University of Washington, Husky Stadium

Stadium Renovation Calls For Modern Technology To Support 21st Century Sports Broadcasting

When the University of Washington’s Intercollegiate Athletics (ICA) renovated their iconic Husky Stadium football stadium, they sought bringing the stadium into the 21st century in terms of its technology systems. The backbone of the technology renovation was the implementation of a broadcast infrastructure systems using stand-alone IT network, including Cisco routing and PoE switch technology for the IPTV, security and other network systems.

Working with the Harris Corporation, Diversified designed, installed, project managed and commissioned the system, providing more than 60 switches, a redundant core, hundreds of wireless access points, wireless controllers, and VPN firewall and access control. Diversified also built out all necessary infrastructure needs for all point-ofsale (POS) kiosks, ticketing, building control, access control, CCTV, audio and video—both wired and wireless. The back-end systems also power the multi-cast IPTV feed to more than 1,800 displays. The large overhanging displays and ribbon boards circling the field are courtesy of the transport stream integrated by Diversified.

While Diversified can’t take credit for any of the football team’s victories, the network also powers the ultimate wireless coaching system by XOS Digital. This system includes scouting information, playbook and video exchange, enabling coaches to create and manage thousands of play diagrams over real-time video on their iPads.

Also of note is the fiber interconnect from Husky Stadium to the existing control room in the nearby Alaska Airlines basketball arena. And, in an earlier, separate but connected project, Diversified provided the design, installation and commissioning of the broadcast infrastructure systems and IPTV, network and communications extension to the new Husky Ballpark baseball stadium. Again, connecting the ballpark to ICA’s core network and pre-existing control room in the basketball arena.

Both projects were fast-tracked with limited timeframes for implementation.