The old Wembley Stadium was closed in 2000 but was not demolished until 2002. Construction began in October 2002 by the appointed main contractor Mulitplex Constructions (UK) Ltd. Now the new home of English football the stadium is operated by Wembley National Stadium Ltd (WNSL) and boasts 90,000 seats with unrivalled viewing due the nature of it clever construction. The design of the arch and the roof was undertaken by Sir Norman Foster, with the arch illuminating the north-west London sky on match days and during events being lit by some 258 metal halide fittings and being 133 metres tall. A somewhat controversial project at times, the stadium was finally completed in March 2007 at a cost of £798m. Notable features are the concourse area’s are over a kilometre long and the stadium contains 2618 toilets, more than any other venue in the world!

Our original contract was for an initial 12 month period to project manage the implementation and integration of the total lighting control system for the entire stadium. Working directly from the Wembley stadium project office of Phoenix Electrical, we liaised with the main contractor, the electrical contractor, BMS and software contractors to provide a coherent strategy. As the contract ran on, we inevitably spent further time on site and required additional on-site presence we spent a total of 22 months on site in a project management capacity verifying designs, overseeing control hardware and software changes, managing deadlines such as commissioning, documentation, validation and co-ordination. This was a vital role required to ensure complete compatibility and inter-operability working under the philosophy of prevention being better than the cure. We also provided a specialist termination and testing service that provided the infrastructure of the lighting control system with a staggering 3600+ communication links. All of this endured to provide an almost seamless commissioning phase, a fitting end to this most prestigious of projects.

With the project liaison provided by TEST and working as part of a team all elements of potential issue were dealt with at either the design or before the pre-commissioning phase of the project, preventing expensive and timely changes later in the delivery phase. Wembley stadium is an intelligent building in every sense – probably the most technically advanced in the world. It’s fully integrated IT network provides a common platform of communication from every conceivable building system such as CCTV, HVAC, Lifts and escalators, fire and security and of course the lighting control. Providing Scheduled lighting programmes every event be it football or a concert all from one common PC interface provides the building with a co-ordinated building energy management system which provides both high-speed and reliable control throughout the stadium.