The Birmingham Organising Committee for the Commonwealth Games 2022 is seeking suppliers to help them created a low latency infrastructure to help run key telecommunication aspects of the event, putting out an initial market engagement notice for suppliers this week.
While the committee is seeking information on the creation of a mobile voice and data service to support the day-to-day operations of the games, it also requires some heavy duty suppliers to lay down (and, it suggests, later remove) key telecommunications infrastructure to facilitate all elements of the games.
The committee is specifically looking for a supplier to establish a wide area network (WAN) providing connectivity between all of the venues that will be used during the 2022 Commonwealth Games. The majority of the venues are in or within close proximity to Birmingham such as the NEC Arena, Sandwell Aquatics Centre and University of Birmingham. However, some are hosted in other midlands cities such as the Coventry Arena.
The services required for these locations include a managed internet service, separate diverse WAN connectivity for broadcast video & audio and hosted telephony services. The supplier will also be required to create a robust broadband service for the Commonwealth Games Village.
In an initial public information notice (PIN) the committee said it is initially assessing a supplier’s ability to provide all of the physical network hardware equipment and devices required to enable communication on the Birmingham 2020 network. This includes WLAN access points, Enterprise LAN switching equipment, edge routers and IPT handsets. Also included in the procurement information request is details on the establishment of firewall and intrusion detection systems.
Commonwealth Games 2022
The organising committee is seeking a supplier to create fibre optic cabling infrastructure across all venues that will take part in the 2020 games. “This includes the supply and installation of structured cabling (ethernet), optic fibre cabling, cable management, cabinets and UPS for network equipment, and related professional services including venue low level designs, installation wireless access points and IP telephones, and operational break-fix support,” the online PIN states,
The committee added: “The Authority is providing potential bidders the opportunity to review an outline specification for telecommunication services for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and provide feedback via a pre-market engagement questionnaire. The Authority is seeking responses to the questionnaire by midday on 26.6.2019.”
Curiously the tender also states the need for a supplier to provide a: “Post Games decommissioning of all Telecom network infrastructure and services deployed to the venues of the 2022 Commonwealth Games.” (Is it considering temporary 5G masts?) Computer Business Review has contacted the committee for further detail. No initial budget was given for the project.
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