innovative start-ups, and Ian Jenks, Chairman, who benefits from over 30 years’ experience in leading technology companies on both sides of the Atlantic.
Signature sports projects
Ashton Gate is Bristol’s largest stadium, with a 27,000-capacity, including 35 meeting rooms, it is ‘home’ to Bristol Sport’s Bristol City FC and Bristol Rugby.
Beyond providing a new platform for applications, NetOS® gives programmability and security options to enable consistent, reliable internet access in all situations, meeting end user demand for match days and conference events throughout the year.
NetOS® means that despite large concrete and metal structures and huge numbers of users, the stadium will deliver high-speed Wi-Fi continuously. The project at Ashton Gate Stadium is an exciting step for sports stadia worldwide, as large venues look for better access to reliable, high-speed Wi-Fi networks for their customers and own commercial applications.
For further information on Zeetta Networks – a VIP Sponsor of Sports Venue Business (SVB) – click on the below or visit their online SVB industry directory listing…
