The
ESPRIT arena in Düsseldorf, one of Europe's most modern multifunctional arenas for sports and entertainment events and with a spectator capacity of up to 66,000, uses IPTV products from
Teracue.
More than 80 TV screens are positioned in the most diverse of areas throughout the entire arena. The TV screens are to be found in the entrance area, at the VIP Check-in, in the Business-Club, in the corporate boxes, within the Havanna Bar and in the press conference room.
The TV screens are connected to the IP Network by means of standard Amino Set Top Boxes and receive all TV and input signals via this connection. The Set Top Boxes are connected to the TV screens by means of HDMI or multi cable (FBAS, components or YUV).
In order to supply the satellite signals, Teracue employed six DVB-TV, DVB-to-IP Gateways of the DMM-140 Series. Currently, a total of 21 television channels are being fed into the network as IP Streams. In the process, an unlimited number of Set Top Boxes can be fed by one single TV-Network Stream.
Three Teracue ENC Series Encoders are used for the production of media for the stadium itself. The Encoders generate in-house video streams and these video streams are used to feed specific signals, such as 'Fan-TV' or advertising channels, to the TV screens located throughout the stadium. These video streams can be made available on the TV screens in order to display information, corporate videos and for advertising and promotion purposes before and after events such as concerts or during the half-time break at football matches.
The switching of the Set Top Boxes, in other words the selection of the input signals, is carried out by the Teracue ElementManager. The software applications can remotely control the Set Top Boxes either individually or in groups via the network. The Set Top Boxes can be switched to specific channels, meaning specific video streams, before, during and after events. This allows for the quick, easy and uniform configuration of all televisions at specific times during events. 'Fan-TV' can be shown during the halftime break at football matches for example. Although many artists often prefer that the screens display only blank screens during their concerts, before and after the concerts on the other hand, advertising films can be shown and the televisions can be used for marketing purposes.
The television displays in the corporate boxes can be controlled independently and the channels can be selected for the individual corporate box. The ElementManager can be used here to bring all the displays into a predefined starting position at the beginning of an event.
During the initial installation five years ago, the ESPRIT arena had already placed great importance on a flexible video distribution with its choosing of Teracue Streaming Products and the distribution via standard IP Networking Technologies. Since the 'HD-Upgrade' in October 2010 HD-Ready DVB-TV Gateways from Teracue und Set Top Boxes are now also in use.