Extreme Networks strikes gold at Olympiastadion Berlin as official Wi-Fi solutions provider

Infrastructure company Extreme Networks has been selected as the official Wi-Fi solutions provider for the Olympiastadion Berlin in Germany, aiming to provide enhanced fan experiences at major events such as the UEFA 2024 European Football Championship.

The historic arena opened on 1 August 1936 and is one of the largest stadiums in Germany for international football matches. Currently the home of the Hertha BSC Bundesliga football team, it has been the annual venue for the DFB Cup finals since 1985, and the DFB Cup women’s teams also played their final here up to and including 2009.

Among other events, the Olympiastadion Berlin hosted the 2006 FIFA World Cup final, the 12th IAAF World Athletics Championships in 2009, the opening game of the sixth FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2011 and the UEFA Champions League final in 2015.

Also, the biggest concerts in Berlin take place every year in the Olympiastadion, such as the Lollapalooza music festival in cooperation with the Olympiapark Berlin. Since its reopening in August 2004, about 300,000 visitors a year from all over the world attend the Olympiastadion on non-event days, turning the stadium into one of Berlin’s top attractions.

The deployment of Wi-Fi 6 at the stadium by Extreme – together with longstanding partner PKN Datenkommunikations – will be the first and largest public deployment of the new wireless technology in a European stadium, enabling the venue to meet the most demanding connectivity requirements of spectators, staff and media attending football tournaments, concerts and international sporting events for years to come. It will also support mission-critical operations and back-of-house systems.

The network has been constructed to meet the standards of UEFA’s stringent venue and networking infrastructure requirements and offer a high-performance, enhanced fan experience. ExtremeSwitching and ExtremeWireless Technologies will be deployed at more than 1,000 access points throughout the 74,475-seat stadium and surrounding area, to what is claimed to be seamless, secure Wi-Fi connectivity and stronger connections for real-time social media sharing, video streaming and mobile app usage, including point-of-sale applications and mobile ticketing.

The deployment will also offer the possibility for the stadium to design, build, manage and troubleshoot networks, providing a simple, agile way for IT to deploy new services. This includes the automatic configuration of new access points and the ability to segment the network to secure the experience of business users and fans. Onboarding and analytics software will give spectators seamless access to guest Wi-Fi services with a simple login process and built-in social media integrations.

On-premise management software will enable Olympiastadion Berlin to manage its infrastructure via a single pane of glass across virtualised and cloud environments, providing the IT team with full visibility of the network and simplifying the process to deploy, scale and manage services, thereby delivering improved uptime.

Real-time insights and analytics will show how users, devices and applications interact with the Wi-Fi network. Access to such visitor data will allow Olympiastadion Berlin to gain valuable usage insights and optimise network capabilities to enhance experiences for spectators and staff.

“A key requirement for state-of-the-art venues like ours is reliable, fast and secure wireless network connectivity for tens of thousands of simultaneous users,” said Olympiastadion CEO Berlin Timo Rohwedder. “Extreme has an outstanding pedigree when it comes to solutions and services that deliver safe, high-quality, connected in-venue experiences, and it fully met our high expectations.

“With our new, high-density Wi-Fi 6 network, we can introduce new advanced technologies, such as touchless and cashless payment systems, and are set to continue welcoming some of the biggest names in sport and entertainment to our venue while offering visitors an incredible experience all around.”