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HEERENVEEN
At the Essent ISU EK Allround (European Speed Skating Championships) the spectators in the Thialf arena will receive much more information than in previous years.
Throughout the three-day event two massive video screens at both ends of the arena will keep spectators continuously informed of the results, intermediate positions and the times the skaters have to skate in order to improve their position.
The Philips screens, each 16 m2 in size and weighing as much as an average car (1400 kg), have been fitted to the ceiling of the Thialf arena this week. The screens cost approximately one hundred and fifty thousand (euros) each.
This impressive innovation also enables spectators to follow every detail of the race on the screen.
During the races the incredibly sharp TV picture follows the competitors so that everyone in the arena is able to see the handovers.
The idea to install the TV screens came from Sports Computer Graphics, which has for many, many years now recorded all of the results and generated statistics, amongst other things for the live broadcasts via the NOS television station, on behalf of the international skating union.
The company, which is based in Lieveren in Drente, also supplies all of the international show-jumping competitions. According to Arend Tolner from SCG, the video screens represent a significant improvement in the service provided to the spectators.
"The main sponsor, Essent, wanted the spectators in the Thialf arena to be even more involved in the races," says SCG, which has invested heavily in this innovation. "We will also be showing images of the skaters without their skating balaclavas, because a lot of people don’t know what they look like when they are not dressed in their skating suits."
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