FIFA Women’s World Cup

In 2015 Canada had the opportunity to host the 7th quadrennial FIFA Women’s World Cup soccer tournament in Vancouver. It was a famously hot summer; the warmest June on average since 1958. In the midst of such a devastating heat wave, FIFA needed some serious air conditioning for the broadcasters covering the event.

The Challenge

Host Broadcast Services, the company handling distribution of the live television feeds, had 22 trailers that needed cooling. This included their own facilities along with each accredited broadcaster distributing the feed to the world. The trailers were packed with the equipment they needed to bring the games to all the fans watching at home, and it ran hot. The heat would have to be controlled to prevent everything from overheating.

The Solution

In the week prior to the tournament we installed a total of 19 large air-cooled units, ranging from 4 to 10 tons each, spread out across the lot the trailers were located in. Supply air ducts were run into the windows and doors of each broadcaster’s trailer, with plywood filler panels used to seal up the openings. In that time, we also installed 10 smaller portable units for people in the offices set up within the trailers. With 19 large units running on 208V power, we obviously needed a large electrical distribution network as well. Our responsibility was to install our cable from the distribution panel to each unit. The cables were carefully laid out underneath the trailers and along certain aisles to ensure they were kept out of sight and away from where people could trip over them.

The Result

Throughout the month-long tournament the broadcasting equipment was kept cool so as not to overheat, which meant that each broadcaster’s live coverage of the games went uninterrupted. Soccer fans all over the world were able to enjoy the competition together.