PHILADELPHIA, PA — Lincoln Financial Field, home of the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles, is one of the sports venues that have been turning to Click Effects for their digital content delivery system. Click Effects, a division of Nashville-based Sound & Video Creations, has been relying, in turn, upon Vista Systems’ Spyder for live multiple-destination video and data mixed signal switching with real-time windowing and composition.
More details from Vista Systems (www.vistasystems.net):
“Vista Systems’ Spyder is used in virtually every large professional project with displays over 1080p or with displays requiring multiple windows,” says Greg Stocker, managing director of the sports division of Click Effects. “We’ve worked on nearly a dozen projects in the past few years — all using Spyder, in conjunction with our Crossfire and Blaze video playback systems, to facilitate a level of visual sophistication that fans are accustomed to seeing on broadcast television.”
In addition to Lincoln Financial Field, sports venues featuring Spyder include Bank of America Stadium, home of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers; NRG Stadium (formerly Reliant Stadium), home of the NFL’s Houston Texans; Toyota Center, home of the NBA’s Houston Rockets; American Airlines Center, home of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and NHL’s Dallas Stars; EnergySolutions Arena, home of the NBA’s Utah Jazz; and EverBank Field, home of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars.
The new installation at Lincoln Financial Field is believed to have the most extensive content delivery system of any pro sports venue. “We have more than 30 content delivery systems playing audio, video, graphics and data over all of the LED displays, digital signage and ancillary displays,” says Stocker. “If you include suite and concourse monitors there are over 1,000 displays.”
To accomplish that feat operators marshal Crossfire systems, with HDSDI output, and Blaze systems, with DVI output; ten Crossfires handle L-Bar custom advertising alone.
The LED displays, as well as the digital signage and ancillary displays, are so large that three Spyder X20 1608s are used. Content delivery includes live feeds, replays, animations, stats, advertising and crowd motivational videos.
“Spyder enables users to put multiple sources over the huge displays in one canvas,” Stocker explains. “It also facilitates synchronous playback, including on suite and concourse displays, to completely envelop fans in ‘moments of exclusivity,’ such as a touchdown. And it’s all done with very smooth transitions and production values that approximate what fans see on the broadcast networks.”
Before Lincoln Financial Field’s installation came online Click Effects’ most ambitious pro sports project was Houston’s NRG Stadium where “as many as eight to ten sources feed a display that’s nearly 200 feet wide,” says Stocker. “Spyder creates numerous windows then goes to a full-screen replay or animation. Spyder transitions smoothly to reveal stats, advertising and live video.
“We’ve worked with half-a-dozen different multi-window scalers over the years and nothing has been remotely as powerful and reliable as Spyder,” he continues. “The number of layers it handles and how they’re manipulated, the ability to scale effortlessly — these are all hallmarks of Spyder. Nothing can match its reliability, power and transparency of integration with other content delivery systems.”
Click Effects also considers Spyder to be the go-to image processor for college sports installations. “Spyder is also a great choice for college venues,” Stocker reports.
This fall at LSU’s Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge a single Spyder X20 1608 is working in combination with more than ten Crossfire and Blaze systems to drive the big LED display. “They’re getting the kind of broadcast looks they were unable to achieve before,” he says.
And at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville a Spyder is part of new centralized control for the inhouse TV station where it teams with Crossfire and Blaze systems to drive content to a high-density LED wall.
