Feature: When bigger becomes best - February 2006  

With giant screens increasingly becoming a staple for entertaining fans at both indoor and outdoor sports events, Rachael Church, Editor of Sport and Technology, examines the pros of cons of the medium that is not for the more parsimonious of venues.

There are three main reasons why a sports venue might consider installing giant Light Emitting Diode (LED) screens or cubes, according to Henri Orpo, sales director of Darepro, a Finnish supplier of giant screens for sports venues throughout Europe including the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki. “The first reason is to make fans come back more often through creating a more attractive environment,” he says. “A cube or a screen in the centre of an arena for example is the most visible element in a sight-line, and if a club or a venue uses it wisely, it can help the crowd understand and enjoy more of the action.” The second reason is purely commercial. “Sponsors and advertisers can get additional attention during an event,” explains Orpo. His third reason is a more practical one if a venue is looking to host any major sports events. “Having an LED screen system is now often a basic bidding requirement.”
Gillon McLachlan, general manager of commercial operations at the Australian Football League, agrees with Orpo when it comes to appealing to fans. "Screens are a vital component of the match-day experience. They assist AFL spectators as they are the central point of focus at venues for game stats, time clocks, replays and club-based information.” In-venue screens are also a valuable platform for pre-game, quarter-time and half-time communication from key AFL corporate partners, according to McLachlan.  “And the co-ordinated use of in-venue screens for all Finals matches in relation to pre-game entertainment and ceremonies, enhances the at-match experience for fans in general," he says.

Clear benefits for all

Certainly, the benefits for commercial partners seem obvious, with branding displayed in giant glorious technicolour to even the most visually challenged. “In a snapshot taken from research commissioned recently to measure the relevance and efficacy of sponsored segments on the screens at both the MCG and Telstra Dome last season [in Melbourne],” McLachlan states, "over 30% of participants had unprompted recall of the sponsor of the ‘Set Shot’ segment. In addition, 60% of respondents considered that the ‘Set Shot’ enhanced the match experience.”
“The benefits for fans are that a screen naturally keeps fans informed
of the score and time, but, if well-run, also turns the game into more
of an entertainment experience,” adds John Mette, managing director of NASDAQ-listed company Daktronics’ European operation. Daktronics designs, manufactures, sells and services dynamic visual communication systems including LED screens for sports properties and events worldwide including the NFL, NHL and previous Olympic Games. “Content is key to making the screen most beneficial for the fans: a good pre-show including interviews with
players, statistics at key points during the games, replays of goals or
key plays, trivia questions relating to the teams, and many other items
can be used creatively to make the whole experience better for fans.”

Entertainment is vital

Entertaining the fans is at the heart of the concept behind Sports TV, the UK-based company that is the Official Supplier of In-Stadia Programmes for the Football League and four top Premier Rugby teams in England. Sports TV’s business development director, David Simmons, takes up the story: “We wanted a format that was similar to Sky Sports in the UK with split screens mixing programming and commercial messages. For a football match with a 3pm kick-off, fans can come to the ground early and watch the previous week’s game on screens around the concourse. At half-time we offer a 15-minute highlights package. In rugby we take things a stage further as fans tend to stay longer. At 5pm we repeat the match they have just watched live.”
A benefit to venues and clubs of a system like Sports TV is an increase in wet sales – not to mention the avoidance of crowd congestion. “What we have seen happening is that crowds are getting in earlier to watch their own club television station. This means sales of drinks and food are increasing and there’s a revenue share for national advertising partners. We also sell local advertising on the channels.”
Ireland-based LED screen supplier Euro Screen Media prefers the format of short commercial breaks rather than Sports TV’s split-screens for advertising messages, as it feels messages are less intrusive delivered that way. The company cut its sporting teeth during the UEFA European Championships in 2004 when it supplied screens and produced tournament programming for several locations in the Netherlands. This involved a EURO2004 magazine programme, live updates and scores and statistics. “Video screens at sports events give the public the chance to see things up close and personal,” says Andrew Heighway, managing director of the company.

Increasing sophistication at a price

The production facilities that support the use of a giant screen or cube are much like those in a television studio says Uwe Frommhold, from the Color Line Arena in Hamburg, a client of Darepro. “What we have is an extremely sophisticated electronic system with lots of features. We use our giant cube for everything – replays, slow motions, press conferences, adverts and so on. If it’s possible, we do it.” The Color Line Arena hosts ice hockey, handball, soccer, basketball and boxing events, as well as music concerts. “Our ice hockey tenants, the Freezers, won a German marketing prize recently for their in-venue show, and the cube is a big part of that success.”
“The great thing about our cube is that it is completely moveable,” adds Frommhold. “We can lift it higher into the roof if it is not being used and play around with sight-lines. Although we haven’t measured whether the cube has covered its costs [it was installed in 2002], it has certainly been excellent value for money.”
Certainly the cost of LED technology can be prohibitive for smaller venues. Euro Screen Media’s Heighway cites a typical screen as costing £250,000 with a life-span of around five years. Prices however have come down considerably in the last few years according to Darepro’s Orpo: “Prices were more than double the amount they are now compared with five years ago,” he explains. “Prices will fall further, although not as dramatically from now on as the market stabilises. We would expect a venue to cover its costs within three to five years – although that can be hard to gauge due to intangibles such as the feelgood factor among fans which is hard to measure.”

The Olympic experience

Audio-visual equipment manufacturer Panasonic has gone the corporate sponsorship route in order to showcase its own LED wares. As a Worldwide Sponsor of the Olympic Games, Panasonic screens will be abundant at Tornio 2006. (See Sport and Technology – February 2006: Panasonic and Torino 2006).
Meanwhile, UK public-service broadcaster, the BBC, expects large screens to play an important role when London hosts the Olympic Games in 2012. “For the last couple of years we have experimented with partners such as Philips and Panasonic through installing large screens in public places such as train stations and parks,” says Mihir Warty, head of strategy for BBC Sport. “We did this during EURO2004 and also had a large screen in Trafalgar Square last July for the 2012 host decision.” The BBC aims to roll out more large screens in public places during the 2006 FIFA World Cup, neatly killing two birds with one stone by entertaining the public and also showcasing its high-definition programming. “Then we will look beyond that for Beijing 2008 and London 2012.” Anecdotally, the BBC has received excellent feedback for its large screen outdoor installations. “Being able to cut to footage of crowd shots in itself enhances our own coverage of events. And due to the success of the large screen at the Wimbledon tennis championships on ‘Henman Hill’ [named after the British tennis player Tim Henman], the venue is able to sell tickets to that area in its own right. You can’t always capture the atmosphere on a tennis court, but you can in an informal crowd environment,” says Warty.
“At the end of the day it’s the public that matters,” concludes Orpo. “Twenty years ago fans were happy to attend a sports event and just watch their favourite athletes running around while they ate their picnics. Now they are demanding the same level of detailed entertainment that they get at home. They want more from their sport. It’s that simple.” Adds Heighway: “While I’m not convinced of the case for video on small mobile phone screens for example, there will always be a market for people attending a match or event live in the first instance, and failing that, watching it on television. LED and plasma screens are here to stay.”

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