Case Study: Bell Centre achieves high-capacity, flexible fan Wi-Fi and simplified one-person network management with Extreme Networks

Bell Centre, World’s Third Largest Event Center, Scores Big with Fans

Bell Centre, the world’s third busiest event center hosting 175+ events a year and about 1,000,000 visitors, needed a flexible, high‑capacity wireless network that one IT professional could manage to support fan engagement, ticketless entry, mobile point‑of‑sale and IP video. To meet those needs they worked with Extreme Networks, deploying Extreme Fabric Connect and ExtremeSwitching (VSP 7000 & 9000, ERS 4000) plus Wireless LAN 9100 Series gear to provide robust, secure and easily configurable Wi‑Fi.

Extreme Networks built a virtualized, high‑bandwidth fabric that lets Bell Centre add SSIDs in minutes, support anywhere connectivity for ticket checks and vendors, and scale multicast video to hundreds of cameras. The network now handles heavy fan usage (one event saw ~20% of guests — ~4,000 phones — generate ~250 GB in two hours), is managed by a single IT lead, enables in‑seat ordering and expanded digital advertising, and has increased revenue opportunities while simplifying operations.

Bell Centre

Pierre-Eric Belzile

VP of Information and Communication Technology