Europe's Latest Venue to Benefit from VoIP

Hasselt, Belgium 28th November 2004

Tennis stars Martina Hingis and Kim Clijsters opened the new 16,000 seater Ethias Arena in Hasselt, Belgium during the inaugural Gaz de France Stars tennis tournament on September 27th 2004.

Grenslandhallen set out to create one of the largest venues for events in Europe to host concerts, conferences and exhibitions. The whole project took less than six months to complete from original planning to final completion.

One of their key requirements was flexibility in the layout of the voice and data infrastructure. Following a long consultation and evaluation process with Essec Telecom Systems the decision was made to adopt a Voice over IP solution supported by a UNITe IP 400 system.

The administration team now uses Avanti stations whilst all other extension users across the hall are provided with a 3015IP phone supported by the UNITe’s Tvse Server. The benefit being that these phones can be plugged into any point around the hall and given an ID code. Grenslandhallen had also specified the provision of a wireless LAN across the hall with access points providing full coverage. Essec capitalized on this fact and now many of the IP phones are connected over the wireless LAN providing a true ‘plug and play’ scenario. The ‘call through’ functionality is also being used which provides authorized cell phone users with a cost effective outbound dialling solution for long distance and international calls.

So next time Robbie Williams, Pavarotti or another artist performs in Belgium; or Lleyton Hewitt plays in a Masters tournament, you can be sure that they’ll be communicating over a UNITe IP phone.

Some more facts about the Ethias Arena:

22.235m² floor surface
300 km electric wiring
40 km glass fibre
13 km network wiring
16,000 platform seating capacity
25,000 standing capacity
Walking distance around the complex: 1,2 km

For more information of the Ethias Arena see: http://www.ethiasarena.be

For more information on Essec Telecom Systems see: http://www.essec.be