Payanini Center: IoT in Italy's first rugby stadium

The context

Opened in 2018, the Payanini Center is the home of rugby in Verona. The multi-purpose centre hosts the official Verona Rugby team and is open 7 days a week, a place where sport meets community life.

It grew out of the ambition of Raffaella Vittadello, entrepreneur and president of Verona Rugby, to spread rugby culture through the city's sporting landscape with a state-of-the-art venue inspired by the most innovative European stadiums. From the earliest stages of construction, management involved Maxfone's innovation managers, already responsible for connectivity at Payanini S.r.l., to design and build the IoT and connectivity infrastructure across around 80,000 square metres of pitches, medical rooms, gym, club house, panoramic terrace and outdoor trails.

The project

Maxfone supplied and built the entire networking infrastructure, carrying high-performance internet and voice data to every area, pitch and stands included. The technologies include Wi-Fi and wired network access points, ultra-broadband, 100 megabit optical fibre access and FTTH lines up to 1 gigabit, plus telephone lines and physical switchboards.

The communication systems are varied and tailored, so they cover the needs of everyone using the spaces, whether for sport, for business events or for time spent together.

The results

The Payanini Center is home to rugby's rising stars: young people who study in the Academy, train on the pitches and treat the stadium as their own house. Pervasive connectivity underpins the activities organised for them and for the venue's other guests, from events to live matches, from game performance applications to running the catering areas and the gym. The same connectivity keeps the security, access control, video surveillance and LED signage systems working properly.

What comes next

Across an area of around 80,000 square metres, the project's goal is full coverage of every indoor and outdoor space in the centre. Maxfone keeps tracking the technologies available on the market, so guests and supporters get access solutions that stay current.