6 www.stadiaworld.com DIGITAL DISPLAYS jects the construction company generally issues the tender – a comparatively emotion-free impersonal procedure. A few years ago local authorities or civic planners were the contact persons for the industry. This sales channel is meanwhile almost redundant and has been outsourced to specialist companies. In the case of new installations in existing buildings the club is usually the contact person, and wants a new version of what they have already been using for a long time, or an extension of the building is to be considered. The investment cycle for LED displays is around 10 years. During this period the pixel pitch, taking a central characteristic value of 20–25mm, has in the meantime virtually decreased to 10 or even 6mm SMD. For the retrofitting of the 2nd generation, all operators have more comparison and empirical data than they had for the initial installation. And envy swiftly comes into play when other clubs show off their new installation. The fact that values are attained in terms of pixel pitch, luminosity and other parameters that bear hardly any relation to actual practice is an aspect that draws criticism from experts. But sports installations have also become more sophisticated due to the feed technology. HD is now standard, and sponsors and their agencies provide almost exclusively HD material these days which is scaled on the respective display accordingly. For this reason 10mm SMD technology has become the current standard for the displays. But an operator can also be forced to retrofit when spare parts are no longer available for existing equipment, and/or when the manufacturer is no longer in the market. In any case – for customers in the sports segment, the starting point is always somewhat more individual than in other segments. In Europe only a very modest number of sales representatives have contact with the decision makers in clubs, stadiums and arenas. Much of what goes on here depends on networking and personal contacts. If you can provide good references, you will quickly get the attention of good customers. Thus the reference list shows that the majority of current projects are in the hands of a small number of regional providers. In many cases only the manufacturer or specialist planner are listed, while teams of experts work behind the scenes, taking care of their respective areas of expertise. The fact that specific know-how is required for a manufacturer to enter this market is because every new stadium is a specially designed building. Potential major providers are unable to barge their way onto the market with just one standard solution and thus achieve their market shares. Roger Rinke, CEO of AV consultants and specialist planners Screen Visions, explains: “Contracts in this sector have no uniform structure. The parameters are different for every project. Customer requirements are also always different. Some have personnel structures that enable them to implement projects like this themselves, others rely more on consultants. The market is very diverse, so that there is a huge range of service concepts.” However, Rinke describes the number of competent specialist planners in the professional arena and stadium sector as being “a handful”. The control system for the displays runs around the building via long cabling routes, and the overall signal management can be a very specialised task. Because the video wall is no longer just a big television with a scoreboard. It has become a central component of a stadium TV system for the whole complex. The more professionalised and commercialised a club and its facilities have become, the more complicated the system. In contrast to advertising displays, which are only noticed briefly by passers-by, the video walls are at the centre of attention in stadiums, nowadays as part of an integrated audio-visual concept. Picture: STADIAWORLD
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