The DP World Wanderers Stadium has announced its latest development – the transformation into a cutting-edge ‘smart venue’, poised to redefine the fan experience.
This project also ushers in a new era of digitization, aligning itself with the vision of becoming South Africa’s premier smart stadium.
“Spanning two months, we’ve constructed a state-of-the-art, fully managed, and highly customizable wi-fi network,” said Lions Cricket CEO Jono Leaf-Wright. “This network, supported by a bespoke fibre and copper infrastructure, blankets the entire stadium, facilitating the deployment of the fully managed wi-fi network. This transformation positions the stadium amongst the global leaders in the realm of smart venues dedicated to sports and entertainment.”
The project extends beyond the installation of wi-fi. The DP World Wanderers Stadium has made a resounding commitment to digitalization by investing in a state-of-the-art fully managed on-site IT Operations Centre (ITOC). The ITOC team not only oversees the stadium’s wi-fi network, but also provides comprehensive end-user support to fans, suite-holders and tenants during match days, events and on a day to day basis.
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By centralizing these functions within the dedicated ITOC, the DP World Wanderers Stadium can efficiently manage and enhance its digital capabilities, ensuring that fans and tenants enjoy a world-class digital experience.
But the stadium’s journey towards digitization doesn’t stop there.
Over the coming months and future seasons, the DP World Wanderers Stadium plans to enhance and introduce an array of initiatives. These include but are not limited to in-suite and in-seat ordering through the stadium’s digital channels, as well as enhancements to its existing QR-based seat and location finder, which helps you precisely find your location and route within the stadium.
This tool that is currently deployed throughout the stadium is designed and managed by Macrocomm, which is one of the sponsors to the DP World Wanderers Stadium.
“As the premier home of cricket in the country, this stadium is proud to stand as a beacon of sports and entertainment excellence,” said Leaf-Wright. “The stadium’s unwavering focus on enhancing the fan experience drives its continued investment in digitalization, ensuring spectators can effortlessly connect to the free wi-fi network and enjoy uninterrupted connectivity during events.”
In addition, the stadium is busy finalizing a bespoke mobile application designed to further
elevate fan and tenant engagement. The stadium’s management team are working on rolling out smart resource monitoring tools to optimize operations and ensure seamless experiences.
This venture has been made possible thanks to Telkom SA, another sponsor of the DP World Wanderers Stadium. They have provided a scalable and redundant fully-managed fibre internet breakout, which forms the backbone of the stadium’s connectivity requirements.
Telkom SA are responsible for the recent completion of a successful 5G network rollout, positioning the DP World Wanderers as the first 5G stadium in the country.
