Canucks Sports and Entertainment Embraces Harris Infocaster Digital Signage

Canucks Sports and Entertainment, owner of professional hockey franchise the Vancouver Canucks, has deployed an extensive sports video network throughout the team’s home venue based on Harris Broadcast’s InfoCaster digital signage technology.

InfoCaster replaces static, backlit signage displays, and was a key building block in a new focus on connecting with fans at Rogers Arena, home of the Vancouver Canucks. Canucks Sports and Entertainment, which also owns Rogers Arena, has seen dramatic increases in fan engagement and sales revenues since installing InfoCaster.

“We nearly doubled revenues associated with the digital signage early on, and have since boosted revenues an additional 25 percent,” says David Comuzzi, senior director of corporate partnerships for Canucks Sports and Entertainment. “This has led to a rapid return on investment.”

InfoCaster delivers customized Canucks video presentations to more than 450 digital displays strategically placed throughout Rogers Arena, including entranceways, upper and lower concourses, concession areas and restrooms. Fans can see many concourse banners featuring eye-catching 48:9 cinematic video — such as player profiles — spanning three landscape-oriented HD displays positioned side-by-side at intervals overhead. Displays include welcome screens, digital menu boards, three-screen advertising boards and community boards.

“Our goal was to use environmental branding to create captivating imagery and storytelling that builds excitement for the game, fosters an affinity for our players and team, and builds life-long relationships with our fans,” adds Mark Raham, creative director for Canucks Sports and Entertainment. “We also wanted to project a strong, positive brand image, develop partnership revenue, and promote ticket sales and merchandise. This is part of our overall approach to delivering an amazing fan experience, and digital signage is a key touchpoint. In just two years, our fan surveys and market research show greater fan loyalty and enthusiasm for the Canucks.”

Canucks Sports and Entertainment was drawn to InfoCaster because it’s user-friendly, flexible and capable of automating the delivery of different content to targeted, multi-zone displays. For example, content spans the entire three-screen concourse banner prior to the game. During the game, content appears only on the first and third screens while the middle display shows the game. Menus can be changed quickly and accurately on over one hundred concession area displays, and player profiles and fan photos are updated on a regular basis.

“We have a massive library of HD video, stills and animated graphics that we need to schedule and deliver in a precise, synchronized sequence across designated screen sets, and this content is scheduled according to different programming blocks such as pre-game, in-game, intermission and post-game,” says Karl Pedersen, digital media technician with Canucks Sports and Entertainment. “Without such sophisticated, application-specific software integrated with the hardware, it would be very labor-intensive and daunting to deliver such a spectacular digital signage experience.”

The InfoCaster installation at Rogers Arena consists of several powerful components including InfoCaster Creator, which has a wide array of tools and templates for the design, authoring and creation process; and InfoCaster Manager for remote network management and control of numerous InfoCaster Player devices. InfoCaster software manages the scheduling process, automating ad and promotional content placements across groups of displays to target specific audiences.