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At Cricket’s Most Anticipated Event, Wi-Fi Wins with Global Media Welsh Stadium Stays Competitive with Speed, Availability
September 22, 2011 was a momentous day for Wales. The
Glamorgan County Cricket Club (CCC), based in the Welsh
capital city of Cardiff, learned that, in 2015, it would host the
most anticipated event in its sport – one match, or “test,” of
the Ashes Test Series. This historic, multi-day event brings
together the greatest rivalry in the sport: teams from
England and Australia.
Cricket is the world’s second most
popular sport, with over 120 million
players globally. “The Ashes,” now one
of the sport’s biggest events, earned
its curious name in 1882 when
Australia won its first test match on
English soil, leading a newspaper at
the time to declare the death of
English cricket. And the name stuck.
After being awarded one match of the
2015 Ashes Test Series, Glamorgan
County Cricket Club organisers knew
they had work ahead of them to be
ready for the fans, and most critically,
a large contingent of global media.
At the time, the Club’s stadium –
SSE SWALEC – ranked low among
cricket grounds for its technology
infrastructure. To meet the
connectivity demands of hundreds of
media guests, the Club would need at
least 10 times its existing capacity.
avaya.com | 1
Challenges• Glamorgan County
Cricket Club needed
10 times its existing
Wi-Fi capacity to
handle expected fan/
media demand for the
2015 Ashes
• The stadium’s legacy
Wi-Fi service was
unreliable
• Glamorgan CCC’s
business plan called
for more future
events — requiring a
higher-capacity
network
Value Created• The stadium bumped
up capacity 10 times
(100Mbps) for regular
events, and
temporarily to
200Mbps for the
Ashes Test
• The new network went
in seamlessly, while an
event was in progress
• More than double the
typical number of
media attended the
Ashes Test Series
• On average, 1,200
devices connected per
day during the Ashes
Test
• Glamorgan CCC
received praise from
guests regarding the
speed of the
infrastructure
• Wi-Fi & apps for fans
will increase
engagement, the
club’s profile, and
revenue
© Huw Evans PA
The stadium’s Wi-Fi service was
unreliable and slow where
photographers needed it most, on
the edge of the cricket field. When
photographers were ready to send
their images or video, they often had
to walk inside the club house for a
stronger connection – taking them
away from the action. Beyond these
immediate needs, the Club’s
strategic plans called for rolling out
next-generation capabilities for
greater fan engagement, and to
make the venue more attractive for
revenue-generating conferences
and other events held on days
without cricket matches.
“Our existing infrastructure wasn’t
up to speed,” recalls Dan Cherry,
Head of Operations at Glamorgan
County Cricket Club. “With massive
media interest in the Ashes Test
Series, we had to upgrade to cope
with the demand and stage the
games successfully – as well as to
elevate the profile of our grounds to
attract more conferences and
events, and revenue.”
Olympic-Quality Capacity
The Club assembled a strategic plan
to prepare for the 2015 Ashes Test
Series, in close collaboration with its
longtime IT partner, Pro-Copy. After
evaluating the market, Glamorgan
CCC chose to team with Avaya to
upgrade its network for the Ashes,
and to support other applications for
a better guest and media
experience.
“From all the research we did, we
were very impressed with Avaya,”
Cherry says. “We were reassured by
the success that other sports venues
have had with Avaya, including the
Sochi Olympics, and found them to
be a progressive company that
shares our values.”
The Club and Pro-Copy worked with
Avaya partner C>Ways to determine
the optimal mix of Avaya solutions,
configuration and deployment. They
decided on Avaya Fabric Connect,
an enhanced implementation of
Shortest Path Bridging (SPB) that
can optimise network traffic and
gives organisations ultimate
flexibility in the design of their
networks. Glamorgan CCC is running
fabric over the Avaya Virtual
Services Platform and Avaya
Wireless LAN 9100 Series to ensure
high-quality coverage wherever
authorised users need it.
The Avaya fabric enables a single
infrastructure to simultaneously and
more securely support SWALEC
operational traffic, ticketing and
gate access control applications,
telephony, point of sale, press,
photography, media and hospitality
guest Internet access.
2 | avaya.com
“From all the research
we did, we were very
impressed with Avaya.
We were reassured by
the success that other
sports venues have
had with Avaya,
including the Sochi
Olympics, and found
them to be a
progressive company
that shares our values.”
— Dan Cherry, Head of Operations,
Glamorgan County Cricket Club
© Huw Evans PA
avaya.com | 3
Prior to upgrading, Pro-Copy and
C>Ways configured the solution for
the stadium’s specific needs.
Thereafter, installation and testing
took about five days – completed
while other events were taking place
at the stadium. For regular events,
the stadium bumped up its capacity
by 10 times, to 100Mbps, and
temporarily to 200Mbps for the
Ashes Test.
“That was one of the beauties of the
installation,” Cherry says. “C>Ways
and Pro-Copy worked around
everything else that was going on
here. It was really seamless switching
from the old to the new.”
“It was just like putting together a
jigsaw puzzle,” remembers Steve
Edwards, IT Director at Pro-Copy.
“With so much done prior to
delivery, it was just a matter of
plugging things in. C>Ways was
fantastic to work with and stayed
with us during the Ashes Test as
well.”
1200 Devices a Day
Though the Club had tested the
network as best it could, no testing
could truly prepare Glamorgan CCC
for the level of peak usage during
the Ashes Test Series. The stadium
saw a huge jump in the number of
media representatives, with most
toting multiple devices. That
included more than 100 print
journalists and 60 photographers –
more than double the typical
number at a Glamorgan match.
SSE SWALEC stadium additionally
hosted a record number of
hospitality guests, fans who pay
some £400 per ticket for additional
services, including Internet access in
bars and restaurants. On average,
1,200 devices connected per day.
The event went off without a hitch.
After some Mac users reported
difficulty getting onto the network,
Pro-Copy and C>Ways immediately
optimised the Wi-Fi configuration to
suit the different user profiles, by
leveraging Avaya’s software
programmable radios. Unlike other
solutions where the radios in the
access points are preset, each radio
in the Avaya WLAN 9100 Access
Points can be programmed flexibly
for the environment.
“The commitment from Avaya and
C>Ways was very impressive and
ensured that everything was
resolved and running smoothly,”
Cherry says.
The day, considered a win for
SWALEC stadium and technology,
was appropriately capped by a win
by England – beating Australia by
169 runs.
“The Best They Have Experienced”
And the media noticed. “We
received a lot of positive messages
regarding the speed of our
infrastructure, from photographers
especially,” Cherry says. “It was the
best they had experienced from a
cricket stadium in this country.
Within seconds of taking a photo,
they could upload it and send it
directly to their offices rather than
having to relocate for access.”
The network also protected Club
revenue by ensuring that hospitality
guests received the full benefits they
expected, including connectivity.
Now beyond the Ashes Test, the
Glamorgan County Cricket Club
looks forward to numerous additions
to its technology infrastructure. It
will eventually extend Wi-Fi to all
fans throughout the 15,000-seat
stadium so they can freely share
their experiences on social media – a
goal that will help attract a larger
number of younger fans to this
traditional and historic sport. The
Club plans to create mobile
applications that meet a couple of
objectives at once. For one,
Glamorgan CCC will engage fans
with an app that lets them buy
tickets to future games, order food
“Avaya works with
some of the most
sophisticated and
highest profile sporting
venues in the world.
We are excited to be
able to bring our skills
to the cricketing world
and be part of
Glamorgan’s ambition
to reinvent the
spectator experience in
cricket. With the sheer
amount of time fans
spend in the stadium,
there’s huge potential
to make more of the
fan experience and to
boost the value
proposition.”
— Peter Thompson, Managing Director –
Sports & Entertainment, Avaya
© 2015 Avaya Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Avaya and the Avaya logo are trademarks of Avaya Inc. and are registered in the United States and other countries.
All other trademarks identified by ®, TM, or SM are registered marks, trademarks, and service marks, respectively,
of Avaya Inc.
09/15 • DN7773UK-BP
ABOUT GLAMORGAN COUNTY CRICKET CLUB
Glamorgan County Cricket Club (CCC) is one of the 18 major county clubs which
make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the
historic county of Glamorgan. Glamorgan CCC is the only Welsh first-class
cricket club and has won the English County Championship competition three
times, in 1948, 1969 and 1997. Based in Cardiff, Glamorgan CCC plays most of its
home games at the SSE SWALEC Stadium in Sophia Gardens.
ABOUT C>WAYS
For more than 17 years, Avaya partner C>Ways has been providing leading-
edge, innovative IT solutions to customers spanning the length and breadth of
the UK. A trusted and well-respected company, C>Ways has a proven track
record for delivering fast and reliable solutions across both public and private
sector organisations.
About AvayaAvaya is a leading, global provider of customer and team engagement solutions and services available in a variety of flexible on-premise and cloud deployment options. Avaya’s fabric-based networking solutions help simplify and accelerate the deployment of business critical applications and services. For more information, please visit www.avaya.com.
4 | avaya.com
from their seats, learn more about players, or see an interactive map of the
stadium. Secondly, apps will allow Glamorgan CCC to collect important
information about fans and conference attendees to meet the goal of expanding
its marketing database.
The strength of the Avaya network also boosts the venue’s attractiveness for all
manner of events. Last year, the stadium hosted 38,000 conference clients and
Cherry expects that to increase by 10-15 percent over the next year.
Videoconferencing with Avaya Scopia brings an enticing addition to the venue’s
conference services.
SSE SWALEC stadium is also targeting lucrative concert opportunities in 2016.
Again, the network will help the stadium compete with other venues, and
support the sharing that fans expect as the stadium brings in additional revenue.
“A massive part of our strategy is to make Wales proud,” Cherry says. “A large
part of doing that is engaging schools, colleges, cricket clubs, and the business
community. Free access to Wi-Fi will allow us to stage more events and grow our
business further. We feel Avaya can take us to the next level in delivering the fan
experience.”
What’s What in Cricket
• The Ashes Test
Series – An historic
series of matches
between England and
Australia, first played
in 1882
• Pitch – The central
strip in a cricket field,
22 yards in length
• The bowler – The
player who bowls the
ball to the batter
• Test – The longest
form of the sport of
cricket, which often
lasts five days
• Wicket – Wooden
stumps on the cricket
pitch
Solutions
• Avaya Fabric Connect
• Avaya Virtual Services Platform 4000 Series
• Avaya Ethernet Routing Switches 4000 Series
• Avaya Wireless LAN 9100 Series