Zeetta Networks announced today that it has won a contract as part of the first of a kind deployment of innovation-SRI competition to manage Ashton Gate’s high-density Wi-Fi network.

Head of IT Projects at Bristol Sport, Paul Lipscombe is delighted with the development: “we pride ourselves on the stadium being a live test lab for our vendors and solutions providers, to be able to develop their products and bring them to market quicker in a real world environment.”

“This has the added bonus of keeping us on the cutting edge of technology within stadia, at a lower cost for all,” he added.

The project will provide a large scale demonstration of the capabilities and commercial potential of NetOS® (network operating system) at Ashton Gate by managing a complex ICT network in a dynamic and future-proof way using cutting-edge technology.

“From a network perspective and for new services provided by IT, NetOS allows us to build a fully programmable stadium, treating the network almost as a Business App, when it comes to dynamically reconfiguring it for a growing multitude of demands and new services,” Lipscombe continues. 

“On the back of NetOS being deployed we have started to receive a number of proposals for trials of new innovative solutions, Innovate UK funding is the first of these.

“This is an exciting time at Ashton Gate and we are constantly driving towards being a true SMART stadium.”

As part of the Ashton Gate stadium deployment, Zeetta will also develop key network applications running on top of NetOS® which satisfy the needs of the stadium’s operating teams, fans and security services.

Martin Griffiths, Bristol Sport Chairman commented: “From the outset we have had a vision of Ashton Gate being at the leading edge in new technology to make this a truly digital stadium.

“We share this vision with Zeetta Networks, a technology business spun out from Bristol University.

“Zeetta’s vision to deploy NetOS® as a network “orchestrator” from a control centre (without needing to manually intervene with routers and switches) has the potential to be a game changer in stadium management and we welcome the opportunity to be the pioneering site where this Bristol-grown technology is tested and validated.”