Page 12 - Security Today, June 2018

Video Grand Slam
Pitching power and an Ultra HD over IP system drives the new fan experience at the Great American Ball Park
BTy Taft Stricklin
he Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati is the hallmark of America’s greatest pastime and home to baseball’s oldest franchise, the Cincinnati Reds. The organization has made its mission to keep the team’s greatness alive through continuous upgrades that fur-
ther boost and enhance the fan experience. In addition to new food and entertainment options, providing high-end visual technology was a large priority—delivering a bevy of video walls, projectors, interac- tive screens, and flat screens that would entertain fans in and out of their seats for the ultimate game day.
Technology solutions integrator Nor-Com has worked with the stadium since 2014, and was tasked by the ball park to design and implement a visual system that would put the stadium on the cutting- edge. For the 2017 season, the Cincinnati Reds added a new exclu- sive Champions Club, the Scouts Club and the view level bar that all needed a state-of-the art video distribution system to allow the ball park to distribute HD video to a range of sources within each space.
Play Ball!
Because the stadium was continuing to add and refurbish spaces over a course of a few years, it was imperative that Nor-Com select and install a video distribution system that would work with today’s and
12
0618 | SECURITY TODAY
tomorrow’s video formats as well as a range of sources. The company decided that the old switching system that had been installed in other areas of the stadium didn’t meet the needs of the organization. It was cumbersome to install, required pulling a lot of cabling, and was dif- ficult for users to operate.
“We had to do repeated error checks to ensure it was all routed and connected properly,” said Gary Snyder, technology resource manager for Nor-Com. “Then it required users to follow six different steps to send a source to a single display. And in this stadium, where the Reds have really put a lot of emphasis on visual entertainment with displays literally everywhere and a dozen or more sources in each space, it was too complex for them to easily manage.”
They needed a platform that would support any source—includ- ing HD tuners, Blu-ray players, video game consoles, presentation inputs, digital signage and dynamic video wall graphics, live broad- cast feeds, and more—and distribute it to any screen with ease. It also needed to be scalable and modular, allowing the organization to add new screens as needed in each space. The system would also need to support the upgrade from VGA to 1080p and be capable of transitioning to 4K in the future without ripping and replacing the infrastructure in place. Finally, the solution needed to be easy to con- trol, allowing users to push a button to operate all the displays in one
SPORTS FACILITY SECURITY