Joe Walsh - VITEC

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“The fans are demanding more and more of the technology - and we should be the ones who are delivering it.”

JOE WALSH

Sales Director, Sports & Entertainment Venues, VITEC

First of all, tell us a bit about your background? I graduated at the University of Minnesota with a BSEE-Degree, went out of school and got into technical sales. I’ve been selling pretty much all my career. I joined Vitec in 2015 to get started in their sports and entertainment market.

What is your role at VITEC? I am responsible for sales thriving into the sports and entertainment business. It involves working with consultants, channel partners, and integrators that are going after that space. My role is also to look at the sports market and make sure the business plan is in order to be a success.

Was it difficult to get into the sports market? We’ve a couple of professional sport teams under our belt. But, at that time, we didn’t have signage. We made a strong effort in that signage market. That’s when we decided that, in order to be successful in that space, we had to add signage as a solution - it’s paid off for us.

When did you introduce the signage? Two years ago. We offered it and we have gone from having a signage platform to having video walls. We see the migration in that it has become very popular in the luxury suites, with the personal TV experience and we are starting to see a lot of the specs starting to come out that are requesting video walls in a suite, so, as a result we added the video wall capability.

Can you tell us how VITEC improve the experience for fans at stadiums and arenas? If you go back in terms of the technology, most of the stadiums and arenas were pretty much 100 percent signage type of environments. There was barely done anything with IPTV. The stadiums like the fans to see the action if they get up and get a hot dog. We were able to push that content back to anywhere within the facilities. We can deliver a video over to the storage and also to mobile with ultra-low latency. In a lot of these suites, they want the personal experience that they have at home. The fans are demanding more and more of the technology - and we should be the ones who are delivering it.

Tell us more about VITEC’s EZ TV IPTV and Digital Signage platform – what are the benefits? In a new stadium or arena, you are expected delivering everything over IP. There’s a huge benefit to that because now you can basically put an encoder into a meeting room and create that as a channel. I can bring in a TV and then our architecture will manage the ability to see the content. On top of that, we can add video on demand, we can record any live stream. For the fans, we can start pushing content on displays, menu boards, we can push stuff to mobile devices. And we also have a PC player, which tends to be utilised for back of house. At Orlando Magic, they’re using it for the press - they can see what’s happening in conference. We have built-in product controls, too. Whether it’s controlling the price on the menu items on the menu board, or bringing in an external data piece like stats. It’s all part of our eco system.

How does a project start for you and your team at VITEC? A lot of times sports consultants want to know what’s available and we work with them on the specs, so this is one way. The other way is to get the referrals. If Orlando Magic liked us, they’ll hear about a project and recommend us, or some contact us as a result of our consumer base saying: ‘Hey, we heard about you, we want to know more.’ Also, our marketing team has done a good job of creating all the key information; we’ve got case studies and video testimonials. On top of that, we have our traditional channel partner - big integrators that are in the sports industry and they call us to say: ‘Well, we heard about this project, we want a product of you.’

Are there any difficulties that you experience on a regular basis when it comes to stadium and sporting venue installations? A lot of it is due to very long sale cycles. We first pitch, then there’s a flurry of activity. So, it goes through their process, through all these peaks and valleys of things that have to be done. The other thing is our specs are for very large projects; we are the fan-facing technology and, typically, we are the last in the loop. The other angle is that you give us

a large project, you can have multiple consultants, you can have their technical staff, so you get all these people in a room with this whole bunch of different opinions on the technology and it’s really about trying to get all these people in sync on it.

Which stadiums or sporting venues have you been working on recently? We’ve been working with the Atlanta Hawks - they’ve built a brand new practice facility, so we won that project. At the same time, they were in a process of renovation on the Philips Arena. We’re also completing LSU, which is a very large collegiate school. We are doing over a thousand displays for managing their football stadium, their basketball arena and their baseball stadium, so that’s pretty unique. We’re also just completing the Minnesota Vikings practice facility, which has over 300 displays.

What would say has been your favourite project to date? There are no favourite ones - they’re all favourites. I have a dream job. I have been talking to professional sports teams, to collegiate sports teams, very rich in history - every project is unique and fun.

What do you believe to be the next big thing in terms of technology when it comes to stadiums and sporting venues? Data is going to be huge. The point is that if I had a suite and I walk in and I have my favourite sports team or my favourite players, I am going to want to have access to that data, right? Aggregating this data is our goal. We are going to have the infrastructure. We have an open API, so we’re going to be able to deliver that customised data set to specific individuals or fans. Video on demand, the library aspect of it, again customising the VLD library based on who is in the suite. Also, VIPs are going to want to have access when they’re travelling. They want to have access to the stadium channel line up and we’ve got technology that allows that. They just travel with a small setup box that they put in a network connection. They don’t need a technician to sort that. To me, those are the type of things that people see as technologic progresses.

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