Bang for Your Puck

The Montreal Canadiens’ Bell Center stadium is one of the busiest arenas in the world – and also one of the most technologically advanced. Business Management meets the man behind ice hockey’s IT success story.

As Executive IT Director for the Montreal Canadiens – the oldest continuously operating professional ice hockey team in North America, and also the most successful with 24 Stanley Cups – Pierre-Eric Belzile certainly has his work cut out. His role involves overseeing all aspects of information and telecommunication technology, from the ticketing office to the production support of all events, from the retail boutiques to the multiple foods counters and restaurants. In addition to this, he’s responsible for the security of the building, the operations of multiple servers and telecommunication equipment, a redundant secured data network and a WiFi network throughout the entire building. It’s a pretty broad portfolio, but as Belzile quips: “The show must go on, and IT must support it.”

Indeed, as you would expect of a man in charge of IT for the busiest arena in Canada and the fifth busiest in the world, Belzile is an extremely busy man. “My day starts early – real early,” he says. “I am at the office at 6:30am every morning.” His day begins with a review of the previous day’s work and the formulation of a plan for the next few days. At the same time, he looks over the various requests from each of the departments within his remit. “These days, technology is everywhere and everyone expects prompt results from it,” he says. “All questions are valid ones and all requests are evaluated carefully. We are constantly in development mode based on these requests and on our business growth. Besides local technicians to support the infrastructure, consultants are also implicated in these developments. This industry moves really fast and technology has to be ready for it, with some requests presenting themselves at the very last minute. It’s like running a daily marathon.”

The analogy is especially pertinent to a competitive environment such as sports. Stadiums are constantly looking for ways to improve the fan experience, deliver new revenue-generating services and attract more events to their facility so they are booked 365 days a year – which naturally presents executives such as Belzile with significant challenges. “It varies from event to event, but really it all comes down to improving the fan experience,” he says. “For each of our events, fans must be able enter the building quickly and we need to ensure that the tickets they are using for entry are valid. The wireless ticket-scanning device is one way we guarantee quick and secure access to events. Speeding up purchases at the concession stands so that fans spend more time watching the event than standing in line for a soda and hotdog is also another challenge.”

But the Bell Center doesn’t just play host to sporting events. “For rock concerts we need to react quickly to be able to sell merchandise,” he continues. “Often, the T-shirts and other paraphernalia arrive just before the concert begins and we have to react quickly to provide cash registers and electronic payment capabilities anywhere in the corridors of the facility. In addition, Internet access is a must for all music bands performing at the Bell Center. This is their first request, as it provides them access to their email and VoIP phone service when they travel from city to city. The media covering events and hockey games also require high-speed Internet access from all parts of the stadium, and therefore it has become an important and essential service, just like electricity.”

As a result, Belzile and his team have developed a number of solutions to help address these challenges at the Bell Center. “In order to deliver services quickly, we needed a communications infrastructure that could quickly adapt to the ever-changing needs of this type of industry,” he explains. “Things happen at the last minute and there is never enough time for planning. The deployment of our new wired and wireless data network allows us to quickly deploy secure services to any location of the building within minutes. All we need is a power outlet – and sometimes not even that. The new cash registers are WiFi capable and have an eight-hour battery. We simply install a table with the cash register on it, power it on and we are ready to sell.”

It’s just one example of the technological innovations that have been employed at the Bell Center since it was built almost 12 years ago. At that time, explains Belzile, the use of network devices was not prevalent and each system had its own proprietary network and cabling. “However, since then we’ve needed to refresh the technology of some systems, including the security door access system, cash registers and point-of-sales systems, and ticket-scanning devices,” he says. “As we looked at deploying these new services, we decided it just wasn’t practical or cost-effective – or even technologically sound – to re-wire the entire Bell Center. In some cases, the conduits are already full and there was no place to run more cables.”

Belzile’s response was to deploy a secure and reliable high-speed wireless network to deliver next-generation services. “We hired Bell Canada to perform a WiFi site survey, which provided us with the number of WiFi access points required to provide coverage throughout the building,” he explains. “The unique design of an arena – concrete and with many corners – provides a considerable challenge for this type of coverage. In addition, we also needed to replace the wired data network. We took this opportunity to review and categorize different users and the types of access they required. This permitted us to develop roles to ensure we could properly manage the security and integrity of all the data moving across the network. With credit card information, confidential information about hockey players and music bands, we needed to ensure the network was properly secured and be aware at all times who has access to what information and when.”

It’s all part of the organization’s stated aim to provide more enriched multimedia services to guests, reduce fan wait times and improve staff operations at the arena. “ Our focus at the Bell Center is being a world-class entertainment and sporting venue,” says Belzile. “We do not have the luxury of a large IT personnel to support our operations. Our key requirement was management simplicity – and of course, robustness, efficiency and reliability. We also required a solution that could grow with us. For instance, as we build our new Montreal Canadiens practice rink we did not want to start from scratch; we simply wanted to extend the features and capabilities that we have at the Bell Center to the new venue.”

Another example is the outdoor events organized by the Montreal Canadiens. “During the summer we produce outdoor shows on an island about five miles from the Bell Center,” he continues. “We have the same requirements at the outdoor shows as we do at the Bell Center – WiFi Internet access, secure access to the Bell Center network, etc. Our solution allows us to do all of this without a huge learning curve.

“Our unified communication infrastructure allows all Montreal Canadiens staff to have secure access to the network from anywhere inside or outside of the building. Information is secured and shared among all personnel together. T he communications infrastructure is just the first step in delivering a world-class stadium experience. With the communications infrastructure and stadium solutions we’ve put in place, our fans will spend less time in line-ups and more time cheering on their favorite team.”

Next steps

One of Belzile’s key areas of focus over the next 12-18 months is the integration of the Montreal Canadians practice rink, which needs to be ready for this coming season. “My immediate focus is extending all of the capabilities of the Bell Center to this new rink,” he says. “Then, I will fine tune the network installed and add more functionalities to better serve our operations and clients. We will also be looking into determining the value of unified communications technologies such as integrating our Microsoft environment with our Nortel CS 1000, and hosting our own audio/videoconference system.”

Key results

Bell Centre now has the foundation to build an intelligent environment capable of delivering the new services its guests and staff want – which translates into both new revenue opportunities and productivity improvements.

• Wireless handheld scanners to allow faster, more efficient access to the facility and WiFi point-of-sale card readers for faster service
• Wireless access for the press for up-to-the-minute coverage and more effective communication among staff at lower operational cost
• Secure remote access for personnel on the road