Digital Signage and IPTV System for The Kia Oval

Kia Oval is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales.

The Oval approached us looking for a suitable replacement for their aging analogue-based IPTV system. The system needed to support the latest high definition qualities and be capable of interfacing with Oval’s EPOS system to show live pricing and offers for screens in bars and retail areas. Local distribution was also required for several areas where it was not feasible to install new network connections to screens.

The Oval opted for the flexible and dynamic software-based Tripleplay Digital Signage and IPTV platform. We delivered the Tripleplay TripleSign Digital Signage and TripleTV IPTV solution to 224 screens, via Amino STBs, throughout the venue, whilst also delivering the Tripleplay Interactive IPTV Portal solution to all hospitality suites.

Tripleplay’s solution allows the Oval to integrate Digital Menu Boards with their excising EPOS system, allowing all food and beverage businesses and shops on-site can promote their products and brands to visitors. They will also be utilising Tripleplay’s event engine to trigger key sponsorship messages throughout the site, allowing partners to take advantage of moments of exclusivity in prime advertising spots. Installed in corporate suites across the venue, the Tripleplay Interactive IPTV Portal will allow executive guests to watch customized video content and have access to information about the club, and more, on their suite TV.

We faced minimal integration challenges throughout our time on site. Our main challenge lay with the Oval’s existing network. The existing network couldn’t support multicast traffic – which all IPTV solutions are based on, to minimise network traffic requirements for multiple high definition streams. To overcome this, rather than upgrade The Oval’s entire existing network, we decided to run a separate network to carry the IPTV traffic and associated management.

Once the network had been configured, the Tripleplay server was configured to connect to both stack switches for redundancy and all endpoints were tested and configured to minimise deployment time on site. All switches and endpoints used PoE to minimise cabling requirements and simplify deployment.

During installation of the network components and server it came to light that one of the live feeds (the scoreboard input) couldn’t be linked to the server due to difficulties of the cable route between the scoreboard hardware and the IPTV server. To overcome this an external encoder was provided which could connect separately to the IPTV network.

The complete installation was carried out alongside the existing system allowing the new endpoints to replace the old without long service outages. In each case the new endpoints or local distribution cabling could replace the old units providing instant service for all displays.

Due to the flexibility of the Tripleplay system we were also able to accommodate several last-minute requests from the Oval and additional channels were allocated to provide signage style feeds with banner information as selectable channels on the system. We look forward to working with the exciting venue, Kia Oval, and our partners Tripleplay, moving forwards.