NEWARK, N.J.—Engaging with sports fans inside a stadium is all about taking advantage of opportunities. Ahead of the 2017-2018 NHL season, New Jersey’s Prudential Center, home of the New Jersey Devils, took the opportunity to invest in new technical facilities to take its video capabilities to the next level. We did so by installing what’s now the world’s biggest in-arena scoreboard from Trans-Lux and replacing our existing legacy video board with a new DYVI switcher from EVS.
The new DYVI switcher manages the stadium’s video content for all 41 of the Devils’ home games, as well as for the Seton Hall Pirates NCAA Division I basketball team. Additionally, it services music and cultural events held at Prudential Center annually.
CREATING ON THE FLY
There are plenty of opportunities to provide fans with engaging video content during an ice hockey, but they need to be taken advantage of in the right way. This is a fast game that’s full of energy so in-stadium video content must reflect that.
Having DYVI in place ultimately lets us create better content—faster than ever before—to engage with fans. Previously, someone would need to create graphics independently and have our switcher operator call them up from other systems. Now it’s a single-step process: One person can create assets, program and customize our graphic-centric shows ahead of a game—all entirely inside the switcher.
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Technology with which we interact with every day means anyone can be their own content creator so our operators can now much more creative. DYVI reflects this trend. Operators familiar with UX-friendly interfaces of today’s devices were quick to learn the DYVI interface. We started creating much more engaging video content almost immediately, even though DYVI is different to the traditional switchers available.
CUSTOMIZING THE LINE-UP
One of the big benefits of DYVI’s software-based infrastructure is how it lets us customize, saving themes and assets that can quickly be recalled. This is specifically useful when switching between programs for hockey, basketball or live music. In addition, DYVI allows us to easily create specific content for several themed nights during the season. Just last month, we retired Patrik Elias’ No. 26 jersey so our team created a lot of graphics and video content celebrating a seminal moment in Devils’ history.
Previously, we would have spent considerable time planning and creating content leading up to the event; now, we can turn content around incredibly quickly. Using DYVI, a member of our team can have an idea for a display element at 1 p.m. and have content ready for a rehearsal two hours later. This means we’re able to react to popular events and create specific graphics or video to better engage with fans.
One of the most important things for us is future-proofing our workflows. With just a few months between the end of one season and the start of the next, we want technology that we can build on without having to replace lots of equipment whenever we want to do something new. DYVI is perfect for this because it integrates so easily with other systems and lets us customize our workflow however we want. This means we can continue to improve the product we create to engage with fans, year after year.
Ben is in his fourth season as the director of game presentation and event production at the New Jersey Devils and Prudential Center. He can be contacted at BBroder@prucenter.com.
For more information, please visit www.evs.com or call973-575-7812.
