Chelsea football club installs digital signage with Tripleplay's IPTV system

Improve the audiovisual offer for fans, generate new revenue opportunities and open new lines of business at London's Stamford Bridge stadium, headquarters of this team, have been the main reasons to trust the digital signage technology of this manufacturer.

Considered one of the main football clubs in Europe and with followers all over the world, Chelsea FC has completed an audiovisual improvement project at its stadium, el Stamford Bridge, located in Fulham, west of london, to provide its fans and visitors with quality images during matches, as well as a differential television offer.

The objective set by those responsible was to replace the existing distribution network with coaxial, complex maintenance, in Stamford Bridge for a state-of-the-art solution, IP based, that would cover both the audiovisual expectations and experience of the fans in the stadium as well as generate new income opportunities and open new lines of business for the club..

Chelsea FC wanted to use IP technology for its television service as a replacement for its coaxial distribution network, due to the need to constantly balance and calibrate the analog television signal throughout the stadium, in addition to controlling the management of noise and interference that affected the level of quality of the signal offered.

The solution was to install a system that could simplify the management of television distribution in all areas of Stamford Bridge, without the need to have different television headers, as well as in different locations within the stadium, hotel and training grounds. The requirement is that it be a platform capable of adapting to future changes in TV services and allowing them to easily add new functionalities as new needs are identified..

The ability to provide high quality image without compromising flexibility and robustness was a key requirement in the project., as well as eliminate constant maintenance updates in the coaxial distribution network. Another factor to consider was the investment that the club had already made in Samsung televisions for reuse in the new project..

During the search process for this platform, Those responsible for Chelsea FC also decided to develop new lines of income that would incorporate the television service that was being offered in the stadium infrastructure..

The TV over IP solution chosen had to provide digital signage services, to display different types of content, mainly advertising and promotions, from the hotel and to the guest and exhibition area, to certain screens in the stadium, as well as additional video streaming services to offer a quality visual experience during matches.

The chosen solution that met these requirements has been the IPTV and digital signage platform of Tripleplay, with an end-to-end project based on thin client to provide standard and high definition television sources, as well as content from the digital screens distributed throughout the club's facilities.

The client device used is a standard high definition IP Set Top Box, providing remote management, reliability and scalability for future needs, plus work with any existing or new digital display.

Tripleplay's centralized and integrated solution allows TV sources to be distributed to end devices, content and playlists to the stadium's digital signage systems, with specific content for the area based on the requirements of its different users, whether they are corporate clients, aficionados, club staff or marketing teams.

How the TV over IP solution has eliminated signal quality problems, Chelsea FC can provide more and personalized services to different types of audience, with the consequent return on investment in the system. Stamford Bridge has three hundred screens distributed throughout the stadium; 192 hotel rooms with TV, and forty displays in the training fields, all under a single television system.

Specifically, Live TV feeds between training pitches and stadium ensure real-time information is provided, especially for press conferences, as well as on other parties, merchandising and season pass offers, advertising and sponsor information etc..

The club has a wide selection of TV channels available on the network, including Digital Terrestrial Television, satellite and Premium and Chelsea FC Match Day channels, that are shown on any of the more than three hundred screens in the stadium. The system allows you to record any television channel that is being broadcast over the network to analyze it later..

To take the audiovisual experience of fans even further and keep them involved, Chelsea FC plans to add HD video sources for match days. To do this, it will install a reporting module in order to control and analyze access to content to authorized personnel., as well as an event manager to the platform integrated with the stadium system to react instantly to alarms or emergencies.