Al Janoub Stadium in Al Wakrah City, the latest FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 stadium to be launched, is one of the most technologically advanced arenas of its type in the world.
Al Janoub Stadium was showcased for the first time when it hosted the 2019 Amir Cup final between Al Duhail and Al Sadd in May.
The 40,000-capacity venue, designed by legendary architect Zaha Hadid, boasts state-of-the-art information technology and communications (ICT) features for the benefit of fans, players, officials and media.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy highlighted the five key ICT innovations at the stadium. They are Wi-Fi services, 5G connectivity, light and sound, Sports in a Box infrastructure, and integrated safety and security systems.
More than 1,000 Wi-Fi access points are deployed across the stadium to enable high-density connectivity for fans and the operations team. During the Amir Cup final, the peak bandwidth consumption reached 2GB and served more than 8,500 devices simultaneously – more than twice the overall wireless associations recorded in similar stadiums around the world. More than 2.2TB of data was transferred over the Wi-Fi system during the final.
Al Janoub Stadium is one of the first stadiums in the world to be equipped with 5G mobile communications signals that cover the entire spectator area. During the final, signal speeds in excess of 1GB were recorded. The indoor building solutions provided full strength mobile signals across the stadium, transferring more than 6TB of data during the final.
Smart LED lights within the stadium were programmed for light show effects during the opening ceremony. The entire event fully utilised the stadium sound system, which consists of 42 loudspeaker systems, with no additional overlay sound systems deployed. Integration between light and sound systems provided full synchronisation in real-time to produce stadium hype effects, without the need for any pre-programming.
The innovative Sports in a Box infrastructure is deployed to run the applications, servers and security infrastructure for the stadium with full redundancy. Sports in a Box is a technology concept being piloted by Qatar's Aspire Zone Foundation in partnership with DELL Technologies to introduce compact, scalable and portable ICT infrastructure deployment for on-the-field specific needs of the global sports industry.
More than 1,200 CCTV cameras are deployed within the stadium and its vicinity to support surveillance operations. 40 high megapixel cameras provided full coverage of the entire spectator area during the final. The stadium Spectator Access Control System is equipped with 83 turnstiles with a total system capacity of 63,900 passages per hour. The peak passages per hour recorded during the final was 20,000 – 31% of the total system capacity.
