DIGITAL DISPLAYS 22 www.stadiaworld.com FASCIA BOARDS: COMMUNICATION AND INTERACTION What has long since been a familiar feature in multi-function arenas and stadiums in the USA was still a novelty for Germany and the rest of Europe when the Mannheim SAP Arena opened in 2005: the all-round rotating LED display, the fascia board (also called a ribbon display) on the edge of the upper tier, was constantly cited as one of the technical highlights of the new construction project. The Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) arenas in Berlin and Hamburg opened in September 2008 and 2010 respectively with just such an LED installation from the very start, thereby practically importing a US standard into Europe. In parallel with the stadium boom in Germany, a large number of top-level arenas were built; however, not all of them invested right away in digital upper tier ribbon displays. But the LANXESS arena in Cologne, one of the world’s leading arenas, has now launched a project in which the rotating displays on the upper tier are to be upgraded to LED modules. In this, Germany’s largest arena, the display will be 315 metres long. The centrepiece of this ambitious update project is a new video cube, which is to replace the existing 4-sided model installed in 2007, which weighs 20 tons, its sides measuring 27m². As another example of a world class stadium in Germany, Borussia Dortmund is equipping its SIGNAL IDUNA PARK from the summer break 2019 onwards with a 400 metre-long fascia board, which will stretch almost all the way around the upper tier of the giant building. Looking at Europe during the peak of the construction projects, similar trends towards installing permanent digital ribbon displays developed in parallel, especially in England. At the new stadiums in Wembley and Twickenham, two top class venues treated themselves to these digital ribbon displays. In the meantime, as another market leader, Tottenham Hotspur has followed suit and equipped its new premises with ribbon screens: the ribbon displays on the middle and upper tiers run Picture: Wembley Stadium
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MzU2MjQ=