Article

Digital signage team sees smooth sailing at America's Cup

Digital signage can have many moving parts, so assembling the right team to work together can be critical to success.

September 19, 2013

Swedish sailing team Artemis Racing is a challenger for this year's America's Cup sailing race in San Francisco Bay, but onshore it was another team that came together to create a digital signage win at the America's Cup.

Artemis Racing worked closely with design firm infoREV Media and technology distributor Ingram Micro — which assembled its own team of suppliers and technology partners — to outfit the team's VIP lounge.

Executives from infoRev and Ingram Micro's Pro AV/Digital Signage business unit led a recent webinar, "How Teamwork Sailed to a Digital Signage Win at the America's Cup," talking about the importance of collaboration in a successful digital signage implementation.

Artemis racing hired infoRev to outfit its VIP Lounge at the America's Cup Village in the San Francisco Bay area, and the design firm brought in its technology partner Ingram Micro to help kit out the space.

"We knew that this was an amazing opportunity," Ingram Micro Senior Market Development Executive Keven Yue said in the webinar. "So like with any other opportunity, one of the key success factors winning, acquitting, implementing and delivering a great solution is to clearly and succinctly understand what the end-client, the Artemis Racing team, needed."

To that end, infoRev and Ingram Micro came up with a mission statement: "To create a dazzling digital signage solution to match or exceed Team Artemis' expectations of design and excellence to give their VIP guests an experience of impressiveness."

The build-out process was a time- and schedule-sensitive process, with the prefabricated modular building arriving from Germany just days before the race's start. With basic floor plans for planning, infoRev and Ingram Micro settled on likely digital signage solutions, including an interactive welcome screen and a nine-screen video wall.

Then they set about assembling their technology provider team, tapping Samsung Electronics America for displays, Sherlock Systems for media players, Peerless-AV for mounts and TouchSystems for interactive touch capabilities. And in the span of a few months, the team was able to conceive, design, deliver, test and implement the overall solution.

The whole process was a "fast burn ... like a two-minute drill in football," infoRev Media co-founder and COO David Liu said in the webinar.

"The biggest challenge was how do you create this big experience in a small space that's oddly shaped and with a smart budget?" Liu said. "Even though the lounge was onshore, we wanted guests to feel like they were on the water and part of the action. So the AV/digital signage really was the thing that created that impact."

The centerpiece ended up being the three-by-three video wall mounted on a Peerless video wall cart — with the cart base hidden behind a specially constructed cabinet — that showed live race action in the lounge.

The video wall was such a touchpoint that the team even began using it for post-race team debriefings, rather than going back to the team base, Liu said.

"InfoRev took our vision for the Americas Cup and made it a reality — exceeding our expectations and giving us a great home away from home in San Francisco for the race," Andrea Tagliamacco, head of corporate sponsorships for Artemis Racing, said in a comment for the webinar.

After their presentation, the webinar speakers also answered questions during a brief Q-and-A session, including inquries about how the team overcame its biggest hiccups and the key lessons learned for future deployments.

Find out more about the process of assembling a successful digital signage team and rolling out a complex installation by watching the free, on-demand version of the webinar here.

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