easyNetworks get AFC Bournemouth Premiership ready
Project Brief
Upgrade IT infrastructure for stadium following promotion to the Premier League
Project Overview
April 2015, The Cherries achieved the impossible, promotion to top flight football in the Premiership. Their stadium needed an upgrade to meet the exacting requirements of the Premier League. The requirements were many; underground pitch heating, upgrade flood lighting, backup power, goal line technology, player tracking, digital perimeter advertising, and the list goes on. In the Premiership, their stadium will be the attention of the world’s press so the requirements for media were exhaustive.
So the club sat down with easyNetworks and Medhurst Computers of Fareham to start analysing the requirements. Medhurst would supply their new switch and WiFi infrastructure. easyNetworks would provide new structured wiring, upgrade their Alcatel-Lucent VoIP telephone system and provide specialist audio visual services for professional broadcasting. easyNetworks and Medhurst have worked successfully together for many years and this excellent working relationship was paramount with the delivery of this project.
The window for project delivery was just a few months. During installation, it became apparent their comms room required a re-design. Richard Gwilliam, Managing Director at easyNetworks commented “An overhaul of the comms room was becoming the elephant in the room, nobody really wanted the extra pressure of stripping and rebuilding the comms room in what was already a challenging project – but it was a job that needed to be done”.
Richard Poole, IT Manager at AFC Bournemouth added “It took 9 Engineers, 3 days and lots of pizza, got us from where we were to where we wanted to be. Since upgrading the comms room it has become very manageable and very presentable.” Richard Poole added “Since upgrading our telecoms to VoIP, it has become more cost effective and the insights allow us to enhance other areas of the business”.