12 Mar 2008
Wi-Fi in Position at National Sporting Arena in time for Track Cycling World Championships
On-Communications & BT Openzone to provide venue-wide, high-speed wireless internet coverage
Visitors to this month's World Cycling Championships at the Manchester Velodrome will be able to access high-speed wireless internet access (Wi-Fi) through a special ‘Hot Zone’ covering the entire sporting arena. The Wi-Fi coverage, provided by On-Communications and BT Openzone, will enable allow the teams and their supporters to stay connected to email, the web, even their company networks, as well as gaming and VOIP applications from a growing number of Wi-Fi enabled devices.
The public Wi-Fi Hot Zone will provide venue-wide coverage across all public areas, conference and press rooms at the site. On-Communications will also provide separate private wireless VLANs (WVLANs) for the event’s organising team from the Manchester Velodrome and for British Cycling who are permanently based in the Velodrome.
Jarl Walsh, general manager, Manchester Velodrome commented: “In today’s information and on-line culture it is very important that the communication facilities at the Manchester Velodrome reflect the world class status of the venue and the sporting events we host. Spectators want ‘always on’ Internet access for their new WiFi leisure devices, and our network gives supporters and their families a great new service to make the most of their visits to the arena.’’
All velodrome data and Wi-Fi traffic will be routed to the internet via On-Communications Fixed Wireless Access service. The guaranteed performance service features a ‘burst’ capability to provide extra bandwidth during peak periods at the end of heats and races as international journalists rush to file reports and photographs.
Peter Brown, Systems Architect at British Cycling added: “We are delighted that a single solution from On-Communications allows us to meet the differing needs of all our users with a single system. What started as a relatively simple project ended up being quite sophisticated, and we are really pleased that we all managed to achieve our objectives.”
Chris Bruce, BT Openzone general manager said: “The Velodrome’s Wi-Fi installation is an important response to a key trend. There is growing customer expectation for remote internet connectivity within the leisure industry. The network will provide BT Openzone, BT FON, BT Office Anywhere and BT Fusion customers or casual users, with a convenient location to log in without wires.”
Ian Roberts, Chief Executive Officer, On-Communications remarked: “On-Communications have delivered a solution combining FWA and WiFi technology to meet the challenge that spectators, competitors, their teams, and the world’s cycling media, can all keep a global audience up to speed with the thrills and spills of results on the track through our tried and tested systems.”
The Manchester Velodrome is the National Cycling Centre, Britain's primary indoor Olympic cycle track, a joint venture between Sport England and Manchester City Council. Regarded as one of the World's finest and fastest board tracks, it is the third time that the venue has hosted the world’s biggest annual track cycling event. The UCI Track Cycling Championships take place from 26th to 30th March 2008. Cyclists from over 30 nations will compete for the coveted world champions’ rainbow jerseys.
Download this Press Release as a pdf
