VITEC's IPTV and Digital Signage Platform has enabled us to connect every layer of our organization - from our staff, administrators, coaches, players, and fans - with leading-class technology that allows every stream of content to be reliably delivered with low latency, high quality, and create an amazing user experience at each screen.
— John Penhollow
Vice President, Corporate & Technology Partnership
Powering New Content Experiences
VITEC’s EZ TV IPTV and Digital Signage Platform provides the Minnesota Vikings with a professional, broadcast-grade IPTV and digital signage ecosystem that builds upon the team’s mission to offer cutting-edge services.
Background
In 2016, the Minnesota Vikings football team moved its game-day turf to the award-winning, state-of-the-art U.S. Bank Stadium. This move was the first step for increasing fan enjoyment and engagement. It was time to not only upgrade its practice facility but to lead the charge with innovative operational and technological capabilities offered by an NFL team.
The Vikings moved into a brand-new, cutting-edge practice facility in early 2018. The center is designed to offer an incredible fan experience with a 6,500-seat practice stadium that will be used for training camp and other events.
The Solution
As a leader in video streaming solutions for the world’s most state-of-the-art sports and entertainment venues, VITEC was specified as the provider of choice even as the facility was in development.
Utilizing the comprehensive architecture of the platform, the staff would be able to centrally manage and stream HD, low latency, in-house video feeds and cable channels as well as create eye-catching digital signage for distribution to all the venue’s displays and menu boards.
VITEC's IPTV and Digital Signage Solution for Sports Venues offers a cost-effective, flexible, and open architecture that is ideal for the ever-changing video, marketing, and sales requirements of today's sports venues.
It distributes live video content from various sources including cable, satellite, off-air TV channels, and locally generated private video. Utilizing VITEC's hardware-based IPTV and signage end-points, users benefit from low-latency playback, real-time updating of electronic program guide, video-on-demand (VOD), time-shifted TV, real-time analytics, and user-controlled mosaic viewing of multiple channels.
All available streams can be mapped to create customizable channel lineups for different users and groups within the organization.
Benefits
- Operator-friendly all-in-one platform manages IPTV channels, in-house feeds, decoder end-points, content security, event schedules and digital signage campaigns
- All-in-one IPTV platform that delivers content to any display in less than 500ms, offering a cutting-edge fan experience with pristine HD/4K video and low latency streaming
- 100% hardware-based decoder end-points for low latency playback and eye-catching digital signs at a fraction of the cost of PC-based media players
- Zero reoccurring IPTV seat license fees or reoccurring digital signage license fees
- Content-provider vetted AES encryption enables quick approval of IPTV projects using VITEC’s end-to-end DRM
- User-friendly management system offers digital signage, authoring and scheduling, user tracking and analytics
Results
VITEC’s IPTV and Digital Signage Platform provides the Minnesota Vikings with a professional, broadcast-grade IPTV and digital signage ecosystem that builds upon the team’s mission to offer cutting-edge services. Full control of each video stream allowed the Vikings to support its staff and players as well as enable a new fan experience during its practice games.
With centralized creation, distribution, and monitoring of live and on-demand video content and digital signage, each display offers a unique experience that meets the requirements of the user and space. More than 300 displays of all sizes were installed, which would be responsible for delivering a wealth of content to the organization, including providing access to a broad range of TV channels, live camera feeds, as well as digital signage content.
The digital signage alone would include workout schedules, nutritional information, human resources content, and more. With such multifaceted technical and operational requirements, the Vikings needed a centralized solution that would allow its administrators to manage, create, and distribute any video feed and enable on-demand access to TV channels within an easy-to-use, affordable system that would deliver the best performance and quality of streams.
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VITEC’s EZ TV IPTV & Digital Signage Solution for Sports Venues puts Northwestern University’s Welsh-Ryan Arena in the same class as the top facilities in the world and made us a leader in collegiate sports. Now - whether fans are attending a basketball game, volleyball game, or wrestling match - every screen is delivering all the action happening on the court, with striking digital signage and video content, to every corner of the arena.
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