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While demigods of soccer were displaying their brilliance on the field, telecom emerged the champion off field. The venue not only witnessed the convergence of 32 teams but also a convergence of voice and data governed by technologies like broadband, HDTV, 3G, mobile TV, RFID and the likes. There were four official technology partners-Avaya, Toshiba, Deutsche Telekom, and Yahoo.

There was as much action on and off the field. It is estimated that over 18 TB of data traveled across the largest converged voice and data network during the four weeks of play. Football fans across the globe were glued to the action in Germany, thanks to abundance of Internet access and mobile connectivity. Every moment of the action packed game was delivered to billions of desktop PCs, mobile handsets, radio and of course TV sets.

HDTV broadcasting by mobile trucks (Image courtesy: Euphonix)		The inside view of an HD broadcasting truck (image courtesy: Dome Productions)

Full Volley by Broadband
It was aptly called as the first 'Internet' World Cup. The official site, FIFAworldcup.com offered the match video clips free of charge and without the need for user registration. A unique feature of the FIFA video service was on-demand, searchable highlights that allowed fans to locate their favourite moments such as all the goals by their chosen team and their favorite player.

The broadband power was utilized to its maximum as fans enjoyed moments of victory and losses online while getting a taste of the atmosphere within the 12 German stadiums. BBC was at the forefront by streaming live coverage of all the games during FIFA World Cup to its UK subscribers. This gave the broadband-connected office workers the chance to watch World Cup games at their desks. Yahoo was the official Internet partner and hosted the event's official website. Google's online community on the event called Joga was an instant hit.

Back home, Sifymax provided highlights of FIFA World Cup 2006 in five different languages including Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam in addition to English.

HDTV Takes Center-stage
The 18th FIFA World Cup 2006 was the first ever to be produced entirely in HDTV. In comparison with the 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan, only 48 matches were produced in HDTV. The quality delivered by HDTV is far superior compared to the existing broadcast standards. This is because HDTV lets viewers watch motion pictures the way they were intended to be seen-on a wide 16/9 screen, one-third wider than today's 4/3 screens. More than 180 broadcasters worldwide broadcast the official video and audio “pool feed” of all 64 hotly contested matches.

Host Broadcast Services (HBS), the exclusive producer of the event for FIFA, used a minimum of 20 HDTV cameras at each match. In comparison with the 2002 FIFA World Cup, only 8 HDTV cameras were used per match. The HDTV technical standard used was HD-SDI 1080i / 50, a worldwide compatible standard. HBS also designed, build and supplied the 12 technical operations centers, one for each of the 12 venues. Each controls the signal flow at the venue. Some broadcasters employed their own production services of HD broadcasting trucks, parked alongside the World Cup stadium venues.

Huddle Power of Broadcast Engineering
A research study suggested that a cumulative audience of 5 bn people would watch the championship setting a record for the biggest TV audience ever. Undoubtedly, it was a field day for major broadcasters across the globe. Premiere in Germany, TPS in France, Sky Italia in Italy, Canal Digital in the Nordic and the BBC-all aired the games in high-definition. Euro1080 used Modulus Video MPEG-4 AVC encoders for World Cup coverage via satellite. ESPN HD, ABC HD and ESPN2 HD combined to present live coverage of all 64 matches.

PanAmSat used as many as 40 paths across nine satellites: PAS-1R, PAS-2, PAS-3R, PAS-4, PAS-8, PAS-9, PAS-12, Galaxy 3C and Galaxy 4R to deliver standard-definition and high-definition channels of World Cup coverage. GlobeCast also provided HD satellite coverage as a backup for the event, using capacity on Eutelsat's Eurobird 3 satellite at 33ş East. XM Satellite Radio was the official satellite radio network presenting a play-by-play of all 64 matches in both English and Spanish.

The International Broadcasting Center (IBC) in Munich was the nerve center for thousands of journalists, camera operators and technicians. The master control room (MCR) was the center-point where the images from all the cameras in the 12 stadiums arrived, via fiber-optic networks with a transmission rate of 480 GB per second.

MobileTV on Nokia N92 used for DVB-H trial in Germany

3G, Mobile TV Kick Off
Operators and vendors used the event as a test-bed, and showcased a new service, mobile broadcast TV. The event also saw a major thrust for 3G technologies, as mobile phones were used to relay messages, download content, as well as to record match highlights.

Mobile TV demos using DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld) were available through four German mobile operators. The DVB-H trials were mostly using Nokia N92 phones. While Samsung provided T-DMB phones to Debitel, one of Germany's largest cellular operators. T-Mobile was the only operator to stream 20 matches live to 3G cell phones.

A report by analysts Informa Telecoms & Media predicted the mobile television market to be worth $300m over the course of the tournament. Another study by Visiongain suggested, the one-month long tournament was likely to generate $6.3 bn in revenue, with text-based services and downloads, such as ring tones and logos.

Mobile subscribers had a wide platter of mobile content services to choose from. Mobile ESPN probably had the most comprehensive sports service, delivering news, scores, statistics, and headlines from ESPN and ESPN-2. Nokia had 'Online Scoreboard' a Java application for its mobiles. 'Yahoo World Cup On Your Mobile' and 'Google News' for mobile devices were widely available at no cost. Resco, a leading provider of end-user mobile applications, launched its mobile guide called World Cup Mobile for the SmartPhone owners who could view team rosters, stadium portraits, detailed match description, and other image rich features at the press of a button.

Telecom Enablers
Billing Services Group, a leading communications service industry's clearing and settlement provider was the exclusive roaming partner for all wireless operators in Germany including T-Mobile, O2 and Vodafone and E-Plus. According to BSG, its volume of transaction during the Cup grew by 50%. “World Cup related digital content were widely downloaded. We anticipated intense traffic volumes in largely unpredictable spikes for operators,” says Roland Josef Bopp, CEO, BSG. “So in addition to handling all voice clearing for 5 mn fans, the content providers required the clearing and settlement of an unprecedented amount of SMS and MMS messages among various service providers, all in real-time,” he explains. The operators relied heavily on BSG to process and clear all roaming transactions.

Cisco enabled Deutsche Telekom to launch next-generation communications kiosks where fans were provided a host of options at their disposal, including wireless Internet access, local news, video, and voice services. Varghese M Thomas, head, Corporate Communications, Cisco Systems - India & SAARC elaborates, “The kiosks were equipped with the 3,200 Series Cisco Mobile Access Router to enable advanced capabilities. The router is prepared to activate HotSpot services and acts as a gateway to a local phone company's existing ISDN lines, eliminating the need for costly infrastructure upgrades. The gateway enables VoIP services via DSL in the near future, for additional cost-savings.”

In addition to this, Cisco Systems in cooperation with T-Systems GmbH equipped the Commerzbank-Arena in Frankfurt with a completely new network infrastructure to provide data, Internet Protocol (IP) telephony and wireless services in time for the FIFA World Cup Germany 2006 tournament. “The system installation was completed within four weeks,” says Thomas. “The existing LAN, telephone system and WLAN were replaced with an end-to-end IP-based Cisco Unified Communications system. The new network infrastructure was designed to meet the high demands related to the event scale,” he added.

Nerves Behind The Glory

Avaya is credited with setting up the world's largest voice and data converged network for a sporting event-over 45,000 network connections, 30,000 network devices, spanning across the 12 host stadiums, international media centers at various venues and the FIFA's Berlin headquarters. Dough Gardner, MD, Avaya FIFA World Cup Program elaborates on the task carried out. The IT Command Centre connected by the converged network set up by Avaya How was the converged network useful for FIFA employees and the attendees? The IP based network was instrumental in supporting processes related to accreditation, reporting of match results, materials tracking, accommodation confirmations, transportation, ticketing and supported wireless data transfers like digital photos, among other critical functions. Hotels, airports and train stations were also part of the network that were used by fans, journalists and others to view the event.  The high-speed WLAN access from Avaya made connectivity easy and convenient for staff working temporarily in an area of the stadium or mobile location. As an extension to cellular solutions, calls between stadiums and other venues would go over the Avaya network providing substantial cost savings. How did you address the network security concerns? Avaya enabled FIFA to re-write its security policies. We conducted multiple network security assessments, in addition to designing, building, implementing the Network Intrusion Detection System (NIDS) for the World Cup. The NIDS could detect, in real-time, attempted attacks on the IT solution infrastructure by hackers, malware, and worms or viruses. The NIDS also analyzed data in real-time, and used forensic tools to analyze network attacks. What were the unique challenges faced while deploying Avaya's communication suites for the event?   The key challenges were speed of deployment, logistics, varied stadium infrastructures and communications between the staff and various FIFA partners. The network had to address the unique requirements of each location. For example, the stadium in Berlin is considered a historical site. So while mounting the equipment, we kept in mind certain restrictions. The network was also modular which meant that the stadiums go immediately offline as soon as the matches in each stadium got over. It was a challenge to ensure that despite one stadium going offline, the rest of the network ran flawless.  Several new Web-based applications (eg accreditation) also presented technological challenges. How did Avaya ensure the reliability of the network? FIFA's mandate for the overall system availability requirements was in excess of 99.9%. To ensure this, we delivered solutions with a high level of redundancy. The network underwent rigorous configuration, fail-over and resiliency testing since January. We deployed over 1000 edge switches. Added to this were the self-monitoring and self-healing capabilities of our network management solutions that allow resolving 96% of alarms remotely. Avaya also teamed up with partners like Extreme Networks who provided core data switches that added resiliency and security and delivered continuous uptime.

On the Mark
Occurring once in four years, the FIFA World Cup is expected to show more technological advances by 2010. As the market heats up post-football,  broadcast mobile TV will take over. And it's predicted there will be 210 mn viewers of the small screen by 2011. Irrespective of which team lifts the World Cup Champion's Trophy, telecommunications digs in firmly in the boots of glory.

Malovika Rao
malovikar@cybermedia.co.in

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