Berlin, Germany and London, UK, 25/10/17: Opened in 2008, the Mercedes-Benz Arena is a multi-purpose facility in Berlin, owned and operated by the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG). With capacity for up to 17,000 spectators, the Mercedes-Benz Arena is one of Germany’s largest indoor arena and has hosted some of the world’s biggest names in music and sports ranging from NHL Ice Hockey to FIBA Basketball and UFC.

In 2015 Mercedes-Benz became the naming rights partner and principal sponsor of the venue; formerly O2 World.

Following investment from its new principal sponsor, AEG chose to upgrade the venue’s technology infrastructure, with a new IPTV and Digital Signage system a major part of the enhancement to improve the customer experience and develop new revenue opportunities.

AEG wanted a cost-effective  IPTV and Digital Signage solution that would provide all of the features a modern day Arena would expect and a modern audience would deserve; remote screen control, content scheduling, event triggers, social media delivery, user access control and low latency IP streaming.

With experience in more than fifty other stadia and arenas, Tripleplay was well placed to deliver the solution the Mercedes-Benz Arena wanted.

Professional solution

In total around 200 screens with IPTV and Digital Signage capabilities were deployed at the arena using the Tripleplay IPTV Head End and Digital Signage CMS built on HP Enterprise servers, Amino H150 Set Top Box (STB) delivered to professional-grade NEC screens.

Screens were deployed in the Arena’s VIP areas, bars, restaurants, F&B concession stands and concourse, giving AEG a direct communications channel to all areas of the public within the venue and a large network to distribute IPTV streams to and zone their messaging accordingly.

Tripleplay’s platform is also integrated with the venue’s legacy scoreboard software from Schauff and iCast, enabling statistics and game times to be displayed on any screen in the venue, giving a single point for the venue team to manage on event day.

As an additional content source, Tripleplay’s TripleSign Digital Signage also distributes social media feeds used by the Mercedes-Benz Arena; creating an instant and engaging platform for visitors and linking the mobile experience to the flat screen.

Low latency live streaming

As part of the solution, Tripleplay’s low latency HD Encoder is deployed at the Mercedes-Benz Arena enabling the delivery of live event and sport streams from ‘in-bowl’ to any screen or device on the Digital Signage network, with lower than 300ms of end-to-end delay.

By ensuring latency of live content is low the venue enables ticket holders to feel more inclined to leave their seats and visit food and beverage or merchandising outlets without missing any of the action in the arena.

Enterprise features

To ensure access to the system is controlled and fully complies with AEG policies, the Tripleplay solution is integrated into the operator’s Active Directory user access system and meet their corporate security requirements.

This integration ensured that users of the Tripleplay platform are only presented with the areas of the system they are allowed to access; providing an added level of security and control for the venue’s technical team.

Mercedes-Benz Arena has also deployed Tripleplay’s STB client control solution, TripleClient onto employee tablets and phones, to schedule venue screens and projectors to power on and off, alter screen volume and to allow ad-hoc control of every single screen; permitting the display of a unique experience at each of the 200 screens on site.

Whilst the Tripleplay platform offers a wide range of technical capabilities, contains a broad range of features and has incredible flexibility, it was also the most cost-effective solution for the venue; making it much simpler for the operators to justify the budget spend and to achieve a rapid return on its investment.

Tripleplay’s solution has proven a simple to operate, effective communications platform for AEG and the Mercedes-Benz Arena.