Nina Berfelde ,
Freelance Journalist
Rogers Place in Edmonton, AB, Canada (approximately 20.000 seats) unveiled most of their new technology on October 12th 2016 for the first major event: the inaugural regular season game of the Edmonton Oilers.
The Game Presentation staff had been working very hard and long hours months prior to this event to prepare. Working in a brand new facility with new and different equipment presents many challenges. Fortunately, with the support of vendors and integrators, the dedicated team of professionals rose to the challenge and was able to deliver an error free show to the fans. This was an amazing feat given that the A/V team was only granted access to the building and video production control room in early August. Within this compressed timeline, the equipment was commissioned, tested and handed over to the crew for training, show design and content loading.
In an ongoing attempt to deliver a better in-venue experience for the fans, it was decided early on to experiment with camera angles. The Oilers Entertainment Group wanted to offer something unique not seen in other venues.
Keith Hough (Manager, Production Services) says:
“A flying camera like Skycam or Spidercam offers a great angle, but isn’t practical in an NHL facility with a centre-hung video board. Other arenas have fixed PTZ cameras hung from the video board, but we wanted something unique beyond a fixed PTZ. We decided that due to the massive size of video board which extends blue line to blue line, we’d be able to mount a robotic dolly track to the underside of the clock and
get a system that offered many of the benefits of a flying camera without the extra infrastructure requirements. After researching and comparing various solutions from different vendors online, a Blackcam B40 system was chosen.“
The scoreboard (14 by 14 by 11 meters) at Rogers Place is North America’s largest true 1920 x 1080 centre-hung video scoreboard in any NHL or NBA facility. A Sony HDC-P1 with a Fujinon HA14X4.5 mounted to the B40 now travels along the length of the clock which allows to vary the perspective of the angle. Adding the dolly motion of the B40 to the camera shot adds interest and a dynamic
Rogers Place:
a Unique Venue Brought To You by Oilers Entertainment Group and Blackcam
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