Sports, Media, and Entertainment

A one-team approach to success

As the custodians of what is regarded as one of Australia’s most significant cultural icons, the Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) has the eyes of a nation watching. The statistics demonstrate the scale of that responsibility.

Built as the home of the Melbourne Cricket Club in 1853, the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) is an Australian and global icon for sporting greatness. With a current capacity of 100,024, it is also the largest stadium in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere.

It is also one of the most loved, located in a city with probably the world’s most devoted fans— 288,000 fans turned up to see Taylor Swift over three nights.

With this much pressure bearing down, when the small IT team laid out their Smart Stadium 2.0 vision, they knew they couldn’t just think big, they had to think huge! The stated aim was to achieve a stadium-wide upgrade to the IT infrastructure to secure the digital future of the MCG, and the life-changing experiences of the fans. And, it had to be done in one year.

The MCC began by searching for the best technology available. Importantly, this was not to be a multi-vendor approach; it was a deliberate search for one vendor, one team who could deliver it all, end-to-end. The reason? There’s too much riding on the technology for the fans, the teams, the partners, and the broadcasters, to have a patchwork of vendors with differing responsibilities. The MCC needed one team who was responsible for it all, accountable, and who could work with them 24/7 to ensure this sporting icon delivered, every second of every game, concert, or event.

The MCC chose Cisco for the lot: from Wi-Fi to data centers, security to collaboration, and underpinning it all—the network and the ability to control, automate, and manage it all, easily, reliably, and securely.

Aligned to the choice of technology was the choice of team. Cisco’s local team and partners, combined with their global expertise and resources, available 24/7, meant that the MCC’s small IT team grew overnight into a large always-on world-class team dedicated to their operations.

One last very important piece of the puzzle came with the choice of Cisco. Funding. The IT team’s vision of Smart Stadium 2.0 was a single program of work rolled out in a short time frame. But, given the nature of the MCC’s business and variable cashflow, it initially looked like a staggered multi-year rollout was the only option. That was until Cisco Capital provided the MCC with a zero-cost flexible funding option that delivered predictability across a five-year period and aligned payments to the usage of software licensing, services, and lifecycle of hardware.

The MCC board said “Yes” and Smart Stadium 2.0 became a reality.

What does end-to-end look like?

When you consider that the Melbourne Cricket Ground goes from empty to effectively being the fifth biggest city in the state of Victoria, understanding the MCC’s business is the starting point. Cisco’s keen understanding of how the MCG works, the business of stadiums worldwide, and the technology mix required, meant a range of solutions to manage this epic transformation.

Simple control was central to the MCC team’s requirements for enabling Smart Stadium 2.0. From a data center perspective, the solution was Cisco Nexus Dashboard, which enables the small team to oversee this vast facility from a single point of management, to power data center automation and analytics, and to troubleshoot with a unified, agile, and sustainable networking platform.

Aiding in simplifying both the running and the managing of the network is Cisco Catalyst Center. It allows the MCC team to design and provision policy through logical workflows, monitor end-to-end performance, and pinpoint any issues faster.

The MCC also needed a way to dramatically simplify and automate deployment of network devices to enable critical improvements such as making Wi-Fi a stadium-wide experience. Cisco Software-Defined Access (SDA) was the solution, allowing consistent wired and wireless security capabilities. This provided contextual user and device identification to implement security policies for access control and segmentation end-to-end. Today, Wi-Fi 6 with high-density coverage delivered via hyper-directional antennas is allowing fans to stream their experience, even from the middle of the oval.

Security was of course central to all decisions, and Cisco SD-Access allowed the MCC team zero-trust network access from the internet edge all the way to applications in the data center. With advanced threat protection, micro-segmentation, and full visibility with a security focus of what's going on across the network, this has been a game-changer.

And what would sports be without pictures? “Wipro’s VisionEDGE digital signage and IPTV platform powered by Cisco” is providing high-quality video that is easy to scale and centrally manage, and also seamlessly integrates with the network infrastructure. This has allowed for both enhanced fan engagement and additional revenue opportunities via more than 1100 screens.

This whole process would not be possible without incredible team communication and collaboration. Cisco Devices and the complete Webex suite is providing the team exceptional anywhere, anytime collaboration using these proven, innovative, and highly secure solutions underpinned by built-in AI-powered agent assistance.

What does end-to-end feel like?

Cisco understood that improving the fan experience—the core objective of the MCC—was predicated on the experience within the MCG and the in-stadium retail partners also improving. There had to be demonstrable, experiential improvements for all stakeholders. For MCC themselves, particularly the IT team, those results have been beyond expectations.

The small IT team is now a big team, with both the simplified management solutions and the on-call expertise to confidently manage this incredibly complex piece of infrastructure. The result is less stress and enhanced capacity, clearly shown in their ability to deploy over 10,000 devices in just two months in time for the season opening game. This would not have been possible without Cisco.

For the broader MCC team, being able to connect and collaborate with each other, with the public and their 140,000 members has been a huge boon to operations. The network has even enabled the launch of their MCG Express store and bar with “tap-and-go” facility for fans.

For the MCC Board, there is financial predictability combined with a new platform for the MCG’s operating future. It sets them up to make decisions that previously were not even on the table.

The MCG, aside from being a sporting ground, is also a giant shopping mall occupied by retail partners. There are 48 retail outlets, 52 bars, 23 dining spaces, and 110 corporate suites. Their operations are now Wi-Fi supported, stadium-wide. All of their point-of-sale devices work across a secure and resilient network. And the network even allows for partners, such as the sporting teams, to have their own segmented network for absolute privacy when devising game plans.

But for the people all of this intended for - the fans, the experience is out of this world. Getting in and out of the stadium is fast, secure, and simple. Wayfinding guides them to their seats. Over a thousand screens provide entertainment, replays, and information. The stadium lighting is synchronized to the screens to provide big-game moments. The retail outlets enabled by the network are able to offer additional services for faster and innovative offerings. And Wi-Fi is now available, everywhere - even on the oval during massive stadium events where the network has seen up to 47TB of data streamed in a single night.

This is just the start. The partnership between the MCC and Cisco is not just about today, it’s about what’s possible tomorrow—and this platform, the network, and the team are all about delivering one thing: an amazing experience.