Digital signage is advancing hockey’s ice-level advertising opportunities by incorporating LED technology into the boards to increase revenue. Since boards are prime advertising space, companies want their logos in front of fans in the stadiums as well as broadcast viewers.
The Ontario Reign, American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate of the National Hockey League’s (NHL) Los Angeles Kings, began play as the Kings’ top minor-league affiliate in 2015. The team plays at Toyota Arena, built and owned by the City of Ontario, operated by ASM Global, with a capacity of nearly 10,000 for hockey games. Toyota Arena is home to two additional professional sports tenants and also hosts concerts as well as entertainment acts and the upcoming 2020 AHL All-Star Classic.
After being awarded the 2020 AHL All-Star Classic, team management knew the 10-year-old LED display dasher boards needed updating. With the spotlight shining during NHL Network’s national broadcasts, the team knew this would be an opportunity to improve
this technology, add more LED dasher boards to increase advertising revenue, and showcase themselves as one of the league’s most technologically savvy teams and venue.
The Reign turned to Ontario, California-based Optec Displays, Inc., (Optec) and their partner P.S. Services to leverage their ability to deploy custom LED solutions for unique and wide-ranging in-game visual experiences. As a digital display solutions provider, Optec designs, engineers, and manufactures LED displays to fulfill end-users’ many different installations.
Optec proposed replacing the two existing dasher boards with 6.667mm Infinity-SMD and adding two new 6.667mm Infinity-SMD dasher boards, four totally new displays. All are housed in custom slim cabinets, each measuring 2’-4 3/8” x 7’-4 1/4” x 4”. With a high 3840 refresh rate, 6000nits and 60fps, these smooth, television camera-ready, video playback. There are two displays in the offensive zone and two installed in the defensive zone, opposite each other.
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Optec worked with P.S. Services and manufactured the displays to fit Toyota Arena’s dasher board system. P.S. Services collaborated with the building’s facility team to ensure the installation went smoothly and everything fit properly.
“Having four new, high-resolution LED displays will dramatically increase our advertising revenue while also bringing new energy to the ice for fans,” said Steve Fraser, vice president business operations Ontario Reign.
The displays are increasing brand awareness to valued partners by showing fans colorful advertisements, crowd prompts and a wide variety of other interactive content. Generating revenue is always top-of-mind for any facility. The new LED displays provide a platform for partnership advertising space, resulting in the opportunity for additional revenue and support from the local community.
“We’ll see a fast ROI on these displays because of the interest from advertisers,” added Fraser. “We realized the value before with two displays, but now with four we are providing more options and opportunities for our partners.”
Optec’s ME Pro Plus software schedules the content to the displays. Each side of the rink is linked to keep the ad content in sync with each other. The software also offers on-demand brightness timing, allowing the display to adjust its brightness based on interior light. The high-resolution displays with easily adjustable brightness levels deliver optimal visual performance under any indoor lighting conditions.
“Our partners are thrilled with these new displays that provide them with crisp images that promote their brands and messages at ice level around the rink,” commented Fraser.
WE'LL SEE A FAST ROI ON THESE DISPLAYS BECAUSE OF THE INTEREST FROM ADVERTISERS... WITH FOUR (DISPLAYS) WE ARE PROVIDING MORE OPTIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR OUR PARTNERS
Optec’s array of LED products span high-growth markets from indoor spectaculars to outdoor displays. Our solutions work to give clients increased visibility and lasting value through our innovative products, services, and support.