AGF Aarhus to Open Virtual Stand
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, when football returns, it’s set to be behind closed doors only, with no fans allowed to attend for the foreseeable. The same, of course, applies in Denmark, with the league set to return in late May. However, in AGF Aarhus, have come up with a plan to include its fans, despite the lockdown.
AGF will play its first game since the game’s suspension against local rivals Randers FC - and the club is celebrating this reopening with a premiere of a new digital football experience to bring fans and the community together.
The new digital initiative, which requires no less than 23 men to execute during the match, is being run in collaboration with the international digital video platform, Zoom. The plan is to offer a virtual stadium with free tickets - as the match starts, all those with tickets will gather in the virtual grandstand section. There are 22 different sections to choose from, much like a regular stadium. There is room for home and away fans, as well as neutrals.
The forward-thinking digital initiative will see several screens set up in the middle of Ceres Park, AGF’s home ground. These screens will show the fans watching the game safely from their homes, allowing the players to see their supporters.
“It will be the first tournament match in a long time. We are celebrating that with a historic digital initiative, and we are proud to be the first club in the world to use it. Now, it seems that we have to do without spectators for a while, so maybe we can inspire a similar initiative at other clubs that can also benefit from it in the coming time,” said Jacob Nielsen, CEO of AGF.
PTI Smarter Venues & 3D Digital Business Announce Partnership
PTI and 3D Digital Venue are pleased to announce a partnership which will see both companies present a combined offer of support to the sports and entertainment sectors through COVID-19 and beyond.
Both PTI and 3D Digital Venue have been assisting the market with free of charge consultancy and products over the last two months. Now, with social distancing set to continue across 2020, this partnership unlocks the combination of PTI’s extensive and specialist experience in digital transformation and 3D Digital Venues Venue Business Intelligence (VBI) offering to enable technology to lead the way in scenario planning ticketing for clubs and venues.
VBI aims to support the decision making and implementation of new business models to maximize ticketing and premium seating revenue of the venues through the crisis of COVID-19, helping venue owners to achieve the most profitable scenario through re-activation.
VBI can propose new seating layouts for venues, respecting the safety and security recommendations of distance. The system allows you to enable several configurations and to easily adapt to different events via automatic algorithms on the fly.
Commenting on the partnership, Mike Bohndiek, CEO at PTI said “3D Digital Venue and PTI have a shared vision of support for the sports and entertainment industry to help clubs and venues deal with the current challenges. As long-time friends as companies, we are delighted to be formally in partnership to bring solutions to the market.”
Co-Founder and CEO of 3D Digital Venue Francis Casado commented “We are very excited with this new partnership with PTI and we believe it is going to be a fantastic opportunity for 3D Digital Venue. PTI is an experienced company providing high-quality consultancy services to Clubs and Venues.I am sure we can provide a bundled solution to help clubs and organizations to plan and simulate return to venues post Covid-19. We are really looking forward to working together.”
3D Digital Venue focus on Digital Venue Management Solutions for the sports and entertainment industry that heighten fan satisfaction, increase season ticket holder renewal rates and provide special viewing experiences for prospective VIP buyers.
PTI deliver integrated technology and digital strategy to the market, along with digital media expertise and venue technology solutions.
Manchester United to Install Safe Standing at Old Trafford
It has been announced that Manchester United will trial 1,500 barrier seats, allowing a section of fans to stand next season, following being given permission by Trafford Council.
The Premier League giants applied to have barrier seating last year, following on from Wolverhampton Wanderers, who were approved for a similar trial.
The seating, which has a rail installed in front of it for fans to lean on, will be located in Old Trafford’s J-stand - the north-east quadrant of the stadium. If the trial is a success, the club will look to add further safe standing areas.
Since 1994, standing at top-flight games has been banned based on the findings in the Taylor Report, which was released following the Hillsborough disaster in 1989.
Richard Arnold, Manchester United’s Managing Director, said. “Our belief is that the introduction of barrier seats will enhance spectator safety in areas of the stadium where - as with other clubs - we have seen examples of persistent standing.
“Our overwhelming priority is to keep our people safe from the Covid-19 pandemic. It may seem strange to talk about stadium plans at this time, but football and our fans will return when it is safe, and our preparations for that must continue in the background.”
AT&T Stadium
With the stadium holding events including the Superbowl, and also the most valuable team in the NFL, the new video and audio upgrade now has the ability to enhance even the smallest games.
Headlining the video project was Click Effects PRIME, ChyronHego’s integrated graphics toolset for delivering live arena and stadium based audiovisual presentations to any canvas size, with any number of outputs, in any resolution. Click Effects PRIME - together with the latest versions of ChyronHego’s Paint, and Virtual 1st - is ushering in a new era of 4K production on the LiveFX Endzone board at AT&T Stadium.
“We have one of the most complex shows in in-arena sports, so we don’t have one machine that fits all of our needs, we look for different specialists. We link remotes all throughout our Click Effects systems to create those immersive moments in games,” said Jake Kelso, Manager of Events Presentation for the Dallas Cowboys. “The paint telestration tool, especially, has brought a new dynamic that we can use for sponsorship, highlights and live playback, and that versatility is huge.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9CrJjtg_YM/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
The Cowboys’ first LED to display 4K content, and the team’s first Click Effects PRIME installation is the largest LiveFX Endzone board. Used primarily for game support graphics such as replay videos and fan entertainment during breaks, the board went live with 4K video clips and graphics driven by Click Effects PRIME.
"ChyronHego systems have been our mainstay since day one. Personally, I’ve been using its products for the better part of my 40-year career, which gives me a keen perspective on how well these technologies have improved and evolved,” said Dwin Towell, Director of Broadcast Engineering for the Dallas Cowboys. “Our migration to 4K will eventually require replacement of every screen and system in this stadium, but we’ve never questioned whether ChyronHego was the right graphics provider in this huge undertaking. With Click Effects PRIME being the perfect example, these solutions are mature, dependable, and very well-supported. Also, since ChyronHego is an industry-standard for graphics production, it’s easy to find technicians who are well-versed in the systems.”
After 10 years, everything still looks and sounds new and I’ve been really happy with it. You can’t ask for more than that. Our stadium is, and continues to be, one of the most technically up to date for live sports and entertainment in the world.
When the Dallas Cowboys opened AT&T Stadium in 2009, it boasted the world’s largest Electro-Voice sound system in a permanent installation, including over 240 line-array loudspeakers from the X-Line family. Gary French, Audio Engineer in charge of the Dallas Cowboys, explained how the AT&T Stadium wanted to ‘improve coverage, loudspeaker delay management and evaluate the performance possibilities inside the venue’ with the recently updated audio system.
The design team, spearheaded by Kevin Day of WJHW, selected Electro-Voice systems for their audio quality, reliability and depth of control provided by the IRIS-Net processing and monitoring platform. After enthusiastic approval from team owner Jerry Jones, Pro Media Audio Video was enlisted to help coordinate the challenging installation.
Fast-forward to 2019, noting that the many touring concert acts coming through the world’s largest domed stadium simply do not carry enough PA to provide adequate coverage for the upper seating areas, the audio team decided to take advantage of Electro-Voice’s scalability to address the challenge.
“We’re always working to improve the fan experience for all events, not just on game days,” said Gary. “Most concert tours augment their traveling systems with our Electro-Voice arrays as the delay system for the upper levels. We decided a little extra coverage would be a big upgrade for those events.”
The Cowboys’ audio team worked with System Programmer, Richard Bratcher, along with original design and installation partners including Kevin Day of WJHW, Head Engineer, Demetrius Palavos, and COO, Ted Leamy of Pro Media Audio Video, as well as the Electro-Voice engineering team. Together, they determined that the 14 XLCi127DVX compact three-way delay systems covering the upper level could be scaled up to produce smoother coverage with improved intelligibility.
Read the full story in our latest issue below.
https://issuu.com/mondiale/docs/issue10_lr/60
Two Ice Arenas Score Big with AV over IP Solutions
The Port Coquitlam Community Centre in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada hosts sporting events and provides fitness and recreation services plus facilities to the community in a rapidly expanding 205,000 sq ft property. Divided into multi-functional spaces, the Centre covers two new ice rinks that host on-ice and dry arena sporting events for the community. The rinks can also be rented out for skating parties, host hockey lessons and other events. Once constructed, the sizeable ice rinks awaited a state-of-the-art method of delivering audiovisual to the video wall scoreboards. Responding to the RFP was Steve Klassen of Sapphire Sound, an integrator who specialises in mid-size area installations and various scoreboard projects.
“The objective was to give control of two computers that drive large video wall scoreboards in two different ice rinks in the Community Centre,” said Steve. “Now there was a bit of a challenge preceding me because originally the consultant working on the project had recommended an HDbaseT solution.” This solution from another manufacturer was actually installed, but due to the way the electrical conduits were run, the cabling lengths required to reach the video walls far exceeded the limits of the HdBaseT solution.
Steve instead recommended MuxLab’s HDMI KVM over IP PoE (model 500770) transmitters and receivers, delivering HDMI and USB for keyboard and mouse nearly any distance when riding on an Ethernet LAN. Video is delivered at 1920×1200 and 1080p at 60Hz resolutions. Both transmitters and receivers can be added to upscale (or downscale) as needed, connecting computers and remote displays to an Ethernet Switch from up to 100-metres away using standard CAT 5e cable. Once connected, signal delivery is instantaneous. Computer content is transmitted from computers to one or many displays for flawless video wall applications. With this system, one receiver can be switched via hotkey sequences to any transmitter on the network, allowing a single operator to manage multiple workstations. Each receiver also provides a four-port USB hub for connecting a keyboard, mouse, printer, drawing pad, storage device, camera, etc. When PoE is enabled on the Ethernet Switch, power supplies are eliminated for both transmitters and receivers.
grandMA3 Consoles Take Center Stage at Super Bowl Halftime Show
grandMA3 consoles made their Super Bowl Halftime Show debut at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium where they joined a complement of grandMA2 boards to control video elements, stage effects and the LED wristbands worn by approximately 65,000 spectators. ACT Lighting, Inc. is the exclusive distributor of MA Lighting products in North America.
Super Bowl LIV featured one of the most talked about Pepsi Halftime Shows in years with Shakira and Jennifer Lopez turning up the heat with their high-energy, bilingual performances on the main stage.
Jason Rudolph, a Lighting Director for the halftime show for the last decade, was equipped with a pair of grandMA3 light systems and four medium NPUs to control all the video elements in the show as well as the LED lighting not from moving head fixtures.
“We pixelmapped the KNV LED cubes on Hippotizer Tierra servers and fed that via Art-Net to the grandMAs, where I merged it so that I could control the cubes either via the console programming or via content,” Jason explained. “The Hippos were controlled via MAnet, and we sent out sACN to the PRG series 400 for data distribution to the system.”
Eric Marchwinski of Earlybird Visual, LLC programmed PixMob on a grandMA2 in session with Jason so the latter could trigger the crowd’s LED wristbands during the show and conserve the tight space at FOH. Montreal-based crowd lighting company PixMob helped spectators feel like part of the show with illuminated wristbands synchronised to the super-charged music.
Production Designer Adam Biscow of Nashville’s Strictly FX, LLC used two grandMA2 lights to control all of the stage effects. Twenty-two cryo units were mounted around the main stage; fog and smoke effects were built into the main and satellite stages. They were fed via fibre from FOH to various positions on and around the field through PRG’s LX network.
“Of course, the grandMAs worked flawlessly,” Adam reported. “Strictly FX now uses MA consoles and products exclusively in our tours and one-off special events. We’ve been very happy with all of them and with the support from ACT Lighting.” Strictly FX recently took delivery of two grandMA3 compact consoles.
Jason noted that the halftime show “was my first full show running on grandMA3 hardware. I had no issues with the hardware at all. Overall, I had a great experience with them.”
In a can-you-top-this gesture, Jason followed the Super Bowl Halftime Show with the Academy Awards broadcast were he used grandMA3 full-size and light desks. “I used them to control the video systems there as well and had another nice experience with the consoles,” he said.
Unilumin - UMini ISE Press Conference
ISE Press Conference Q&A - Steve Scorse, CEO of Unilumin UK Ltd
Can you introduce UMini to us?
The market’s demand for LED screen of big size, high density, vibrant colours and great details is increasing over these years, especially in control rooms, broadcasting rooms, meeting rooms, companies, shopping centers, and many other places. That is when UMini comes into being.
UMini is the first product in the industry to achieve the effect that presents a prefect picture with 20,000:1 high contrast ratio and HRD. The brightness can reach 2,000 nits, so even if it’s in a bright room, the visual experience would be great. And the high brightness makes UMini fit into a wider range of scenario applications for our customers. Also, integrated packaging technology protects the LEDs from colliding and also increases moisture-proof ability, expanding its durability. Of course, UMini has 180° wide viewing angle and saves power by 40% compared to SMD.
How can HDR function be implemented?
HDR refers to display technology of high dynamic range (High-Dynamic Range). The technology will provide customers the most intuitive picture quality improvement, which the general audience can distinguish. The light and shade levels of the screen as well as the color brilliance are greatly improved.
In order to realise the HDR function, Unilumin’s Mini LED products have made the following technical improvements:
First, high contrast design of 20000:1 and brightness improve up to 2000nit can effectively improve the light and dark levels of the screen display.
Second, improving the color gamut range to the colour expression stronger and more realistic.
Third, hardware support by increasing the HDR display function in the control system module; and algorithm optimisation through the description of the software algorithm, use the human sensory quantitative curve for brightness adjustment, which perfectly reproduce the real world
The HDR function is implemented through the above three aspects.
Why does UMini LED product have high protection performance?
UMini LED adopts the integrated packaging technology independently developed by Unilumin to improve the protection performance from three aspects. Firstly, UMini LED adopts a new packaging material, which has excellent features of waterproof, high hardness and low stress; Secondly, its structure is optimized by improving the design of the protective structure, so that LED light source can stay in comprehensive encapsulation protection, which effectively isolates external water vapor erosion and impact damage. Thirdly, its manufacturing process is optimized by eliminating high-temperature reflow after the light source surface is packaged, which ensures the minimum damage of the internal structure after packaging, thereby improving the reliability. Through the above three aspects, UMini LED products not only achieve high reliability and protection ability, but also can be directly wiped and touched.
What do you think UMini will bring to the market?
The market behind UMini technology is huge. The technology behind it can broaden the application field of existing LED display products, bring more market opportunities and create greater market value for integrators and distributors. The excellent display effect brings a better user experience to the end users and UMini is robust enough to perform under different kinds of environment. At the same time, Unilumin can provide the market with great production capacity and excellent services. With all of these advantages, UMini is definitely going to unlock more possibilities for the LED industry.
What markets does UMini LED apply to？
From the aspect of pixel pitch and resolution, the products are mainly positioned as 2K, 4K and 8K applications in the future;
As for the industries, UMini LED can apply to industrial design (like automotive design and exhibition), high-end commercial display, high-definition studio, educational and medical screen, home theater, high-end retail etc.
Can you introduce UMini's creative concept?
UMini 0.9mm display product applies the latest mini-led display integrated packaging technology. Through the adoption of mini-led chip (chip size less than 100 ° m) and integrated packaging technology, the P0.9 display product is created, realizing 4K high-resolution LED within 162 inches. The birth of this technology opened the LED display indoor 4K, 8K HD display application era. UMini can provide people with a more perfect display screen in a variety of application scenarios with high contrast, high brightness, high reliability, high comfort, easy to use and energy-saving environmental.
How does UMini achieve high contrast ratio?
UMini's screen contrast ratio is 3 times higher than that of conventional SMD products. The maximum brightness is 30% higher than conventional SMD; and 120% of colour gamut coverage can fully meet DCI-P3 standard. The light path control technology is adopted to achieve the contrast effect of 20000:1, so as to solve the high quality requirements of customers for the screen, and improve the sense of science and technology and visual impact.
How does UMini achieve dynamic energy savings?
High efficiency heat dissipation design, full flip chip low thermal resistance, dynamic energy saving technology can save 40% power and reduction 25% screen temperature. With efficient thermal management, flip chip technology reduces thermal resistance of the chip and make a longer service life. Intelligent dynamic light control technology can adjust the display brightness of the regional screen, saving more than 40% energy than ordinary screen.
Plans Unveiled for Stadium to Replace San Siro
Milan and Inter have revealed two shortlisted designs for a new 60,000-seat stadium, to be built next to their iconic San Siro home. The plans include renovating the San Siro area to create a new sports and entertainment district. The stadium is expected to cost €650m (£576m) and take three years to build.
ALSD International Comes to Dublin's Croke Park
Europe’s one and only event dedicated to the Premium/VIP Seat & Hospitality sector being held at the iconic Croke Park Stadium in Dublin this October - is set to feature some 40-plus expert speakers.
As the continent’s third largest stadium, the 82,300-seat Croke Park Stadium - home to the Gaelic Athletic Association - makes the perfect choice to host this industry-leading event, not least as the island of Ireland has a host of sports and entertainment projects on the boards.
Comprehensive conference program & expert speakers
Attendees will benefit from a comprehensive conference program featuring high-calibre experts from across Europe and North America, who will provide insights as to how sports & entertainment venue owners and operators can increase revenues through new builds, renovations and service expansions, as well as via the latest F&B and technology offerings.
Despite the fact the event is still some four months away, a stellar lineup of speakers has already been confirmed, including:
- Michele Kajiwara, Senior VP of Premium Sales, STAPLES Center/AEG
- Bernie Mullen, Founder, The Aspire Group
- Justin Wood, Sports Practice Director, Dimensional Innovations
- Steve Livingstone, Head of Global Sports, Nepa
- Tom McCann, Head of Premium Sales, Service & Operations, Arsenal FC
- Steve Sayer, Vice President & General Manager, The O2 - London/AEG
- George Vaughan, Head of Technology, Ascot Racecourse
- Maheta Molango, CEO, RealMallorca
- Jonas Dijan, Venue Manager, Stade de France
- Andy Price, Head of Commercial - Arenas, NEC Group
- Brian Mahony, Head of Commercial & Marketing, Connacht Rugby
- Nathan Kosky, Vice President - UK, AEG Global Partnerships
- Marie Smyth, Suite & Hospitality Manager, Croke Park Stadium
- Ros Robinson, Head of Club Wembley Development, The FA
Industry leading exhibitors & sponsors
Attendees will hear from a number of the event’s industry-leading sponsors, such as 3D Digital Venue, Addvance IT/KAPPTURE, Aramark, Compass and Oracle Food & Beverage, as well as seeing examples of the most innovative sports architecture designs and fit-outs, equipment, services and solutions from exhibitors such as 3D Digital Venue, Camatic Seating, Dimensional Innovations, Fund Raisers Sports, Portview Fit-Out and Verteda.
Networking events & venue tours
All of this is will be in addition to a range of networking events, during which attendees can network, do business and share insights with industry peers.
They can also benefit from behind-the-scenes technical tours of not only Croke Park Stadium, but also Aviva Stadium, and the 9,000-seat 3Arena, one of the Top 10 busiest arenas in the world!
Early bird savings
You can avail of the specially reduced Early Bird delegate rate of €400 / £350 / $450 - including access to the conference exhibition, networking events, venue tours with transport included and F&B - up until July 31.
Make sure to secure your place and join a host of sports & entertainment entities including Arena Riga, Arsenal, Ashton Gate/Bristol Sport, Bestsport/The O2 Arena Prague, Connacht Rugby, Elevate Sports Ventures, Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), Leinster GAA, Manchester United, Munster Rugby, OVG, Scottish Event Campus and The SSE Arena Belfast.
MONDO | STADIA is a media partner at this year's ALSD International.
Go to alsdinternational.com to find out more.
Bryant-Denny Stadium Construction as Renovations Begin
The 2019-20 renovation of Bryant-Denny Stadium.