Gearhouse Broadcast underpins the 2022 FIFA World Cup venues

Sporting EventFootball
Cable Installations
Qatar

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.