The fourth blog in our Qatar 2022 series features the Al-Thumama Stadium in Doha, designed to resemble the gahfiya – a traditional woven cap worn by men. Located by the Old Airport, 12km from the Al Corniche waterfront promenade, the stadium will seat 40,000 fans – and after the World Cup will donate 20,000 of those seats to developing countries.

Our role on the development of this World Cup facility was to provide the broadcast cabling infrastructure. One of the key considerations for our work has been to provide a solution that will allow broadcasters to use the stadium before and after the event, so we’ve shaped our design following input from local broadcasters Al Kass and beIN Sports, to complement FIFA’s World Cup match coverage requirement.

Our client is the joint venture between AlJaber Engineering and Tekfen Construction and Installation, who in turn are delivering the stadium for the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy. The system comprises multiple cable types, to ensure the stadium can cater for multiple broadcast options. This includes Triax, SMPTE hybrid fibre, video, audio and single-mode fibre cable, accessible through 80 wall boxes located around the facility. Most wall boxes are for match coverage, with the rest for interviews, arrivals, and other off-field activity. 170,644 metres (559,855 feet) of cable is being used in total, with the installation taking just over a year to complete.

Our biggest challenge has been to pull cables while the stadium is still a construction site, working around other contractors, waiting for services to be installed, and in high temperatures during the summer. On top of this, the COVID-19 pandemic has presented additional complexity, as we work to finalise the installation while trying to keep every worker safe. As you can imagine, wearing masks and other PPE in extreme heat and humidity is a big challenge, but we’re still on track for handover in the second half of 2021.

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With just over two years to go until the 2022 FIFA World Cup kicks off in Qatar, plenty of work is being done to equip the host stadiums with the infrastructure to accommodate such a large-scale and high-profile event. A key element is ensuring that the broadcast and communications infrastructure is in place, which will enable broadcasters to quickly and easily produce and distribute content to billions of fans around the world.

With its extensive experience in stadium fit-outs and live events, Gearhouse Broadcast is playing a major role in the provision and installation of this infrastructure. Having already installed an in-stadium broadcast system as part of a wider renovation project at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, Gearhouse has now also provided its industry-leading expertise to three other stadiums in the region that will host World Cup matches in 2022.

Commissioned by the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) – the organisation responsible for the operations and planning of the 2022 World Cup – Gearhouse has begun installation of the cabling at the Al-Bayt Stadium in Al-Khor. Here, a total of 300,000 metres of cable, 76,000m of triax, 41,000m of 8-pair audio, 29,000m of 12-core fibre, 75,000m of SMPTE and 72,000m of 7731A video cables will be installed across the stadia, enabling broadcasters to connect their outside broadcast trucks to 70 positions across the venue through multiple cable formats. The team’s next cabling project will be the Al Ryann Stadium, followed by Al Thumama later in the year.

Installing tactical fibre and SMPTE cable makes the stadiums compatible with the latest technology, which is particularly important for live events of the scale of the World Cup, which is set to broadcast to approximately 200 countries globally. The cabling will also future-proof the stadiums, ensuring that they have the infrastructure to deliver live broadcasts for many years to come.

Throughout the project, one of the biggest challenges is working in the temperatures of the Middle East.  

The job consists of pulling cables of up to 600 metres at heights of 12 metres, which meant the 30-strong team all needed height training to ensure their comfort and safety. This, combined with the extremely hot conditions and the sheer length of the cable pulls, contributed to a challenging project that had to be carefully managed by our team of cable installation experts.

This is where our past experience in the region proved particularly beneficial. As well as the Khalifa International Stadium, previous projects included installing a broadcast and AV infrastructure at the Al Gharafa beach complex in Qatar and laying nearly 100,000 metres of cable in Dubai’s Rashid Stadium.

We ran and managed the project from our office in Doha, Qatar, with our local team ensuring the stadiums are fully equipped to showcase the 2022 World Cup to the world.

International Broadcast Solutions provider Gearhouse Broadcast is to provide the multilateral and unilateral cable installation for the entire UEFA EURO 2012™ tournament.  The contract has been awarded by UEFA who is managing UEFA EURO 2012™ host broadcast operations directly.

The broadcast contract involves installing over 880 kilometres of cable across the eight stadium venues throughout the host nations of Poland and Ukraine.  Gearhouse Broadcast selected Draka cables and will be using a variety of cable types including Triax, Video, Audio, Cat 5, 12 core single mode fibres and SMPTE camera cable in varying lengths.

The cable installation is a huge project in terms of scale and commenced in April and will complete by 20^th May. It will then take approximately 20 days to terminate around 100 kilometres of cable per venue with the various connectors. Two Wiremen per venue will be responsible for this termination and then all connections will be tested by the Technical Operation Centre Broadcast Engineers prior to any connections being made.

Andre Nel, Broadcast Engineering and Technical Manager for UEFA TV Production said, “Gearhouse Broadcast delivered the cable installation solutions for the UEFA EURO 2004™ and UEFA EURO 2008™ tournaments, so we were more than confident in their abilities to provide a first class cable installation and solution for the 2012 tournament”.