Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park was created in the East End of London for the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games. It was then taken over by the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) after the games. It was developed into a vast sports and leisure complex, with world class venues and attractions with unique parklands and outdoor space.  

Ensuring the Games' lasting impact, the Park embarked on an extensive regeneration initiative, resulting in the creation of 12,400 residences to date, with additional developments on the horizon. Furthermore, a bustling commercial hub now stands, offering more than 10,300 job opportunities.

Read about how SPARK TSL provided WiFi for the whole park, covering 560 acres of land. 

About Queen Elizabeth Olympic

Organisation Type:  

Government Agency, non-profit outdoor/public space 

Size of Operation  

• 560 acres of land 
• Over 90 access points 

Client Since   

• WiFi Service Since 2015 
• Continuing to work with SPARK TSL 

Product Suites  

• SPARK® Connect

Analytics

Fully branded UX

Managed service 24/7/365

What makes Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park brilliant?

♻️ The vast venue built for the Olympic Games in 2012 has been transformed into a well-used and popular urban park that uses ‘green infrastructure’ and modern technology, creating a sustainable space for all to enjoy.

💼 It’s created over 10,300 employment opportunities, sustaining £317million in wages and contributing £700million in GVA towards GDP in 2021 alone.

🌳 The site has achieved 25% reduction in corporate energy consumption since 2015 – targeting net zero for 2030. What’s more it has achieved the cleaning of around 6.5km of waterways and the creation of about 10 new wildlife habitats on park including wildflower meadows, woodlands and wetlands.

Goals

✅ Free WiFi connectivity 

✅ High capacity 802.11ac wireless coverage 

✅ Branded User Experience Portal (UEP) with option to sign up for the Park newsletters 

✅ Branded email sent upon registration 

✅ Welcome message for new customers and returning customers 

✅ Data gathered for use by site operator only 

✅ Marketing opportunities and data analytics 

✅ Robust installation across the whole site 

✅ Seamless device roaming across the Park 

✅ Fully compliant to legal requirements 

✅ Internet Watch Foundation certified filtering 

✅ 24/7 UK support service 

The professionalism, diligence and passion SPARK TSL showed was inspirational and I have never before worked with a group of such dedicated people with such a depth of knowledge and love for what they do. The feedback we are getting from both visitors and staff has been exceptional and I can foresee a long and fruitful relationship between ourselves and SPARK TSL from this point on

Ben Edmonds, IT Programme & Change Manager at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park 

Our Solution 

Leveraging extensive expertise in high-density wireless networks, SPARK TSL was the logical choice for the project partnership. The implementation of Ruckus wireless technology, alongside the SPARK® Guest WiFi Management platform, ensures an unparalleled blend of functionality and expandability.

Size of the venue 

Finding a provider who could install WiFi across such a vast site was a significant challenge. To give an idea of how large the site is, the Royal Mail gave it its own postal area, E20, which had only been used previously for the fictional London borough of Walford in Eastenders.  

SPARK TSL delivered all requirements for the park which included: 

• The initial installation of sixty-four Ruckus Zoneflex T300 Access Points. Including the upgrade of all Ruckus Access Points to the latest technology, the T350, and increased the number of ACs to ninety-seven to ensure seamless roaming.  
• Providing ultra-high-performance networking (with fibre) to each AP, ensuring a super-fast connection to the many thousands of users at the park. 
• Fibre optic LAN, with dedicated links to the Ruckus T300 access points which supports the density of users and devices.
• The management and control of the network through high availability configuration with fully active SPARK TSL Gateways.  

The User Experience with a Custom Portal

 The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park wanted to ensure that users could easily access the WiFi and get online. Part of their solution required a User Experience Portal (UEP) that showcased Park facilities and information. 

SPARK TSL created a bespoke solution with the SPARK® WiFi Management Platform which hosts the following features: 

• A customised welcome screen to greet visitors when they sign up, and recognise them when they return.  
• Providing the opportunity for visitors to sign up for Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park newsletters through the welcome screen. This will keep visitors up to date with the latest attractions, events and offers.  
• A comprehensive system that allows Park users to enjoy free WiFi access for the entirety of their visit. 
• Content filtering to ensure content is suitable for all audiences, including children. 

Analytics and Marketing 

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park was keen on collecting visitor data for marketing purposes, emphasising the necessity of user approval. It was important that this information remained confidential, securely retained by the Park, with a guarantee against third-party sharing. 

• Users have the option to sign up to the Park’s newsletter and/or marketing information. All data collected is GDPR compliant. 
• SPARK TSL enabled a restful API which allows the Park to receive this data directly into their CRM.  
• The Park can use the data from newsletter/marketing sign ups to send them email updates and information. Nurturing the contacts to stay longer and return to the Park. 
• SPARK® Analytics Platform provides both live and historic insights from WiFi users. This includes the demographics of the users such as gender, nationality and age. 
• SPARK TSL send scheduled reports directly to the Park. 

Managed Service 

 The solution is fully managed and supported by the SPARK TSL 24/7/365 support desk. They address all technical concerns from end users, providing clients with a sense of security and relieving their IT departments from the burden of system management.

The system is fully compliant to legal requirements for public WiFi access. 

In 2023 there were 40,000 unique devices that connected to the WiFi

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park’s WiFi user journey was designed to not only provide Internet access but provide visitors access to information, maps and facilities as well as engage the public through social media channels

Oliver Malkin, Product Owner at SPARK TSL

Continuing to work with SPARK TSL 

Following the initial setup, SPARK TSL developed a 5-year refresh plan in partnership with the London Legacy Development Corporation. In an era where technology evolves at lightning speed, the LLDC was determined to keep their WiFi services cutting-edge. This commitment led to an expansion in the number of access points and significant upgrades to gateways. As the digital landscape progressed, so did the bandwidth demands of users on the site. SPARK TSL tracked these developments throughout the network's lifespan, collaborating closely with LLDC to bolster the site's leased line capacities. This proactive approach guaranteed unparalleled WiFi performance, seamlessly invisible to the end users.

WiFi is integral in our day to day lives, connecting and receiving high quality speeds without losing connectivity is a standard expectation. SPARK TSL don’t just meet, but exceed those expectations, always staying one step ahead of the game. 

The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park has grown since the first install by an impressive 50%. WiFi coverage has been increased internally into other buildings, as well as externally. Throughout this period of growth, SPARK TSL has delivered extra WiFi capabilities for a variety of events hosted within the Park.

The Future 

SPARK TSL are currently expanding into the East Bank area of the park. They provided temporary access during the construction and in 2024, are now finishing the permanent WiFi solution around the external areas of the new buildings. 

East Bank is the UK’s newest cultural quarter at the heart of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The place where everything happens – entertainment, inspiration and discovery – and open to everyone who visits, lives and works in east London. It's made up of BBC Music Studios, London College of Fashion, UAL, Sadler’s Wells East, UCL (University College London) and V&A East.

Want to learn more about our WiFi service? Delve deeper by downloading our Brochure.