Intelligent CIO Europe Issue 89 | Page 55

CASE STUDY

Founded in 1905, FSV Mainz05 currently has 1,100 employees and more than 20,000 members. The professional soccer team has been a fixture in Germany’ s Bundesliga for the past 20 years.

Since 2011, the club has been playing its home games in the Mewa Arena, a modern football stadium that is also used for major events. Even a‘ normal’ company of this size needs an extensive IT team. A modern professional football club has special needs that require even more technology, personnel and expertise. the gates, video analysis systems for halftime talks in locker rooms, cash registers at bratwurst stands, floodlights, Wi-Fi and the club’ s radio.
Lippert and his team are, of course, also responsible for the traditional IT environment, i. e., the network and the infrastructure with its devices, applications, VMware and storage systems.
The requirement: A comprehensive monitoring system
Karsten Lippert, Head of ICT and Digitalisation at Mainz05, is in charge of the club’ s stadium technology and IT. His title alone is a sign that digitalisation has become a part of everyday life in the world of professional football. In short, a game would not even be possible today without properly functioning IT. IT controls and monitors just about everything at the stadium, from advance ticket sales to admission at
In Germany, professional football clubs work with the German Football League( DFL), which imposes extremely strict regulations on the operations at stadiums. The first requirements take effect four days before the day of a game. In total, the DFL requires Mainz05 to successfully complete around 100 checks. These include the ISMA network for providing video analysts with camera feeds, the turnstiles for controlling

IN NO TIME AT ALL, WE WERE ABLE TO DEVELOP OUR OWN DASHBOARDS

AND EXTENSIONS FOR PRTG.

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