ANC Sports Debuts Digital Signage at Professional Tennis Event in U.S.
Joe Matrone heard his phone ring at 5:00am on February 28th and knew immediately his day was not going to get any easier.
ANC Sports’ operations manager, Matrone received a phone call from a delivery truck which could not find Madison Square Garden. The cargo on the truck was over 300 feet of ANC Sports’ 22mm LED Diamond Vision Event Perimeter Signage which was needed for the BNP Paribas Showdown, a tennis event scheduled for that same night at MSG.
The BNP Paribas was scheduled to become the first professional tennis event in the United States to feature LED signage around the court’s perimeter. However, since Madison Square Garden is one of the busiest arenas in the world, ANC’s operations team only had 12 hours to unload, install, power and test the signage before the gates opened. Since the venue is currently undergoing renovations, ANC also had a specific 5:30am-6:00am window to unload the equipment at the loading docks.
“A lot of times, you have the luxury of a day or two to set up and test the equipment,” said Matrone. “We had only a matter of hours on the day of the event.”
Typically ANC’s operations team has two or three days to prepare for an upcoming event, so Matrone needed to consolidate two to three days work into just a few hours. In an effort to help beat the clock, ANC staged a test run at its warehouse the week prior to the event. During the test run, the signage was positioned in a similar format to how it would appear at MSG, as well as received maintenance such as calibration, modules painted, and electrical cables checked.
Once on the ground at MSG, ANC worked closely with the venue’s various union employees to begin the set up of the signage. With eight employees on site, Matrone was confident ANC would meet the deadline. However, after unloading the signage, the process was stopped.
Organizers of the BNP Paribas wanted to change the height of the manufactured tennis court, delaying ANC’s installation. Once the court was finalized, ANC began to install the signage equipment, only to realize the adjusted height of the tennis platform would block the bottom row of pixels on the signage.
Since this was the first ever digital signage being featured in tennis, Chris McClave, ANC’s executive producer, was in route to MSG with members of the design team to be onsite to adjust the content once the modules were installed.
“The boards are a lot closer to the action for tennis than other events we normally do,” said McClave. “We have to take that into account when we’re building the graphics. We can’t use any small text that might be hard to read when you’re right up on top of the sign. We also have to cater to the TV audience and consider how close the cameras are going to be to the boards.”
After receiving a call from Matrone on his way to the venue, McClave knew additional modifications would have to be made due not only to the court’s height, but also the specifications of the actual display.
“We were pulling and adding cabinets just hours before gates opened because the specs were slightly skewed from what we originally received,” said Matrone.
When McClave and the Design team arrived, the event’s producers StarGames and MSG Sports, were making alterations to the court, so adjustments to the signage was made on the fly to accommodate for last-minute access points, TV camera placements, and judges chairs. These changes forced the creation of complete new content to meet the layout.
Further complicating the installation, Matrone and his crew did not receive power for the units until 3:30 pm which would set off a 2 ½ hour coordinated effort between ANC’s operations team, design team, ESPN’s production team, and StarGames before the venue’s doors opened.
“The designs were all nailed down over the past three or four weeks. But we still make changes right up until the event starts,” said McClave. “We can’t really finalize anything until we see the boards live at the event. Once everything was turned on, we looked made changes to the content which ensured the best presentation.”
While the design team was tweaking the content, the operations department was coordinating with ESPN’s production crew to ensure a proper display appearance throughout the entire broadcast, which featured tennis legends Andre Agassi, Ivan Lendl, John McEnroe and Pete Sampras. While speaking with the production truck outside, ANC’s staff adjusted the brightness of the signage which ensured they were crystal clear not only for the spectators at the arena, but also for the broadcast audience.
Televised on ESPN3.com and ESPN2, the court was surrounded by six sections of LED signage, which were originally planned for 54 feet each. However, after the on the fly adjustments, the final set up included three sections of 49.5 feet (11 LED cabinets) and three sections of the original 54 feet (12 LED cabinets) creating new dynamic advertising inventory for the event.
“We were able to sign sponsorships with companies that we otherwise wouldn’t have room for,” said Jerry Solomon, President and CEO of StarGames Solomon in an interview with
SportsBusiness Journal. “For our major sponsors, there were certain times when the entire court was BNP Paribas signs, full domination.”
The signage was driven by ANC’s patent-pending VisionSOFT operating software which enables the displays to seamlessly transition from static images to full motion content in multiple quadrants or as one coordinated animation. Operated by ANC’s technicians, the signage flawlessly featured advertiser content, event information and player introduction animations throughout the evening.
"The flexibility and features within the ANC system allow us to be on the cutting edge which is a great addition for our sponsors and fans," added Solomon.
The BNP Paribas Showdown was the headline event of the USTA’s Tennis Night in American celebration of tennis, which is the start of the sport’s largest tennis youth recruitment effort.
“Together we set a new standard not only with the signage but the cooperation between StarGames and ANC,” said J. Wayne Richmond of BNP Paribas Showdown.
FOOTAGE OF ANC'S LED SIGNAGE AT THE EVENT