You don’t need to be into baseball to have heard about the oldest ballpark. The 112-year-old Fenway Park, home to my Boston Red Sox, still has a manual scoreboard, and the fans would rather shut down the park than have that go away. It’s part of the Green Monster experience.
But lest you think that the Fenway Sports Group, the owner of the Boston Red Sox, hasn’t got today’s fans in mind, and ensuring the experience keeps everyone engaged well beyond the seventh-inning stretch. I had the great opportunity to go behind the scenes and even made it onto the centerfield videoboard, which measures 100 feet wide by 38 feet high.
We reached out to 26 AV/IT industry thought leaders and asked them to share insight into the technologies that make a difference in sporting venues and esports arenas.
“One of the most important elements in creating an immersive esports environment, whether on campus or online, is delivering consistent, high-quality audio for both athletes and spectators,” said Mario Ponce, market development at Shure. “Clear, uninterrupted sound not only keeps competitors connected but also drives engagement for audiences following every play.”
Lisa Barlow Flournoy, marketing support manager at DVIGear, added, “High-performance signal distribution is key to engaging and stimulating esports events.” During a demo of DVIGear’s DisplayNet Formula IP racing rig, she noted, “The demonstration provides a fun and exciting way to experience the real-world advantages of SDVoE, especially the high-quality imaging and zero frame latency.”
A price can be put on experience. “The most successful venues recognize that return on experience (ROE) can be as critical as ROI. Today’s spectators expect multiple large, high-definition displays that deliver pristine, reliable, and dynamic visuals,” said Rob Zeller, vice president of dvLED at Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America. “Low fidelity, visual defects, or technical failures can quickly erode engagement and diminish the energy of an event.”
Duncan Miller, director of global marketing at Adder Technology, said, “Transformation technologies in sporting venues are those that strengthen responsiveness, resilience, and operational freedom. IP KVM is central to that shift, empowering teams to produce richer, faster, more engaging content no matter where the operators, or their systems, are located.”
Immersive sports coverage is about the connection between players and their fans, teams, and communities, said Paul Richards, chief revenue officer at PTZOptics. “As production technology becomes more accessible, the focus shifts from hardware to storytelling. With PTZ cameras and intelligent control systems, educational institutions can deliver professional-quality coverage that celebrates their athletes and inspires their audiences—on campus and beyond.”
As colleges and universities invest in state-of-the-art sporting and esports facilities, the ability to deliver high-impact visual experiences has become just as important as the action on the field—or on screen, said Daniel Maloney, technical marketing manager at Matrox Video. “To engage fans, athletes, and remote audiences alike, these venues need infrastructures capable of distributing pristine, synchronized, low-latency video and audio signals across multiple displays, scoreboards, and production zones.”
Shane Roma, technical product manager of dvLED for Commercial Displays at ViewSonic, added, “An engaging and immersive esports experience is an amalgamation of technology, equipment, environment, community, and players’ skills. Because esports are a lot more visual than other athletic events, technological advancements can have a major impact on both players and the audience.”
Check out the sidebar to read these full interviews, plus many more.
