Ice hockey digital signage.
Ice hockey digital signage is now proving to be a winner for several installations in the USA and Canada; digital signage hardware is now being deployed in several ice rinks due to the cost effectiveness as well as their return on investment.
First let us look at the design of the ice rink so we can fully understand what the digital signage hardware has to cope with.
Ice Rink.
The word link translates in Scottish to “course”, this is an area that was and still is to this day used for the Scottish traditional winter sport of curling
An indoor ice rink.
These indoor ice rinks are made in layers, a concrete base is laid, with a series of pipes that has a chilled fluid inside, the chilled fluid can either be brine or a water mixture including antifreeze and this is embedded in the concrete. When water is sprayed on top of the concrete it freezes due to the sub zero temperatures.
Due to the rink being made up of layers a few centimetres thick, it is required to resurface the rink with more ice occasionally, as the ice rink heats up and with the wear of skaters and ice hockey teams cutting into the ice.
A drivable machine called a Zamboni is used to resurface the ice and normally comes out and does its job in the breaks.
With most ice hockey rinks being a constant 50 degrees Fahrenheit or 10 degrees Celsius this can cause some issues with the electronics used. Imagine using a home TV in this extreme environment what would happen? Well over a short time period you would find that the TV would fail due to the heat in the screen causing condensation to form on internal parts and then corroding them. This is why any ice hockey digital signage has to be protected from the cold conditions.
Ice hockey digital signage.
Now here the investment in the digital signage hardware is essential, as you don’t want the investors questioning their decision to deploy a digital signage solution that fails.
One sure way to protect the hardware is to install an LCD enclosure, these are a steel LCD enclosure that the hardware will fit into and can be mounted from ceiling mounts and from the walls, ideal for advertising beverages and fast food for the break.
The LCD enclosure is fitted with a special cooling and heating system that is thermostatically controlled and can be adjusted, so when the temperature falls to day 65 degrees Fahrenheit, the heater starts to work and warms the internal hardware in the enclosure, then when the heat rises past the preset temperature the heater switches off, this constant monitoring of the internal temperature is essential to main the integrity of the internal hardware.
Without any protective LCD enclosure the ice hockey digital signage will have to be able to cope in an environment that almost none of the standard electronics can work in.
Once the hardware is in a safe environment the rink can benefit from broadcasting news mixed with advertisements, these ads can include the rink shop, the next high profile match or even the meal deal at the quick serve restaurant.