TOURISM ARTICLE

Two world biggest events
Brazil is preparing for major tourist invasion as two of the world’s biggest sporting events are scheduled to be held in the country in the coming years. The 2014 World Cup is the first global football championship held in South America in almost 40 years and the first Olympic Summer Games ever will be staged in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
Country visitors
According to the country’s tourist board Brazil is expecting twice the number of visitors that it has in normal years. In 2010, about 5 million visitors came to the South American country. That is a very low number compared to France which has almost 80 million visitors a year and the US with 60 million.
Reasons why Brazil is not so popular
There are two main reasons why Brazil has not been a popular tourist attraction over the years. For one, it is very far away from Europe and flight costs make it an expensive place to go to and secondly the country’s crime rate has been scaring off many potential tourists.
Brazil improvements
Brazil’s economy is booming and the money that it is generating is being invested in infrastructure and projects for the future. Airports are being improved, roads are being built and public transportation expanded. New hotels are being constructed and more and more people are being employed and trained to handle the influx of tourists in the coming years.
Visitors’ expectation
Over half a million visitors are expected to come to Brazil during the World Cup in 2014. Tourist organizations hope that many of them will get a lasting impression of the country so that they might come back sometime. The Brazilian government hopes that successful sporting events will give the country a major boost in tourism, like the Sydney Olympics did in 2000 or the World Cup in South Africa in 2010.
As 12 cities prepare to host the matches of the football World Cup Brazil wants to show the world that it cannot only play football and dance to samba rhythms but also organize high-scale events.

IMPROVEMENTS ARTICLE

Brazil 2014 : How the World Cup prepares
Smart chip

Entered or not ? Entered the ball ? That is one of the largest sports and technology discussions of world football and probably should be solved in the Football World Cup Brazil 2014 . Fact is that FIFA is already considering the use of a 'smart' chip that incorporates a ball in inside to certify the effectiveness of a 100 % goal.

Improvements in technology

That is a small sample of the innovations that will bring the sporting event, but in technology the 2014 Cup is much more than that , since the South American nation is with no small challenge to improve and renovate much of its telecommunications system and ICT infrastructure, with the aim of providing support to the millions of visitors from 188 countries who need quality communication and also to improve the management of the 12 stadiums that will face challenges in security, energy and planning. The technology that will be around this sporting event will be vital to its success and sustainability.

National plan

Giving the World Cup Brazil 2014 tech is a national plan that aims to develop new telecommunications infrastructure high transmission capacity, where the goal is to have 4G communications in all the host cities of the event , which gradually being implemented through government investment worth U.S. $ 111 million in the development of 4G networks.

4G networks

"The wireless data coverage in all cities is a fact, the only question is whether technology will be used 4G, Wimax or other, where data transmission capabilities will be of the order of 100 megabytes per second. Moreover , all IP communication is nothing analog, where circuit television (CCTV ) and security will all be supported by the network ", says Massato Takakura, Director of NEC Brasil, a company that is actively engaged in technological endowment of the Cup.

New and better networks

The Minister of Communications of Brazil, Paulo Bernardo, also entered the need to speed up the works of the so-called Broadband Nacional Plan, which will renew the whole network in the country and thanks to the completion of the Cup, be expedited its implementation . New networks of high-speed internet to interconnect the 12 stadiums , the operations center , press , hotels, training areas and security agencies , and shall consist of an infrastructure that can transmit video , voice and data with a power of 100 Gbps . This new network will begin construction in 2012 and will be executed by the state Telebrás.

Cup smartphones

The high penetration of smartphones in Latin America continues its rapid advance , hoping that by 2014 there are about 100 million devices , according to international consultancy IDC. Cup visitors can use their smartphones seamlessly thanks to the 4G technology that will be available, both within the sands, as in the host cities . Moreover, it has been emphasized that the greatest relevance to the broadcast of the event will not be the TV, but communication via smartphones.

Radio communication for personal

While 4G coverage should resist the large number of users that are expected to be in parallel also operate other wireless communication technologies. Such is the case of radio communication frequency ( RF), which will be destined for the interior of the sands and for the exclusive use of personal in charge of the stadium: guards, actors, cameramen, etc. These officials will be able to connect to this network without having to access the 4G network. The coexistence of different communication technologies into the stadium is one of the main challenges for the organizers and companies present.

RFS in sporting events

One company that is looking to implement this 'indoor' technology is the overall RFS (Radio Frequency Systems), which specializes in communications for sporting events, and has a presence in Germany, France , Russia and China, among other nations . "RFS has the ability to develop communications solutions for confined environments, especially for sporting events, which represent a great opportunity for Brazil" says Renato Franca, director of Strategic Industries RFS . "Our company implemented the RF system at the Olympic Stadium in Athens for JJ.00 2010."

Advertising and tourism via smartphones

The World Cup Brazil 2014 will cost less than $ 13 million, according to a study by Ernst & Young, so that all initiatives to generate ROI are welcome. One is the relationship with the advertising and tourism that will come directly to smartphones visitors. These ads will be fully custom, since the integration of systems that operators will know the tastes of the visitors data to be stored once they enter the stadiums. But not everything will be advertising on smartphones, useful applications for foreigners will also be used , preferably with transport directions addresses and restaurants in their own language .

Benefits

Moreover, thanks to the biometric fingerprint technology, security systems know all relevant details of the person who will translate into personalized listings via smartphones. The integration of technologies and agencies will be one of the innovations of the Cup , which will deliver economic and security benefits.

Cup security

To plan security for the millions of visitors who come fill cities, stadiums, trains, subways and shopping malls, the government created the Special Secretariat for Large Events Security , which is responsible for the safety of Brazilians and tourists during the event. The major innovation in this regard is the technological integration of all police and security agencies, which have a communication network exclusive high capacity to connect the headquarters , stadiums , customs patrols and Interpol , with intend not to allow any unruly rebel generate chaos.

International troublemakers data

The databases of the country's security forces will be integrated into Interpool. Moreover, the government has already sent documents to USA, Germany , England, Holland , South Africa , Poland and Argentina requesting data on terrorists, " troublemakers " and hooligans .

Visitors’ safety


"The safety of visitors is one of the most important factors, because the idea is that people can walk 100 % secure and confident, for which there will be a control center that takes care of everything, especially within the stadiums, where HD cameras and biometric systems instantly detect any suspicious behavior or any offense or predicate offense "says Takakura .

AUTHORS

Micaela Gaig, Agustin Azparren and Francisco Sivori