30 January 2014

Over a Grand Prix weekend, Silverstone’s network has to be capable of delivering reliable services to over 4,000 users and 600 media personnel simultaneously.

When the rights to host the British Grand Prix for seventeen years were awarded to Silverstone at the start of 2009, it triggered a wave of investment to ensure that the quality of the circuit’s facilities matched its position at the forefront of global motor sport.

Central to this is the new Silverstone Wing. This comprises 41 garages along the pit lane, race control, a media centre, new podium, corporate hospitality and VIP spectator areas, as well as conference and exhibition facilities. 

The development of the pit and paddock area gave Silverstone’s owners the opportunity to design and specify a network infrastructure to meet the specific needs of the demanding environment in which its operates. But this presented two key challenges, as IT manager Kevin O’Brien explains:

“We need to have a highly flexible network, capable of being quickly configured to support the changing use of the space, depending on the event, whilst handling large peaks in numbers of users.

“We also need a robust extremely reliable network – although 100,000 spectators will be at the track to watch a Grand Prix, millions more will be following the race worldwide. The public perception of the major events we stage is gained through the media who in turn rely on our network to send and receive information, reports and images to the wider world. As such, the network really is a mission critical component of our operation.”

Silverstone hosts around 30 events a year including major national races. Whilst a large national event may require network access for 2,000 users and 100 media, over a Grand Prix weekend the network has to be capable of delivering reliable services to in excess of 4,000 users and 600 media personnel simultaneously.

Working with ICS, its long term infrastructure partner, Silverstone engineers flood wired a 1,600 point Cat 6 copper network on a grid layout, complemented with 35 Wi-Fi access points. ICS completed the project using HellermannTyton Global Category 6 panels, LSOH cable and Gigaband outlets. 

“The fixed network is the core of our infrastructure,” says O’Brien. “Whilst wireless gives us the flexibility to meet many of our users’ requirements, the Cat 6 wired network gives us the capacity and confidence to deliver ultra reliable services including VoIP. It also ensures the building infrastructure will support future demands as yet unplanned, such as IPTV.”

Future plans for the site include a manufacturer test centre, business park, hotels and a new university campus.