Riedel Enables Remote VAR Communications for Royal Belgian Football Association
Riedel Communications is partnering with broadcast solutions and service provider EMG to enable clear, reliable communications between Belgium's Jupiler Pro League referees, their assistants on the football pitch, and the video assistant referees working remotely at the VAR Replay Centre at Proximus Basecamp, home to the Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA). Together, Riedel's Bolero wireless intercom and Artist digital matrix intercom systems support RBFA referee teams in all the Jupiler Pro League stadiums and in the VAR Replay Centre to ensure flawless communications as calls are made and reviewed.
"With an intercom solution that enables crisp, clear conversations between referees on the pitch and our VAR Replay Centre in Tubize, we can be sure we're getting outstanding quality in the communication process," said Stephanie Forde, Operations Director, Professional Refereeing Department, at the Royal Belgian Football Association. "Despite the distance between each stadium and the VAR Replay Centre, the sound is exceptional. Both the Bolero and Artist systems are easy to use, so our teams have no trouble making the right connection, even in the midst of an intense match. With Riedel's professional support, integration and configuration of the system was straightforward."
The Riedel solution connects the VAR Replay Centre at the Proximus Basecamp, located 25 km south of Brussels in the small town of Tubize, with all Jupiler Pro League stadiums across Belgium. Signals moving between different stadiums and the VAR Replay Centre travel over the Proximus MPLS network, which is designed for premium sports and events — not only for VAR, but also for remote production of Jupiler Pro League competitions.
Riedel supplied all the stadium kits, each equipped with Bolero-S stand-alone wireless intercom systems including antennas, beltpacks, and run headsets for referees working on the pitch. At the VAR Replay Centre, five VAR desks/stations, plus one spare and a supervisor desk are equipped with Riedel's Artist 1024 intercom system with 1216 intercom panels that support overlapping matches (in parallel) per match day. Over the last two match days of the regular league competition, the system is expanded with flight packs to support up to nine concurrent matches.
"Proximus Basecamp is the home of Belgium's national teams and referees, and the VAR Replay Centre there sits at the heart of the sports technical department for the Belgian FA and its regional wings, ACFF and Voetbal Vlaanderen," said Kristof Vanden Eynde, Riedel's Sales Manager for Belgium. "We're proud that our intercom systems have become an integral part of match-day operations at the VAR Replay Centre and at stadiums across Belgium. It's exciting to see the results in the live broadcast as referees effortlessly call on their remote colleagues for the final word on a particular call, and we know it makes a difference for the JPL fans!"
ASM Global Selected to Provide Pre-Opening Services and Management for Fishers Event Center
The 7,500-seat venue with 23 suites and additional premium loge club seating and lounges will be home to the popular East Coast Hockey League’s Indy Fuel and host a wide array of concerts, performances and gatherings. The venue, expected to break ground in March, is located on 53-acres that expands on the recently developed 18-acre Fishers District featuring restaurant and retail options. The district is part of $1.1 billion in economic and entertainment investments announced in September—the largest single-day announcement in Fishers history.
ASM Global has an unrivalled track record working with and anchoring major cultural and entertainment districts, venues and projects including L.A. Live in Los Angeles, Darling Harbour in Sydney, OVO Arena Wembley in London, AO Arena in Manchester and the Westgate Entertainment District—a super-regional, mixed-use development destination for shopping, dining, entertainment and commercial office space in Glendale, Arizona.
Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness said, “This selection was the perfect choice that recognizes ASM Global’s expertise in world-class venues like the Fishers Event Center. Their experience integrating that expertise with world-class, mixed-use projects is unparalleled. We have no doubt that their prowess in booking, fan experience, artist comfort and technological innovations will elevate our new venue and place it in the upper echelon of guest experiences beyond expectations.”
ASM Global President and CEO Ron Bension said, “ASM Global believes in the Fishers market and its tremendous potential. We plan to bring our global scale and best-in-class local operational execution to create value and drive profitability. That’s what we do. We don’t doubt that in short order this will be recognized as one of the top sports and entertainment districts in the U.S.”
Fuel owner Jim Hallett said, “ASM has a long-standing relationship with many of the most attended sporting events on Earth, including Super Bowls, NCAA athletics, the Olympics and more. They have a reputation as an incredible partner over the years supporting thousands of events in venues they own or operate.”
Melbourne Cricket Ground
"There aren’t that many occasions when you encounter a 100,024 seat space; I think there are only eleven in the world.”
When the Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) contracted Emmy-Award winning AV consultancy, Auditoria, led by Scott Willsallen, the brief was simply to deliver the best possible audio to every seat – and in doing so anchor its reputation as a world class sporting venue. Cricket is the second most watched sport in the world and the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) or the ‘G’ as it’s affectionately known, is its second largest home. Yet, for Scott, no stranger to stadia, the project was less an issue of scale, than taking care of the subtleties.
With memory-making game days, not ROI, in the driving seat, the MCC has reimagined the value of audio in stadia, taking its vision beyond the bowl into every public space, including restaurants, bars, atria, concourses, gate entry and exit points, as well as broadcast facilities. For those involved in this highly collaborative project, including Auditoria’s Senior Consultant, Luis Miranda, installer Rutledge AV, (now a Diversified company), d&b’s Australian partner, NAS, and the MCC’s General Manager IT & Innovation, Rey Sumaru, it was an exercise in thinking optimally and working backwards.
“The brief was quite different,” confirmed Scott. “In that it was just give the best possible experience to the audience. So, one of our first tasks was how to interpret that.”
https://issuu.com/mondiale/docs/mdst26_digitallr/26
Unilumin Sports and Manchester City Renew Strategic Partnership
In the recent strategic signing ceremony, Unilumin Sports and Manchester City Football Club have committed to the continued deepening and growth of their strategic partnership, formally established early in 2021.
Scott Munn, Chief Executive Officer, China, Manchester City Football Group, confirmed, “The team at Unilumin Sports has impressed us with their passion for new ways to innovate, a value we prioritise highly within our club and wider organisation. We look forward to continuing to develop our relationship, share further expertise and continue our investment into the infrastructure of the Etihad Stadium.”
Tiger Lin, the President of Unilumin Sports Group, added: “We had a pleasant cooperation with Manchester City in the past year, and we will use Unilumin Sports integrated Metasight solutions to bring the ultimate audio-visual experience to fans around the world. I also hope that we will continue to strengthen cooperation, add brilliance to sports industry, and pass on the spirit of sports to tens of thousands of people who love sports.”
Since 2021, Unilumin Sports has played a pivotal role in the elevation of Manchester City’s visual representation. The company provided a two-tier courtside display screen solution complete with matching scoreboard display boards, seating tier ribbon displays and control system to the football club. Having been upgraded, the club’s pitch side media space has become the most commercially valuable in the Premier League, establishing it as a benchmark venue for other clubs in the league.
Underpinned with the latest technologies in outdoor display, Manchester City’s new double height display system has not only delivered twice the exposure of a traditional LED system but enabled greater scope for messaging from the club and its commercial partners as well as unrivalled picture quality.
Going forward, Unilumin Sports’s partnership with Manchester City football club will see the immersive viewing experience extend beyond the 90-minute arena. The commitment to create an immersive viewing experience for fans all across the globe, aims to bring continual improvements in Metasight sports complex solution together with experiential technologies.
Unilumin is committed to providing LED Metasight integrated sports complex solution and products including centerhung, perimeter screen, grandstand screen, and scoreboard for major competition venues, fully achieving integrated control of venues with display, lighting, control and sound system combined, creating a more perfect atmosphere for athletes and on-site audiences, and comprehensively improving the quality of venues and event operations.
Meanwhile, the partnership between Unilumin Sports and Manchester City Football Club continues to make an impact on the game of football and in the wider sphere, opening up the value of a more exciting audiovisual experience for football fans to the wider field, whilst enhancing the brand image and social influence of both parties.
Co-op Live Reveals Unique 'Smart Bowl' Design
New image renders reveal the interior of Co-op Live’s innovative ‘smart bowl’, taking inspiration from conversations with Bruce Springsteen and venue investor Harry Styles.
The bowl, designed with an intimate atmosphere in mind, will feature no corporate branding, ensuring both the fan and artist can fully immerse themselves in the show. The suites lining the edges of level 2 will also utilise soundproof black curtains to maximise the impact of the shows sound and lighting.
The UK’s only music-first arena will boast the largest floor space of any indoor venue, a significantly lower ceiling, and tiered seating that brings fans closer to the artist. Unlike venues designed primarily for sporting tournaments or public exhibitions, Co-op Live is the first of its kind to be built around concert acoustics.
“Co-op Live is about the fan and the artist, it is specially designed to deliver the best sound, atmosphere and experience for everyone who walks through our doors,” says President of OVG International, Jessica Koravos. “Innovative technology and design will bring a unique live entertainment experience to the UK.”
Set to open in December 2023, the 23,500-capacity venue is currently under construction on Manchester’s Etihad Campus. The project is a joint venture between Oak View Group and City Football Group, alongside private investor Harry Styles who has been instrumental in the design, offering personal insight having visited major venues and arenas worldwide.
“I am incredibly happy to be partnering with OVG on their plans for Co-op Live,” Styles revealed in 2020. “Manchester is an incredible city filled with incredible people and I couldn’t be happier to be involved in this project. It very much feels like coming home.”
Co-op Live’s 330 tonnes of rigging capacity and 8 loading bays ensure the ability to bring some of the industry’s biggest live productions to Manchester.
The fan experience will be further heightened by 32 bars, restaurants, and lounges, including a locally sourced and sustainable food and drink offering.
Unilumin Sports and FIBA Co-Develop UsportF24 High-Definition Perimeter Display
As an official partner of FIBA, the International Basketball Federation, Unilumin Sports is proud to announce its support of the recent FIBA EuroBasket 2022, providing perimeter screens and display control solutions to the tournament. During the partnership, which began in 2019, Unilumin Sports has supported FIBA events, such as FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 and FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2021.
FIBA’s Head of Marketing, Andreas Biffiger, said: “Unilumin Sports was instrumental in the success of FIBA EuroBasket 2022, bringing a better visual experience to the event and FIBA’s commercial partners.”
Bart Prinssen, Head of FIBA’s Equipment & Venue Centre, added that the co-developed USportF24 has several advantages: “HDR visibility of the screen is seamless for television production, the screen’s protection system keeps the screen working seamlessly, and protects the screen itself from players and officials during the game.”
With the intention of bringing a better game experience to fans and spectators, Unilumin Sports’ UsportF24 supports HDR to deliver images and video with superior brightness from a wider colour gamut. Adopting the latest high density LED package, the UsportF24’s 7680Hz high refresh rate ensures the perimeter screen content can be filmed clearly by television cameras, at the closest distances.
The combined knowledge and expertise of FIBA and Unilumin Sports has resulted in a product that meets the specific needs of televised championship basketball. With no pause for downtime during a tournament, UsportF24 incorporates smart module technology (Smart Module) to automatically detect and address changes in temperature, voltage and receiving card status, amongst other features.
Structurally, the UsportF24 surround is uniquely customised with high levels of strengthened protection suited to its potentially high-impact environment. The modules themselves are treated with a special soft mask, which prevents damage, protecting the display against ball collision and even player collision. The product also features a customised base enclosure to protect the venue floor.
The result is a seamless product that reliably meets the needs of the basketball industry with exceptional visual display quality. Unilumin Sports’ professionalism and commitment to the sports industry has earned its status as a trusted partner.
Unilumin Sports is committed to providing LED Metasight integrated sports complex solution and products including centerhung, perimeter screen, grandstand screen, and scoreboard for major competition venues, fully achieving integrated control of venues with display, lighting, control and sound system combined, creating a more perfect atmosphere for athletes and on-site audiences, and comprehensively improving the quality of venues and event operations.
Brentford FC Announce Gtech As Stadium Naming Rights Partner
Brentford FC have today announced a new ten-year stadium naming rights partnership with Grey Technology Limited (Gtech). The stadium will now be renamed as the Gtech Community Stadium.
Gtech will immediately takeover the naming rights for the stadium, which had until now been known as Brentford Community Stadium. The deal represents the largest sponsorship deal in Brentford’s history and will help to drive further investment into the Club’s ambitious plans on and off the field.
Jon Varney, Chief Executive, Brentford FC said: “Securing a naming rights deal for the new stadium is something that we have been working on for some time. It was so important for us to find a like-minded organisation. We wanted a progressive, community-minded partner who want to join us on our journey over the next decade.
“Gtech are an innovative, entrepreneurial organisation based here in England, with global ambitions. Their people are humble but with a confident, underdog mentality, taking on some huge corporations in their field. They have done things differently to get to where they are. We felt that it was a great fit for this long-term partnership.
“This investment will support our long-term plans to thrive in the Premier League. We need to continually invest into the stadium. We have recently created safe standing areas in both the home and away ends and this deal will help us explore further opportunities to enhance the matchday experience, the facilities and technology inside the stadium.”
Gtech’s mission is to create the best-loved home and lifestyle products possible. They design, manufacture, sell, and distribute small household cleaning and garden products such as cordless vacuum cleaners, floor sweepers and grass trimmers within the UK and to the rest of the world. Their founder and CEO, Nick Grey, is an award-winning inventor and designer. He has built Gtech up from humble beginnings in his own garage to the innovative, international company it has become and can also claim to have developed the world’s first cordless power sweeper.
Nick Grey, CEO and Founder of Gtech, said: “To be associated with Brentford FC is a fantastic opportunity for us. It is a stunning facility here. The club management have achieved incredible things since Matthew bought the club a decade ago. We are delighted to have Brentford playing in the Gtech Community Stadium.
“The Premier League has an incredible global audience, due to the heritage, player quality and stadium atmospheres. We are looking forward to working with the club and the fans this season and for many years to come.”
As well as the high-profile branding and signage rights which will be visible inside and outside the stadium, Gtech will also become a partner of the Brentford FC Community Sports Trust. This will enable the Trust to broaden the work they do to engage with young people across west London.
Olympism in Action Forum Kicks Off Youth Olympics Games
Congress Rental provided a complement of Analog Way equipment for the ‘Olympism in Action Forum’ in Buenos Aires. Two Analog Way Ascender 48 - 4K - PL multi-screen processors, a Saphyr multi-layer seamless mixer and five Pulse² - 3G large-venue presentation switchers drove the LED screens in the plenary hall and breakout rooms of the Buenos Aires Exhibition & Convention Center.
The first-ever “Olympism in Action Forum” kicked off two weeks of events surrounding the Third Summer Youth Olympic Games (Juegos Olimpicos de la Juventud de 2018). The Forum featured the new president of Argentina Mauricio Macri, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach and, by video, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. They emphasised the power of sport to bring people together to understand and respect each other.
The biggest AV supplier in Argentina, Congress Rental specialises in conference and corporate events, including such international gatherings as the WTO, G20 and ITU. “We offer a one-stop solution from planning the event through postproduction,” noted Congress Rental CEO Joaquin De Elias.
“For this project, the client sent us some designs of what he wanted to implement, and we suggested the technique to be used. The Analog Way equipment chosen allowed us to meet their demands as well as last-minute changes.”
The stage of the plenary hall featured a 25 x six-metre Absen 3.9mm LED main screen as a backdrop flanked by two 4.5 x six-metre side screens. Four breakout rooms had seven x two and a half-metre Absen 3mm LED screens. Two Analog Way Ascender 48 - 4K - PL were used in link mode to control the 12K content for the LED screens in the plenary hall; five Analog Way Pulse² - 3G systems were deployed for the breakout rooms.
“We chose Analog Way for its practical integration with customer requirements, its stable operation plus the ability to handle high resolutions,” said Alejandro Iglesias – CTO of Congress Rental. “Analog Way’s integration with the rest of the systems was perfect: Different types of wiring and sources were used and everything was a success.”
He noted that, “we used the Ascenders in link mode as a single video processor to increase I/Os and processing resources and to be able to share multiple inputs in different layers. Our client and the final clients were all satisfied and happy with the excellent results and the success of the event.”
Danley J1-94 Jericho Horn Covers Thompson High Football Field
Located on the south side of Birmingham, Alabama, the city of Alabaster has seen a lot of growth in recent decades. Its previous local high school was built in 1986 for at most 800 students back when the city’s population hovered around 10,000.
In its last year of service, the high school struggled to serve well over twice that number, and the city’s population has more than tripled. All of that growth and crowding inspired a $68 million project to build Thompson High School, a new state-of-the-art education complex that will handle the 2,200 students projected within the next decade. Included in that complex is a 5,500-seat football stadium complete with a Danley J1-94 Jericho Horn for full-fidelity, high-impact music and announcements.
“They really went all-out to build a great football stadium at Thompson High School,” said LaDon Findley, division manager of Encore Technologies, the local AV integration firm responsible for the design and installation of the new sound system.
“They have a big Daktronics scoreboard, and we were able to mount a Danley J1-94 Jericho Horn on top to cover the field and both sides of the stands for a single, point-source system. From an acoustics standpoint, that’s ideal, and the Jericho Horn has plenty of power to cover every seat in the stands.” LaDon continued: “True full-range sound is a big deal for live sporting events these days, and it’s definitely worked its way down to the high school level. Fans and staff want big pregame shows and big impact during the game. No one tolerates tinny, inarticulate spoken word anymore. All of the announcements need to be crystal clear and well-balanced. And finally, we’re in the South, where high school football is a big deal. We had to give Thompson High School plenty of power to overcome crowd noise. We’ve found that the Danley J1-94 Jericho Horn is the best solution out there. Just one box does it all: high fidelity, deep low end, intelligible speech and tons of output.”
The system begins with new announcement mics, 1/8-inch inputs for portable devices, a CD player, and Bluetooth wireless audio, all controlled from a Behringer x32 Rack digital mixer. From there, signal travels over fibre to a pair of Danley DNA 20k4 Pro multi-channel amplifiers with integrated DSP. The amps reside in an American Products air-conditioned amplifier rack that keeps internal conditions “comfy as a button” for the amps, in LaDon words. By keeping the amps at the base of the scoreboard, copper runs are kept to a minimum, delivering 20,000 Watts to the Danley J1-94 Jericho Horn.
The second DNA amp serves as redundant backup. “This is our second Danley Jericho Horn installation for a high school football field, and we’ve got another one lined up next month,” said LaDon. “When the client heard it and we shared a video clip of the demo, it went all over Facebook. The architect was sharing it with project staff. It’s amazing to hear such clear sound at such high volumes from a single end-fired box!”
Dejero CellSat Takes World Racing Group to Next Level
Dejero has provided its CellSat blended cellular and Ku-band IP satellite solution to World Racing Group (WRG), the premier sanctioning body for dirt track racing in the United States and Canada.
The network blending capabilities of CellSat have allowed WRG to live stream 100% of its premier racing schedule, from more venues than ever before. Reliably providing high-quality video, the CellSat service is reducing resources needed, cost, and set-up times for WRG. Since adding CellSat to its workflow in April 2018, WRG’s social media profile has sharply risen, with exponential growth in live fan engagement during races.
“Thanks to Dejero CellSat, we can now live stream up to 125 productions a year across North America,” explained Brian Dunlap, director of broadcast services at World Racing Group. “Up to this point, we were limited by technology only streaming a maximum of 50 events a year, a number we had been slowly growing since we started streaming content back in 2004. Now we can stream every single one of our races reliably even when cellular networks are congested.” WRG’s equipment is housed in a 26ft mobile production unit that travels up to 45,000 miles per season.
The Dejero CellSat connectivity service uses intelligent network blending technology that analyses the characteristics of up to six cellular connections and the Intelsat Ku-band IP connection in real-time. The Dejero algorithm dynamically and intelligently manages the fluctuating bandwidth and latency, choosing the optimal path for delivering the IP packets to the playout destination, using a combination of cellular and satellite connectivity. CellSat connects to a full production switcher capable of a multi-camera shoot, then back to the main production studio based in North Carolina. A maximum of two people are required on-site, with another manning the desk back at base. Being able to perform all broadcast and streaming tasks from within a mobile production unit has taken away the burden of setting up all the equipment out of flight packs at each event for WRG.
“The satellite capabilities of CellSat have been a critical part of our success this year, because they allow us to work independent of the cellular bandwidth available at remote venues,” added Brian. “Cellular coverage due to large crowds often dips dramatically at key times, especially at the start of a race. Seamlessly rolling over to satellite using CellSat mid-stream activation, means we don’t have to skip venues during the racing season and can bring fans the very latest racing news, live, from every single race. The reliability and the ability to do more, to work in more places thanks to CellSat has really changed the game for WRG.”
CellSat intelligently blends cellular connectivity from multiple mobile network providers with Ku-band IP satellite connectivity from Intelsat, reliably delivering the bandwidth needed to transmit broadcast-quality video in real-time. The fast, low-latency CellSat network can be accessed from virtually anywhere and since it’s available from a single provider, procurement, management and billing are greatly simplified.
The Dejero CellSat solution includes equipment, software, and connectivity services to the CellSat network—all managed in the cloud, and backed with industry-leading technical support. “We are thrilled to hear that CellSat has expanded the remote production capabilities of WRG as it live streams its races from venues across the country, which typically don’t have fiber to deliver the feeds,” said Kevin Fernandes, VP sales, Dejero. “Dejero CellSat provides the reliability and flexibility that broadcasters need to deliver a high-quality stream from remote locations, while saving time and resources.”