Proximus and Cisco have last week teamed up to support Club Brugge, a first division club from Belgium, to create the 'first ever' connected stadium in the country. As part of the project, the club has deployed 400 Wi-Fi antennas in its home ground Jan Breydel Stadium allowing thousands of spectators to access the Internet simultaneously. According to Proximus and Cisco, the antennas have been expertly set up to ensure optimal access throughout the stadium, including in the business seats, cloak rooms, restaurant and press room. Proximus said that it has also installed a brand new fibre network for Club Brugge, with approximately 20 Cisco switches to support the 400 wireless access points and to cater for the cashless payment system and IP security cameras.
The free Wi-Fi service enabled by the new infrastructure is expected to see more Club Brugge fans accessing its Club app which was launched last December, to catch up on all the game-related information while they follow the matches in the stadium. The Apps will enable users to access the latest updates including scores in other matches. Via the Apps, fans can also watch video clips, read news about the team and check the balance on their fan card.
Apart from Jan Breydal Stadium, Europe boasts a number of other connected stadiums including Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium, Bayer Leverkusen’s BayArena and Celtic Glasgow’s Celtic Park and a number of digital, connected stadiums across Scandinavia.
Carl Lenaerts, Business Development Manager, Club Brugge
Our supporters are used to having internet access wherever they go, but it’s not easy to guarantee a strong signal for so many fans in the stadium at the same time. Thanks to our new high density network from Cisco and the expert services from Proximus, we’re offering our fans stable internet access so they can share their stadium experiences on social media, for example. We hope this will further strengthen our supporters’ engagement with the club.
