Top 5 Sports and Large Venue Market Integrators of 2016

These innovative, market-leading firms offer advice on how to stay at the forefront of this exciting vertical.

There is an expectation when attending a sports stadium or concert venue that the speaker system and giant scoreboard never fail, among other client rigors.

“We have found the people who run professional and major college sporting venues to be demanding clients because the projects have an inflexible deadline: opening day,” says Jerry Gale, professional services marketer at Alpha Video & Audio. “Alpha Video’s broadcast engineering expertise and our professional project managers allow us to integrate and install complex systems that are fully functional — and employees are fully trained on how to use the systems — on or before the opening day of the season.”

The biggest challenge Alpha Video faces, says Gale, is “satisfactorily installing the large number of education and sports venue systems that Alpha Video’s clients schedule during the extremely busy summer months.” They address that through “improved project management processes, including the implementation of a project portfolio management software platform and a real-time dashboard with key performance indicators for all projects.”

Michael Hopkins, VP of external communications at ANC, says the sports market is among those “seeking operational perfection. However, it is possible technology can experience outages. We believe our turnkey technology service model will enable these venues to realize the best operations possible by being able to quickly resolve any such issues without disrupting the overall venue experience.

ANC’s operating systems are capable of providing automatic failover options, while our onsite teams can immediately address any potential hardware concerns.” ANC’s team is prepared to help clients choose the technology that best fits their needs, says Hopkins. “We create visual environments which demonstrate how a particular technology can impact different locations. This enables venues to understand how a particular technology can drive revenue, provide information or create an immersive atmosphere before making a final purchase decision.”

Video walls and wireless presentation are very in-demand solutions, says Julie Solomon, manager of marketing and training at CCS Presentation Systems. “Most organizations are looking to make implementation of a complicated solution as easy as possible.”

Internally, CCS encourages a safe, competitive work environment through its Beyond Better program. Employees complete monthly ballots to reward other employees’ performance with regards to customer service. “CCS believes work should be rewarding, mentally and physically,” says Solomon. “We have extended this program to clients through a customer service survey, which further ranks employees on the board.”

Kevin Goldsmith, chief technology officer at Ping HD, says “cost is a huge factor in the sports market, as is the case in all markets, really” in providing solutions both he and the customers want.

Westbury National “focuses on larger and more complex projects, requiring our advanced engineering, programming and project-execution experience and expertise,” says Brock McGinnis. “We’re the first choice of facility operators — including sports, entertainment, gaming and corporate customers — whose businesses rely heavily on the reliability and performance of the systems we provide. Our focus is meticulous engineering and quality execution.”

Check out the complete report: Meet the 2016 CI Industry Leaders

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