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HP’s Stadium Technology For The Dallas Cowboys

The Dallas Cowboys [1] have deployed HP [2] Converged Infrastructure technology in the state-of-the-art data center that powers Cowboys Stadium [3] in Arlington, Texas.

The world-famous Cowboys Stadium hosts the Dallas Cowboys Football Club as well as high-profile concerts, conferences and sporting events – including the annual AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic [4], the upcoming Super Bowl XLV [5] on Feb. 6 and the 2014 NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four.

With events drawing crowds as large as 100,000 attendees, Cowboys Stadium requires a high-performing and reliable system. HP technology allows the stadium to achieve continuity of services, including more than 3,000 onsite video screens that televise the game and advertisements.

Additionally, the infrastructure operates all of the electronic ticket scanners, concessions sales and electronic menus.

“From the merchandising and concession system to the handheld wireless ticket scanning application, everything in this new building is tied to technology,” said Pete Walsh, director, Information Technology, Dallas Cowboys. “Deploying HP Converged Infrastructure has not only helped our new stadium increase revenue, but also allows us to deliver the ultimate pro football celebration to our fans worldwide.”

HP Converged Infrastructure architecture provides a blueprint for franchises like the Cowboys to create advanced data center environments and make technology a key differentiator for their businesses. The datacenter at the previous Dallas Cowboys home, Texas Stadium, was a one-application-per-server model, which strained technology resources.HP solutions allowed the Cowboys to eliminate technology silos and integrate data center components into shared pools of interoperable resources.

For Cowboys Stadium, HP developed a shared infrastructure that efficiently supports operations on the field, while cost-effectively managing the lighting, wireless services and video screens. The HP infrastructure also powers the largest high-definition television in the world centered directly above the field to improve the customer experience and ensure fans don’t miss any of the action. (The $40 million video board configuration has 30 million light bulbs and 25,000 square feet of video displays. Weighing 600 tons, the screens are suspended 90′ directly over the center of the playing surface and stretch from nearly one 20-yard line to the other. The four-sided, center-hung structure, a first for an NFL stadium, consists of four Mitsubishi [6] Electric Diamond Vision video displays.)

“The Dallas Cowboys needed an IT infrastructure for their new stadium that would help increase revenue, enhance innovation and enable it tohost some of the world’s largest sporting events,”
says Bethany Mayer, vice-president, worldwide marketing and alliances, enterprise servers, storage and networking, HP. “By choosing HP Converged Infrastructure to manage their entire IT environment, the Cowboys have one of the most technologically advanced stadiums in the league, which will be able to support future growth for many years to come.”

The HP BladeSystem architecture, which decreases the footprint at the stadium from 500 rack-mount servers to 250 blade systems, streamlines operations and increases energy efficiency. HP Virtual Connect modules manage the physical and virtual servers to allow faster infrastructure changes, consolidate network equipment while reducing operating costs,and manage the physical and virtual servers from a single interface. The addition of HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Arrays enables the technology to improve flexibility and responsiveness, while managing risk.

For upcoming events, Cowboys Stadium will use HP BladeSystem Matrix to add capacity, further accelerate service delivery via increased automation and simplify planning to accommodate the maximum capacity of attendees.

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1 Comment To "HP’s Stadium Technology For The Dallas Cowboys"

#1 Comment By Bryan Crotaz On 4 February 2011 @ 10:59 @499

30 million light bulbs? Not LED then?

And wasn’t all the lighting etc controlled by AMX according to a previous story?