Digital Signage with Broadcast Quality Production Values
The ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex is a massive 220-acre sports wonderland at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, FL , which hosts nearly 300 amateur and professional sports events each year. The complex was re-launched on February 25, 2010, when Walt Disney World Resort and ESPN joined forces to re-imagine Disney’s Wide World of Sports as ESPN Wide World of Sports, creating a stateof- the-art, truly immersive sports experience for the nearly 2 million amateur athletes, coaches, and spectators who visit each year.
Creating content that closely resembles ESPN’s on-air branding was essential to the purpose of the digital signage network, and X2O Media worked closely with ESPN creative staff to adapt the on-air style to the digital signage environment. Disney and ESPN have installed 42 HD video cameras at different venues throughout the complex, another 10 handheld cameras, and 40 HD video screens — including large LED walls above the welcome center and inside Champion Stadium. Amateur and professional athletes can watch screens throughout the complex that include local events and scores, ESPN highlights, the ESPN BottomLine ticker, and much more.
X2O’s Xpresenter 3.0 digital signage platform distributes 34 channels of highlights and dynamic content to the complex’s HD screens, including multiple real-time data sources, such as weather, news, and live tournament results. Providing a completely customized experience for every venue at the complex, Xpresenter allows each display screen to have its own individual content, or all screens can display the same information. All content is displayed as high-resolution 3D graphics and animations in a style designed to closely mimic ESPN’s familiar on-air brand. The systems’ users work within the easy-to-use X2O Web Portal, a comprehensive cloud-based platform that provides a one-stop administrative shop to manage all functions of a digital signage network of any size, from one screen to thousands. Through the Portal, users are able to manage assets, schedule content, monitor each channel’s output, and control various playout functions, all with ease.
Content is managed by multiple users, each assigned appropriate roles and permissions. The content shown on the displays features X2O’s “smart template” approach, whereby templates include links to real-time content and automatically update event information on the screens, saving content managers an enormous amount of time and effort, and ensuring that the information on the screens is relevant and current for viewers. The Xpresenter platform is also driving content on the prominent baseball stadium scoreboard during games, as well as a giant circular ticker display at the park entrance with real-time news and announcements.
