Case Studies

Stadium intercoms

by Mark Rowe

Audio-video intercom has been installed at the 415 million euros Parc Olympique in Lyon, a sports stadium that hosted matches at the UEFA Euro 2016 tournament. The 59,000-capacity venue in central France is the home ground of Olympique Lyonnais, which plays in France’s top football division Ligue 1.

Parc Olympique Lyonnais claims the most interconnected information systems for management and spectators in Europe. French telecom company Orange has built a private Wi-Fi network consisting of 500 routers that allow up to 20,000 people to be connected at once. There are 350 IPTV (internet television) screens, enabling spectators to watch replays and view incidents from different angles.

The stadium uses 90 audio-video intercom stations from Castel’s CAP IP suite. These full IP/SIP entry stations with Power over Ethernet (PoE) range from single to 10-button units. They feature colour cameras with a vandal-resistant 316 stainless steel fascia, generating images using H.264 compression.

The Wi-Fi intercom stations are at entrances, in the car parks, security zones and refuge areas. The product company says that the breadth of the CAP IP offering meant that the client was able to choose a model for each location in various parts of the stadium, as well as across the overall complex, which includes office space, a leisure centre, museum and restaurants. Where there is a need for constant access by staff and authorised third parties, the stadium uses stations with built-in proximity readers. Access privileges can be adjusted on match days.

Castel supplied its XELLIP Server Max, a full SIP intercom server to manage simultaneous audio or audio-video SIP calls. Calls and videos can be recorded and retained on a dedicated 1TB hard-drive partition. Ethernet network connection is achieved using 802.1X protocol (RADIUS) and there is integration with Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). Castel also enables SIP Intercom integration with Skype for Business.
The embedded web server allows monitoring and operation from any browser, but in the Lyon application there is centralised management by Security Center, the management platform from Genetec. Castel and Genetec recently formed a technical alliance that gives security staff situational awareness, meaning they are able to identify, process and understand the critical elements of information about what is going on around them.

Also fitted are Castel’s full IP/SIP master stations. XE Desk-Screen V-P stations are used in central areas, including the security control room. They feature a colour video camera for two-way video communication, for use if for example a visitor calling from an entry station requires assistance in navigating the 50-hectare site. The master stations have 4.3-inch TFT touchscreens with numerical keypads and function keys as well as four programmable keys.

Atmane Bensghir is Business Development Manager UK and Ireland at Castel. He said: “The Lyon stadium is a new chapter in sports technology and Castel’s commitment to open systems contributed to the innovations. Current best practice shows that IT and intercom no longer need to be separated. Agile and adaptable vendors achieve convergence for their clients.”

App for refreshments

The structural engineer for the Parc Olympique is the contractor VINCI, which is based in Paris, while the architect is the global practice, Populous, which specialises in sports. Lyon fans use a Microsoft app to select their seats, review highlights in play or order food and drink from digitally connected sales outlets.

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