Where Football Meets Technology: A Next-Level Stadium Experience for 15,600 Fans

On match days, the Generali Arena—the home stadium of FK Austria Wien—bursts into life. Some fifteen thousand six hundred fans roar in unison as the giant screen lights up with instant replays of spectacular goals. Guests in the VIP boxes watch multi-angle tactical breakdowns via live streams, while others capture the thrill on Instagram: "Goal! Austria forever!" This scene should have been the perfect snapshot of football in the digital age. Yet, not long ago, it often ended with a frustrating "Loading…" screen.

As tens of thousands of fans flood into the stadium, they flock to TikTok, Instagram, and other video platforms to share goal highlights and live scenes in real time. These moments put enormous strain on the network's concurrency capacity and bandwidth. Too often, the existing network infrastructure falters, and the moment that should have gone viral instantly loses its impact.

Passion Is Overflowing, but the Network Simply Fails to Keep Pace.

Founded in 1910, FK Austria Wien has grown into one of the most storied and successful clubs in the Austrian Bundesliga. For more than a century, it has nurtured legends such as Matthias Sindelar—celebrated as one of the greatest players in Austria's football history, renowned for his skill and achievements. Today, however, fans capture and share moments of glory across multiple devices, matches are streamed live in high definition (HD), and coaches access tactical data within seconds. These digital matchday experience demands put huge strain on the legacy stadium network of this century-old club, calling for an upgraded network fit for the new era.

For a typical office building, a thousand concurrent users would stretch the limits of the network. But the challenge is far greater at FK Austria Wien's home stadium, where the Austrian Bundesliga and UEFA Champions League matches ignite the passion of fans. Within hours, approximately 15,600 supporters all connect to the same wireless network as they cheer on their team. As video services surge, the stadium's legacy Wi-Fi network struggled with bandwidth shortages, complex operations, and difficult fault localization. The answer is not a simple hardware refresh, but a complete solution that delivers high-density access, all-scenario seamless coverage, intelligent O&M, and energy efficiency.

"Shoulder-to-Shoulder" Cooperation with Huawei Ensures the Passion of Fans Is Delivered Seamlessly Without Delays in the Digital Age.

After carefully reviewing multiple options, FK Austria Wien ultimately chose Huawei's Xinghe AI Campus Solution. Powered by Huawei's all-scenario AirEngine Wi-Fi 7 Access Points (APs), feature-rich CloudEngine S5755-H switches, and iMaster NCE-Campus intelligent management platform, this solution has upgraded everything from service experience to infrastructure and daily operations. It has helped Generali Arena transform into a faster, smarter, and greener digital stadium that powers every moment of fan passion.

• AirEngine Wi-Fi 7 high-density APs ensure seamless coverage without blind spots.

It's a common misunderstanding that addressing high concurrency issues simply means adding more devices like APs. However, blindly increasing APs is like players running chaotically around the pitch—it only leads to interference and "own goals." The key lies in precise network planning, just like a top coach formulating tactics. Huawei's team used the WLAN Planner tool to analyze the stadium architecture, seating layout, and crowd heat maps, and then calculate the optimal AP placement, antenna angles, and channel allocation. The result was seamless, blind-spot-free coverage—from stands, corridors, and restrooms to underground parking and VIP boxes. Just like the smooth teamwork between players, it ensured uninterrupted connectivity everywhere.

AirEngine Wi Fi 7 brings three major breakthroughs that turbocharge the network: higher bandwidth, lower latency, and stronger anti interference. Real world tests have shown that single user access speeds soar from 100 Mbps to 500 Mbps. Plus, 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands are deployed in a staggered way to open up dedicated high speed channels. In this way, when players score a wonder goal and fans rush to share the moment, the system acts like an intelligent midfielder—dynamically balancing the load while reserving exclusive bandwidth for critical services such as live broadcasting and stadium screens. As a result, every data packet flows without congestion. Today, even when 15,600 fans share the thrill of a goal simultaneously, the experience remains smooth and uninterrupted—lag and disconnections are a thing of the past.

• Intelligent O&M enables the network to anticipate risks like a "champion coach."

In the past, network failures were like "sudden injuries" on the pitch, and the Operations and Maintenance (O&M) team could only respond with emergency "first aid"—checking switches, inspecting APs, and testing terminals layer by layer. Troubleshooting often took hours, causing them to miss many exciting match moments.

Today, the stadium has built a "digital twin" of its network through Huawei's iMaster NCE-Campus, like equipping the network with a panoramic tactics board. On the control room's big screen, the O&M team can see in real time each AP's load status, user density and traffic trends across zones, and the network quality of critical services such as broadcasting, ticketing, and security.

The system can even issue early warnings of potential risks, like abnormal AP temperature or sudden traffic spikes in a specific area. IT staff can intervene proactively before issues occur, shifting from "firefighting" to "fire prevention" and keeping the network in prime condition at all times.

• Energy saving makes every cheer count.

A stadium is not always at full capacity. During regular training sessions or small events, running all equipment at full power would be a huge waste. Huawei's solution, with its built-in tidal prediction algorithm, has efficiently addressed this challenge. By leveraging real-time crowd data, it dynamically adjusts the operating status of APs. Field test results have shown that this intelligent energy-saving strategy helps the club reduce network energy consumption by about 30%, cutting operating costs while promoting green practices—an additional benefit of this collaboration.

Passion Goes Beyond the Pitch, While Elevated Experience Is the Ultimate Goal.

Today, the Generali Arena is far more than just a place to play football—it has become a high-speed, intelligent, and vibrant hub of passion. When players make a brilliant assist, fans instantly share videos to celebrate, and the excitement on social platforms mirrors the roar inside the arena.

Broadcast teams rely on the low-latency network to switch between multiple camera angles and ensure efficient data transmission, capturing every run and every pass in crystal-clear detail. Meanwhile, the commercial operations team leverages network behavior analytics to optimize catering flows and advertising placement, so that fans not only enjoy the thrill of the match, but also benefit from more convenient services.

"As the number of spectators and members keeps climbing, digital fan services are becoming more important than ever," said Johannes Dobretsberger, Marketing Director at the FK Austria Wien. "Deploying AirEngine Wi-Fi 7 at scale across the Generali Arena is a key move forward. It ensures reliable performance even when every seat is filled, enhances the digital fan journey, and unlocks new opportunities for events and marketing."

Innovative, future-oriented applications such as low latency video transmission and Augmented Reality (AR) multi angle viewing are already being planned. This means fans will be able to switch to a player's perspective to experience every dribble and access real-time data such as heart rate and running distance. This will transform the match experience from mere watching to full immersion, and establish a future-proof, integrated stadium network ecosystem that unites connectivity, O&M, and fan experience.

Huawei's Xinghe AI Campus Solution goes far beyond fixing network problems. Most importantly, it drives stadiums into a new age of smart venues focused on user experience, where every moment of passion is unleashed without technological barriers.

About a hundred years ago, Matthias Sindelar made history on the pitch with dazzling dribbles and strikes. Today, FK Austria Wien is leveraging Huawei Wi Fi 7 to ensure every passionate cheer is transmitted without delay and every legendary moment is captured with precision. On the digital pitch, a historic club and a global tech leader march shoulder to shoulder, redefining what it means to be passionate about football.