Ross Video incisive tech boon for venues

Image: Coliseum GSVA

Sports venues today try to boast avant-garde technology, totally cutting-edge. Venues today are not about just watching the game. It is about the fan experience while at the stadium.

James Ransome who is a tech pundit and works with Ross Video, UK, feels that audiovisual technology is intrinsic to that fan experience – from digital signs that wrap around stadium façades to luxury suites with big-screen TVs for watching the game with all the creature comforts of home.

James Ransome is the Business Development Manager of Sports and Live Events at Ross Video, UK. Ransome has been working in the field of broadcast technology for more than 12 years and with his ‘sound’ technical knowledge he has been instrumental in driving business for Ross Video in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

In an exclusive with ‘Coliseum’, James Ransome, BDM Sports and Live Events EMEA, Ross Video, UK, narrates how Ross Video pulled off a success story with their Unified Sports Venue Control Solution in powering the Nokia Arena in Tampere, Finland, and the 100-seater Confetti X esports venue in Nottingham, UK. With the latter they have managed to equip tech trappings within a very small space. He also tells how Ross Video technology helps venues garner revenue.
 

Ross Video

The Ross Video Limited is a privately-held Canadian company that designs and manufactures equipment for live event and video production. Ross Video’s headquarters and manufacturing operations are located in Iroquois, Ontario, Canada, while their research and development (R&D) labs are in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

James Ransome describes Ross Video as “A live video production technology manufacturer. Now, our solutions power video productions for billions of viewers across the globe daily. We have the industry’s widest range of video production solutions and the data-driven graphics platform which fans look out for in a venue.”

He further informed, “We are a Canadian company and we actually own all of our manufacturing units. Ross Video also takes the sustainability issue very seriously and all our production and manufacturing plants will go net zero by 2030.”
 

Audiovisual Broadcast Technology

The audiovisual technology works in synchronization to broadcast visual and auditory content. These systems essentially work together to ensure that the sound matches the image and the image matches the sound.

He said that clubs and venues invest in audiovisual broadcast technology because “it acts as a catalyst in driving the venue experience”.
 

Unified Sports Venue Control Solution

By combining the workflows of traditional production control room technology with LED content management systems Ross Video’s Unified Sports Venue Control Solution provides gameday operators with complete control of their productions while delivering a fully immersive experience for fans.
 

The Sports and Live Events Solution

Ransome pointed out that the Unified Sports Venue Solution has three main areas – “The production control room which is where one finds all the broadcast products which is used to drive a matchday show. Then we have got our own graphics platform and we use that to drive all of the LED displays which are a visual stunner. And lastly, a piece of software that we call Dashboard which controls all of our technology.”

Ross Video works across all kinds of sports – be it esports or Premier League (UK).
 

Dashboard

The DashBoard is a free and open platform from Ross Video for facility control and monitoring that enables users to quickly build unique, tailored CustomPanels that make complex operations simple.
 

Nokia Arena (Case Study)

The 15,000-capacity Nokia Arena is an indoor arena in Tampere, Finland. It hosts ice hockey games, including the 2022 Men’s World Championship and large cultural events. It is also the home arena of the Finnish professional ice hockey teams Ilves and Tappara of the SM-liiga (the top professional ice hockey league in Finland). It went on stream on December 3^rd, 2021.

He was all praise for the Nokia Arena which he described as a very “technologically advanced facility and we provide the broadcast technology to the Arena to drive all the LED displays”.

With the present breed of fans being a discerning lot with sophisticated tastes, “Venues can no longer afford to have one function in an arena. Venues need to be able to host multiple sports, concerts, corporate events which also keep the facilities’ cash registers jingling. The Nokia Arena operators understand this fact well enough and they wanted us to provide a flexible live production technology that would enable them to provide the audio-visual spectacle for all kinds of events held.”

He added, “We also implemented our Unified Venue Control Solution at the Nokia Arena and as part of that exercise we centralized the production control room and the LED display control system so that the venue operators can drive and direct all of that content from one panel.”
 

Confetti X Esports Complex (Case Study)

The £5million 100-seat Confetti X Esports Complex in Nottingham, England (UK) is a space for students to access the very best facilities and technology for esports production and other emerging technologies.

Ransome described it as a very “Modest arena and is actually only 4,000 square feet. The arena is owned by the Nottingham Trent University. So, its primary function is to provide the facilities for both esports production and esports business courses at the University.”

The “intimate arena” has been built to hold multipurpose activities so that it can keep the revenue wheels well-oiled.

Using Ross Video technology, the small arena has been able to install a 4K UHD Broadcast and Content Creation Infrastructure above a high spec broadcast gallery – “By boasting that content creation studio within the arena they are able to outsource it or hire it to a corporate or other production companies looking to use the venue which also provides grist for their revenue mills. And for a very small arena they also boast a massive LED videoboard and individual streaming stations.”
 

Nottingham Trent University

The Nottingham Trent University is a public research university in Nottingham, England (UK). Its roots go back to 1843 with the establishment of the Nottingham Government School of Design, which still exists within the university today.
 

Sum-up

James Ransome concluded by stating, “Our biggest challenge with the Confetti X Esports Complex was that we were dealing with students and we were expected to provide state-of-the-art technology across esports production involving solutions so that the University could provide the best experience and education to the students. Ross Video cutting-edge technology helped to provide a huge production field in a tiny space and we also trained the students on how to deploy our tech tools. It was a huge challenge for us and we managed to achieve tech feats both in the Nokia Arena and the Confetti X Esports Complex.”

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