LED/LCD, audio, lighting and information on one platform: Colosseo

Whilst recent advances in the world of in-venue video screens have seen a move towards ever larger high-definition LCD and LED boards, Joseph Bocko, President & CEO of Colosseo USA, shares his thoughts with Coliseum on the venue display industry and his vision of a future where spectators demand an evolution from entertainment towards infotainment. To meet Colosseo’s experts visit Coliseum Summits around the world.

 
Who is COLOSSEO?

“Colosseo is the name of the product and the name of the company, with Headquarters in Bratislava, Slovakia, with a massive Research and Development team focused on sports venue turn key technology solutions.”

 
Content delivery sophistication is the key

“We all understand that technology is evolving very fast and venues are rapidly adding new LED and LCD media to elevate monetizing of advertisement and fan engagement. Facing this complexity, the goal should be to simplify content delivery management tasks. Instead of having several separate sub-systems running media, control rooms should have all of their media on the same platform capable of delivering any type of digital content to any type of screen at any given time. Simply said, modern venues, regardless of their size, should have all media seamlessly integrated on a common media platform. The key is enabling venues to optimize digital content distribution by applying the best features and benefits of today’s technologies.”

 
Lightweight, yet heavy-impact solutions

“Indoor sports venues are commonly also a place for entertainment with constantly growing demands for temporary rigging loads by concert promoters. In order to maximize their allowance for temporary loads, the key for modern venues is to avoid the application of heavy steel in the structural engineering of center hung video boards. The core of the center hung structures must be fully aluminum. You don’t want to have to allocate too much of your permanent load to the center-hung boards. While many on the market weigh 90,000 pounds, same size units with a fully aluminum core are just around 50,000 pounds.

The weight of center hung video boards is strategically important for the future of any sports and entertainment venue because in order to survive they must book concerts and temporary rigging demands are always pushing for more. Therefore the weight of the center hung video board is of a huge importance.”

 
Making it personal

“End devices are a crucial aspect for the future of all successful sports venues because the young generation is inseparable from their smartphones. The key is enabling fans to pull desirable content from the control room library and monetizing advertisement on personal devices at the same time. Venues that realize this, will be successful because people simply enjoy seeing highlights and replays from ongoing games on their smartphones. Modern venues need a content delivery system that is able to provide personalized game presentation.”

 
US sports venues today

“The US market is very conservative. Venues are used to working with traditional broadcasting systems. We decided to enter the US market because of the revolutionary changes that we see are possible. We’ve found it takes time to work with venues to convince them just to look at what technologies are globally out there and available to assist them with better monetizing of advertisement and increasing attendance.

Obviously, anything we do can be done with a massive broadcasting solution, no question, but then, the costs are significantly higher. Our goal is to allow even minor league venues without multi-million dollar budgets to have major league venues game presentation and fan engagement. “

“Our belief is that traditional broadcasting solutions in venue control rooms cannot compete with highly sophisticated IP based control room solutions. The key is to meet the new expectations of younger fans and new sponsors. It is much easier with a modern IP based approach.”

“The main competition to venue entertainment is home entertainment. Any successful venue must think twice about how they are going to entertain people in the near future because TV broadcasting in the home has reached phenomenal levels: you can see perfect replays, statistics, graphics and analysis from the comfort of your home. Venues obviously want to see fans keep coming to see the action live, but given the money they are going to spend, it needs to be worth it. People inside the bowl have very little information, not even close to the detail that they get at home. It is up to venue managers to do their due diligence and to find out how to turn a causal fan into a season ticket holder. The technology is there ready to assist them. “

« Previous News: Cox steers from ovals to rectangular stadiums
» Next News: The return of Pokemon – into your stadium?