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EDITOR’ S NOTE
Greetings to the readers of Intelligent CIO Middle East. One of the most compelling use cases for mobile applications and networking performance scale outs is spectator sports and stadium sports. Both 5G for telecom operators and Wi-Fi 7 for local and wide area networks are the latest platforms to host streaming video, mobile dashboard refreshes in real time, and social media image and video uploads and refreshes.
This is particularly true for the GCC region that recently staged the FIFA World Cup in Doha, the ongoing annual Formula 1 series in multiple GCC cities, and the future FIFA World Cup in Riyadh.
In this months cover feature we present how Riyadh based Al-Nassr FC, football club is adopting the HPE Aruba Networking solution stack to implement a Wi-Fi 7 networking environment, creating a smart sports campus. It is transforming its stadium, training, medical, media, and fan facilities into a wireless-first environment, built on HPE Aruba Networking.
Inside Al-Nassr club, everything is now wireless, from media cameras to the sensors carrying players’ biometrics. All food and beverage outlets are connected to the network, and all administrative staff enjoy complete workplace mobility.
Attending fans can stream content on their smartphones within the stadium. The wireless network allows Al-Nassr to extend and add connectivity to new parts of the campus as it is built up. HPE Aruba Networking Central enables the club to dial up bandwidth as needed.
We have 300 to 400 people connecting to the network on quiet days, but that number jumps to more than 10,000 on match days, says Faisal Khan at Al-Nassr FC.
Using sensors, individual player performance is monitored throughout the training and matches as well, producing an unparalleled amount of biometric data. This data is used to inform diet, recovery times, and bespoke training regimes.
Al Nassr believes no other club in the league is working with this level of detail and believes it is creating a competitive advantage on the field.
Turn these pages to read more about the adoption of digital and business transformation across leading regional enterprises.
And in this month’ s Editor’ s Question, executives from Cloud Box, Fortinet, Omnix share their answers about how regional enterprises can leverage the growing number of managed service providers? Which IT services should be outsourced to managed service providers, and which should be kept inhouse?
Wishing you the best of business success in the summer months ahead.
Arun Shankar Managing Editor arun @ lynchpinmedia. com
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