Real Madrid Signs Rising Star amigopod to Strengthen Wireless Guest AccessMadrid, Spain – July 21, 2010 – amigopod, a global leader in Unified Visitor Management solutions has announced that Real Madrid Club de Fútbol, one of the most famous professional association football clubs in the world, has deployed amigopod’s Visitor Management Appliance (VMA) to manage guest access in its Santiago Bernabéu stadium. The Santiago Bernabéu was chosen by UEFA to host the 2010 Champions League Final with one of the requirements that a wireless network be made available for press and media. With up to 2,000 journalists and photographers expected for the final itself and an average of 600 press per league game, Real Madrid required a solution that would also manage these guests in a controlled manner and be fast and easy to use by non-technical staff. Following a recommendation from its networking partner, ARCA IT, Real Madrid evaluated and selected amigopod for its ability to provide corporate grade security and auditing of visitors through a simple and effective process. “The size of the project combined with the technical advantages the VMA could offer were decisive in selecting amigopod,” said Jose Manuel Peña, IT Manager for Real Madrid. “ARCA IT clearly understood the various components of the complex project and with amigopod, recommended an excellent solution with its multiple functions and capabilities.” The amigopod VMA-1000 can support up to 2000 concurrent visitor connections and was seamlessly deployed to deliver the unified visitor management requirements of Real Madrid. Press and media guests self-register to create an account for themselves through an intuitive and branded web-based interface and once accreditation details are completed, credentials are sent via SMS direct to their mobile phone. The guest access can be limited or extended to any time duration by Real Madrid and once the time has expired, the account is removed, the audit trail recorded and further access denied without a new account being created. Security and QoS are integrated with the Cisco wireless infrastructure to ensure that accounts created on amigopod are placed into the corresponding security profile. With the amigopod VMA deployed, Real Madrid now offers a simple to use and flexible value-added network access service to the media and press visiting the Santiago Bernabéu stadium. On match days where demand is at its greatest, amigopod easily and securely provides connectivity for up 400 users concurrently. “amigopod is an essential element in our network infrastructure and has enabled Real Madrid to offer a flexible and easy to use service to press and media while maintaining complete management and control of users,” concluded Jose Manuel Peña. “We have been particularly impressed by the self-registration portal, the speed with which guests accounts are generated and the excellent reporting features.” As part of the implementation, amigopod used its unique ‘skin’ technology to enable Real Madrid branding to be applied consistently to all aspects of the user interface for captive portals, print and email templates. The captive portals also provide a powerful digital billboard where Real Madrid can promote club related content and material to the fans or other visitors. In addition, amigopod’s rich and powerful reporting capabilities gather critical and valuable information including visitor numbers, profiles and usage. “Nowadays, guests and visitors to any environment expect network connectivity to be available. Sporting facilities face a unique challenge with large concentrations of people over a short duration, and like Real Madrid, have complex requirements to manage access over the entire sporting complex for press, corporate guests and the public,” said Carlos Gomez Gallego, Director of Product Management, amigopod. “amigopod addresses this challenge by offering a flexible feature set that enables the efficient and easy provisioning of network access and simplifies the complex task of managing large numbers of users, with different profiles and requirements.” The amigopod system has now been extended to several of the corporate offices and meeting rooms throughout the Santiago Bernabéu and in the second phase of the deployment, amigopod will be used to provide and manage access for guests attending corporate events within the stadium. Related Content
About amigopodamigopod is a global leader in Unified Visitor Management solutions for both enterprise and public access deployments. amigopod builds flexible guest access and identity management solutions helping companies to implement a common and efficient process for providing external users access to their network. amigopod’s unique universal visitor management and intelligence proposition sets the industry standard for managing corporate access for guests, and is pioneering the next generation of public access hotspots. The company’s range of Visitor Manager Appliances have been installed in hundreds of customers in over 15 countries around the world including both start-up and established blue chip companies. For further information, go to www.amigopod.com. Press ContactDavid Rowlands
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See also: TCN, July 2010 —