Case Studies
BACKGROUND
Teams from 16 countries playing 32 matches in five cities over 26 days, attended by an average of 20,000 at each game and broadcast to a potential audience of 2.5 billion people – that was the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup 2015. Event organisers required a LAN and wireless network at five stadiums in five cities along the east coast, as well as at training venues and ancillary sites such as hotels and airports. Add to this the temporary nature of sporting events, and AFC Asian Cup 2015 presented unique challenges for designing, deploying, managing, and decommissioning the network infrastructure and ICT services.
CHALLENGES
Proactive management of stakeholders was required to streamline the process of integrating with and managing multiple suppliers and technologies. Changes were dealt with quickly, seamlessly incorporating new requirements which arose due to the fluid demands of the event and the myriad third parties involved.
The result was that five hundred international and local event staff and VIPs, as well as 4000 local and international media, received ICT services based on their need, at the level of security required. And our Sydney-based Service Desk and Network Operations Centre provided the essential network and ICT services support, 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, meeting all required service levels.
SOLUTION
Reliable, consistent ICT support was critical prior to and during the event. CDM network engineers were onsite for support during matches at stadiums, starting 2 hours prior and finishing 2 hours post-match, while CDM’s Service Desk commenced its 24×7 ICT services support for users several weeks prior to kick-off.
CDM migrated 60 Football Federation Australia users to the network presented challenges for those users, having to quickly acclimatise to an unfamiliar environment with limitations such as a locked-down SOE. CDM helped overcome the angst by placing a support team at each of the locations to assist users.
This support team also assisted the many users from overseas AFC offices, foreign media and VIPs who wanted to use their own devices. With a mix of device types, makes, models and operating systems, the support team assisted these users to connect to the network for access to file and print services. CDM is proud to have contributed to the success of AFC Asian Cup 2015.
