Client: TB Climbing Solutions
As one of the 356 sections of the German Alpine Club, the Augsburg section was founded in 1869, making it one of the oldest. Today, with 13,832 members, it is one of Augsburg’s largest associations. To provide both athletes and hobby sports enthusiasts with a state-of-the-art training and competition facility, the Augsburg section opened a new climbing and bouldering hall on June 10, 2018.
On a climbing area totaling 4,390 m², visitors can face many varied and exciting challenges, both indoors and in the large outdoor area. For families with young children, there is a dedicated area to gain initial climbing and bouldering experiences.
The catering, climbing shop, and general operations management of the climbing center are provided by TB Climbing Solutions GmbH & Co. KG. Their tasks include the entire building management as well as the organization of sports activities and course administration. They also support DAV Augsburg in conducting competitions and take care of maintaining the climbing hall’s internet presence and providing information and promotional materials.
Indoor Climbing
- 1543 m² climbing surface
- 73 safety lines
- 150 to 210 routes
Outdoor Climbing
- 1646 m² climbing surface
- 78 safety lines
- 160 to 220 routes
Bouldering Indoor and Outdoor
- Climbing area: 1207 m²
- extra children’s bouldering area
Initial Situation and Challenges
To meet the demands of a modern climbing and bouldering hall, the management decided on comprehensive digitalization to optimize their own processes and improve the service offerings for customers. An important component of this strategy is the building-wide Wi-Fi networking and free provision for guests. The goal is to make the stay as attractive and diverse as possible for visitors and encourage them to linger. The major challenge for the network arises during larger events and competitions when many people use the Wi-Fi simultaneously, for example, to access current tournament data.
Unaffected by this, the judges must be able to reliably and quickly transfer the recorded results to the corresponding platforms at all times. A separate Wi-Fi is also provided for the office and internal systems to cleanly separate the internal network from the publicly accessible one.
In accordance with the requirements of the different target groups, the Wi-Fi and firewall operation is carried out for three separate networks and covers the entire area of the climbing center. To ensure this required coverage, a total of 13 Wi-Fi access points were set up for the indoor area and an additional two for the outdoor area.
By separating the networks, the judges’ connection can be prioritized during competitions. This allows them to upload the results reliably and in real-time to the referee platforms, making them available to spectators as quickly as possible.
The building-wide Wi-Fi availability allows staff to access relevant systems via tablet or smartphone at any time while monitoring sports activities or checking the facilities.
“With the support of digatus, our guests can start surfing immediately, access our route database, and evaluate their climbing experience on the spot.”
Ferdinand Triller – Project Management State Performance Center & DAV Climbing Center Augsburg
In the future, visitors to the climbing center will be able to connect to the free Wi-Fi without additional registration. This service also allows them to access, rate, and recommend individual routes directly from an innovative route database using QR codes. This enables a simple and active exchange of experiences among climbing enthusiasts. Fast internet also increases the attractiveness of the bistro area and can be well utilized during user login to additionally highlight current offers in the climbing shop.
In addition to meeting the DAV’s competition requirements, digitalization primarily enables the optimization of processes within the climbing hall’s operations management. The optimized core processes include, for example, the management of climbing routes, from central route administration in the backend to appealing user information through digital displays at each route. This ensures more flexible workflows as well as noticeable increases in effectiveness and time savings in personnel deployment across the extensive facility.
