Visualising intensity of mobile phone activity in Spain during Euro 2008

As we approach the summer (though seemingly not in the North of England just yet… brrrrr) and the Euro 2012 football championships, it is sobering to think how fast the previous four years have gone by since Spain won the 2008 event. I was thinking about this event during the past few days whilst delivering data visualisation training to a team from France Telecom-Orange. One of the guys in the team shared with me a pair of really nicely executed animated visualisations based on their network data to track the intensity of mobile phone usage before, during and after the Final back in June 2008.

The first video shows the reaction in Barcelona…

Urban Mobs – Barcelone by QNTV

…and the second in the capital, Madrid.

Urban Mobs – Madrid by QNTV

I recommend you watch both in full screen view, in HD mode to see the full resolution of the patterns of network ‘heat’ and activity as the country celebrates this famous win. Notice how the city seems to organically congregate in the main city squares and locals will also possibly observe key hotspots out of the city, including some significant activity around the Madrid training ground, I understand?