Fan experience and engagement enriched with video at UBS Arena.
UBS Arena is a 745,000ft squared multi-purpose arena located on the historic grounds at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York which opened in November 2021.
As well as being the home of the National Hockey League team, the New York Islanders, the arena is utilized throughout the year for other events ranging from concerts with A-list artists, monster truck shows, and family shows, with over 150 events scheduled across the calendar year. It has a game day seating capacity 17,250 for hockey and can reach 19,000 for other select events.
Deploying innovative technology to help engage fans and enrich their experience was a key consideration for the design team, and considerable investment was made in specifying and securing leading edge technology.
Befitting a state-of-the-art arena, the venue has been equipped with approximately 800 professional displays and eight LED video walls installed across the concourse, reimagined concessions featuring market style locations, executive suites, club retail store as well as outside on plaza boards and billboards in key locations, creating maximum impact for fans and event sponsors.
Single platform with easy scheduling offering maximum flexibility
With a strong track record of large-scale arena deployments Tripleplay’s Digital Engagement Platform, incorporating digital signage and IPTV, was selected as the ideal technology to deliver on the requirements to engage and inform fans across multiple areas in the venue. Fundamental to their decision, was the ability to use the platform to switch content around quickly and easily, and from a single central CMS.
Ryan Halkett, SVP Event Presentation and Content Experiences UBS Arena explained further, “One of our key requirements was to have a platform to communicate to our customers with ease and allow us to target information to the many different types of zones we have at the arena. Tripleplay has given us the tool to achieve this.”
As UBS Arena is a multi-event environment, digital signage displays, and CMS profiles can be seamlessly switched between the Islanders and any of the other live events.
This Site Profile Switching functionality allows users representing different events or teams sharing the same CMS to simultaneously update and manage their content without impacting each other and the whole or part of the arena can be quickly and easily rebranded.
Audiences will only view relevant content, helping to ensure increased engagement and a more enriched experience.
Halkett commented, “At UBS Arena, we regularly change content for each event and artist, but also may trigger ad-hoc content to change several times during an event in line with the live action and in addition to our scheduled content. As the user interface is highly intuitive, we can make these changes quickly and easily during an event.”
He enthused further adding, “When there is a home goal, the arena can be electrified into a dynamic environment that really captures the fans’ attention as we quickly switch the content to reflect the excitement of what’s happening out there on the ice.”
Strong long-term strategic partnerships and increased revenue streams
In addition to showing upcoming events, ticketing, menu boards, and live TV stream across the digital signage estate, third party advertising and sponsorship information provides engaging content for fans and an additional revenue stream for the arena, with proof of play reporting. This means they can provide commercial partners with screen time analytics, helping secure profitable future partnerships.
“For our valued sponsors, we’ve created a whole new opportunity for them to extend their messaging while also providing us with an additional revenue stream. It’s a win-win.” added Halkett.
Furthermore, with live events being one of the staples of the arena, ensuring fans never miss out on any of the live action or entertainment is important. High quality, low latency encoding helps to optimize fan experience, synchronizing live camera feeds of event action across the arena.
Should ticket holders leave their seats to buy refreshments or visit other concessions during the event, they can still see, hear, and celebrate key moments at the same time as those sat in their seats.