Computerworld: Unified communications takes center field at Mets’ new ballpark

SANs, VOIP, UC.... Leave Chass alone!

For Joe Milone, the organization’s senior director of information systems and technology, the first big test will come Friday, when the data center at the Mets’ Shea Stadium is moved to the 42,000-seat Citi Field, located in the outfield parking lot between Shea Stadium and 126th Street in Flushing, in the borough of Queens.

Milone sees the new stadium as an opportunity to build a multimillion-dollar network that will expand to include several unified communications applications and architectures from networking equipment vendor Nortel Networks Ltd. [...]

In another example of UC convergence, all the digital game videos that are held in the SAN inside the new data center will be piped over the network using IP, meaning that historic game clips can be quickly posted on giant video screens for fans to see.

In addition, about half of the 70 call-center agents who will work in a new administration building connected to Citi Field will use phones running over IP in the network. Nortel’s design allows traditional circuit-switched calling alongside IP communications, so Milone has decided to keep the other half of the call center agents on traditional phone gear as a backup in the event of an IP network problem.

“Our call center is where we sell tickets, so it’s our bread and butter,” he noted.