Electrical Data Telecommunications Contractors & System Integrators

Stadia

Magazine Article

Southampton Football Club - St Mary’s Stadium (Published: Jan 2002)

"When Southampton Football Club wanted to turn their dream of a new 32,000 capacity Stadium into reality, they turned to J Brand Ltd. to provide the expertise in designing and delivering the necessary, integrated IT infrastructure. The £32M St. Mary’s Stadium - the replacement for the Dell, the home of ‘The Saints’ for over 100 years - would double the capacity at home fixtures. The amount and complexity of the IT infrastructure at the new ground would, by comparison, increase exponentially!

On August 11th 2001, a sell-out crowd of 32,000 Saints Fans were expected to arrive at St.Mary’s for the Club’s inaugural fixture against Espanyol at their new Stadium. With the sale of the Dell for property development, the prospect of any delay with the completion of the new Stadium would have far reaching consequences.

The end of the 2000/01 season signalled the end of the Dell. There would be no possibility of a return should the new stadium falter. Put simply, the Stadium had to be ready in time! A modern Stadium requires modern IT systems. There is little point in spending millions on a new superstructure and not installing the necessary IT that will help the Club realise the buildings true potential and allow them to exploit the new opportunities it offers. It is also important to ensure as far as possible, the systems installed, offer the users the best return on investment in terms of operational effectiveness, future proofing and also from a purely financial perspective.

The systems employed should follow the same characteristics as the ideal player – fast, strong, offer a good disaster recovery, adaptable, last for a number of years, integrate well and not have unrealistic running costs.

J Brand Ltd. were contracted by Southampton Football Club (SFC) to act as independent IT Consultants, to ensure that this ‘ideal player’, was ready for action for the Espanyol match and beyond. The Consultancy consisted of 3 distinct phases:-

* Design
* Procurement
* Delivery

Design would encompass the technical aspirations of the Club. Procurement would attempt to match the design requirements to the marketplace. Delivery would be the project management of all aspects of each IT package implementation, working in close co-operation with the other agencies and IT Suppliers involved with the building of the Stadium, ensuring a co-ordinated approach at a critical phase of the Project.

The scope of the IT project consisted of the following IT packages:-

It was agreed that J Brand Ltd. would also maintain a ‘watching brief’ to monitor the works and standards of the other systems within the Stadium that were not specifically part of the above remit, reporting, when necessary, any concerns that may impact the Club’s future operation. Possible synergies could also be explored as necessary.

Using the resources available to J Brand Ltd., and in full discussion with Southampton Football Club, the specifications for each of the IT systems were produced and put out to competitive tender. Following receipt of tender responses, J Brand Ltd., formulated reports for the Club on each package, and recommendations were made as to the most suitable option based on adherence to specification and budget available.

Tim Oldershaw, J Brand Ltd’s Technical Director is the Chairman of the BSI TCT7/-/2 Committee, Data and Telecoms specialist on the ITEC Committee of the ECA, and also the UK Principal Expert for Data and Telecoms at CENELEC TC215 WG2. A key member of the project team, Tim designed the Network Architecture in accordance with the Clubs’ requirements, working closely with the preferred Supplier – Scalable Networks Ltd.

It was decided early in the design process that as many of the Stadium’s IT systems would utilise the Stadium’s structured cabling network as possible. This would allow for uniformity of cabling throughout the Stadium and also easier management, as any alterations to those systems that used the Cat6 structured cabling could be achieved by patching at 1 of the 4 Rack Rooms within the building. Individual patching of the IT systems would be managed by use of colour coded patch leads to distinguish the systems apart.

The 4 Rack Rooms (1 at each corner of the Stadium) would provide the required resilience for the network both technically, and geographically. Key equipment (eg AS400 for the Stadiums Ticketing system) was duplicated and mirrored in opposing Rack Room locations. Disaster recovery options would therefore be available if the worst did happen.

The installed network is based on two Extreme Networks Summit 7i core switches and 17 Summit 48 edge switches. The topology giving a meshed 4 Gbps backbone. These switches are resiliently configured using Extreme’s EAPS technology, which provides fast recovery in the event of link, port or switch failure, thereby ensuring maximum up-time. In addition, Extreme’s sophisticated QoS support at Layer 2 was critical in order to guarantee the low-latency, predictable throughput required by CCTV and multimedia applications.

The Club wished to improve on the visual offering to the Supporters that was available at the Dell. Following a trip to the USA to review the most up to date and advanced technology in situ, J Brand Ltd. recommended ProStar Screens from Daktronics. The Daktronics offer consisted of 2 x 34 sq. metre ProStar screens (16:9) at 23 pitch LED complete with 1 x Venus 7000 video display control system and 2 x V- Link direct video processor controls.

Two screens were installed – 1 at either end of the Stadium – to offer visibility from anywhere in the Stadium. The Daktronics product was found to be more advanced of any of their competition using a 3 x LED – 1 x red, 1 x green and 1 x blue – format per pixel whereas the competition used 2 x red, 1 x green and 1 x blue per pixel. The above therefore gives a far better resolution to the screen and thereby improves the final output view. The Venus 7000 display controlling system gives real-time video and taped video at 60 frames/sec (NTSC) with animation rates of 30 frames/sec with ability to merge or include frames or sequences into existing sequences / video.

TV Distribution was also to form a key part of the ‘offer’ available to the paying Public and Corporate guests alike. The specification included a TV position in all of the key offices within the Stadium complex, aswell as within the Concourse and Hospitality Lounges and each of the Stadium’s 47 Corporate Hospitality Boxes. SFC also wished to utilise targeted selling within the new 3,500 sq ft retail unit that is contained within the Stadium. TV positions in strategic locations within the Retail outlet were detailed to make this possible. A total of 123 TV’s, and 1 Plasma Screen (Reception) were installed by SmartComm Group Ltd.

The system is configured to show specific output to specific TV’s , or groups, at specific locations automatically. This was seen as key, as it allowed all of the distributed TV’s to be managed from 1 central location. The predetermined selection requirements from the Club were comprised from the available options of DVD,VHS, Sky and terrestrial channels, plus the option for live input from outside broadcast cameras.

The system used a total of 4 MediaStar distribution hubs to distribute and manage the video services, again utilising the Structured network that was already installed. Centralised control of the system is achieved by using the NetLinks AMX control system which, can be operated via any networked PC. This addresses the sheer scale of the task of managing the system as even on/off functions can be centrally controlled.

Access Control and Turnstile Monitoring were key systems for SFC. Access Control would allow the Club to manage the security of the large number of lounges, offices and corridors now available to them at the new Stadium. Turnstile Monitoring was a pre requisite to the safe operation of the Stadium. Newleaf Ltd. fulfilled both requirements with their Sentinel Turnstile Management system and TDSI’s Ultragard Access Control system. Both systems were capable of utilising the Stadiums’ structured cable network thereby simplifying the installation work and cost.

Sentinel provides crowd ingress and ‘flow against time’ data, which is displayed both numerically and graphically. Totals for individual stiles, blocks of stiles or any combination thereof are calculated on a continuous basis. Historical data is also recorded which allows the Stadium operations team to ‘second guess’ the trends of an event and allows them to prepare in advance.

Data is collected from each stile via an enumerator that is activated with every turn of the stile. This data is then, collated by a Process Logic Control (PLC) unit, which has a quoted MTBF rate of 76 years. The PLC provides a numerical backup display to the Sentinel GUI that displays the data graphically via any networked computer. The PLC therefore gives the Stadium Operations team a failsafe in case of computer failure which, was an important consideration for such a key system.

Sentinel’s GUI can also be utilised to manage support staff within the Stadium by location and also by qualifications. The system is also capable of automating payment calculations for personnel as it can integrate with a number of popular accounting packages.

The Ultragard Access Control system operates via proximity card readers on predefined doors within the stadium. J Brand Ltd liased closely with both SFC and Newleaf Ltd. to ensure that the areas of the Stadium that warranted Access Control were included in the final specification. A total of 49 sets of doors were covered by Access Control.

TDSI ACU Hubs were utilised which are capable of operating 4 doors each. These ACU’s were then connected to the Structured cable network to allow centralised control of the System via it’s Server and the Administrators’ networked desktop PC. The ACU’s have the facility to operate offline in the event of a network, or power failure, thereby maintaining a level of security throughout.

Authority levels are set via the Administrator and the pre issued ID cards allow access to authorised doors via proximity readers located near to the door. Door operation is managed by either an electronic strike plate that works with the latch snib - installed as part of the door furniture, or a magnet at high level – depending on the door type. Both operations release the door in the event of a successful access request from a users ID card.

With 16 Food and Beverage kiosks (87 tills) around the Concourse and 8 Hospitality areas (24 tills), the choice of EPoS terminal had to be robust. The Geller Vectron MiniPos was chosen to fulfil the requirements of the Club. J Brand’s Project Manager – Andy Robinson – with over 12 years of IT implementation experience for DIY giant B&Q Plc., was aware of the pressures and potential pitfalls that could occur. Working alongside Centerprise International (EPoS and PC suppliers) and Poscon Solutions Ltd. (EPoS s/w), the new EPoS system was installed and operational for the inaugural match.

Building on relationships forged with all those involved in the project, J Brand succeeded with the implementation of all the necessary systems, to allow Southampton FC to officially open the new St.Mary’s Stadium on time.

J Brand gave Southampton Football Club confidence that their huge investments would not be wasted with the many IT related decisions that were required to be taken - decisions based on accurate, tailored, independent advice.

"The involvement of J Brand Ltd. proved a success. It also proved that removing the IT function from its traditional home with the M&E contractor and placing it with a dedicated, IT aware team, leads to a more integrated and focussed approach and delivery which, benefits the Club immediately, and also in the long term."

Contact Details:

J Brand Ltd.
2 Margaret Street
London
W1W 8RD
Tel -020 7636 8214
Fax -020 7436 0841
Email - enquiries@jbrand.co.uk

About the Author

Author - Andy Robinson
Andy is a Project Manager employed by J Brand Ltd. Andy was responsible for the Delivery phase of the IT Consultancy, recently completed at the new St. Mary’s Stadium. Prior to this, Andy was Project Development Manager for www.diy.com and prior to this, ran the team of Project Managers responsible for IT Implementation into the Stores estate for B&Q plc.