VICARAGE Road has leapt ahead of many of its European rivals this week with the installation of a voice, video and data communication system at Vicarage Road which is as advanced or more advanced than those at the newest stadiums built throughout Europe.

In fact the Vic stands proudly among the elite of Europe's football stadia with the introduction of one of the first 10-gigabit per-second networks at a sporting facility.

Paving the way in the digital revolution, Watford's new IT infrastructure will deliver a whole new era of customer service and opportunities at the Hertfordshire venue.

The Cisco network loops around the entire stadium in a ring, meaning the architecture has been built with no single point of failure, and will be able to supply huge amounts of data to all points of Vicarage Road, enabling massive advances in data, voice and video systems.

Critically, the network upgrade will fully integrate with the club's soon to be introduced Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.

And that will see the technology provide important information for club officials, who will then be able to reward Hornets' supporters for their loyalty.

Increased network capacity at Vicarage Road, compared to most venues that rely on smaller 1-gigabit links, will make the transfer of information much faster and efficient, and will allow the club's telephony systems to work at a much advanced level to the existing systems.

From information gathered Watford will be able to better inform supporters of important match day information and further communications, as well as upgrade the experience of corporate visitors to the venue.

Speaking of the exciting development, Head of New Projects Katie Wareham said: "This is the fastest infrastructure of any football ground in the whole of Europe, including all of the German World Cup venues.

"At this stage of our development, putting in the right foundations is critical. The Cisco solution ensures that we have all our requirements met now and the reassurance that it can deal with whatever we throw at it in the future.

"Working with our IT provider, The Project Network, and Cisco, I am very pleased that we are leading the way and it is a statement of the clubs long term vision"

As the network architecture has been built with no single point of failure, even if the cabling is physically split the technology is intelligent enough to know to send its signals back around the loop via one of many alternative routes to its point of destination.

The network will also be able to provide a high-speed unilateral link to all four of the ground's stands and corners, with further development allowing television signals able to be filtered to concourse screens.

"Watford Football Club and its Vicarage Road ground have a proud and colourful history and it is now leading the way as one of the most innovative and connected sporting venues in Europe," said David Meads, director of UK Commercial Mid Market, Cisco.

"By using the network as a platform, Watford will be able to improve customer service, offer new services to fans, control building management costs and increase revenue opportunities."