Sports floor tile screen: Will it be a new blue ocean for LED applications?

At the end of August 2024, the German Bayern Munich basketball team announced that its next season's games will use LED glass floor tile screens in the main stadium. Previously, it was not new for individual basketball courts to use LED floor screens. However, this is the first time that a team has used floor screens for a long time according to the season. Long-term use of LED floor screens obviously requires more support for "technology, investment and business model" innovation. Industry analysts believe that this may create new business opportunities for the combination of LED screens and sports.

LED + Sports: From advertising fences to large floor screens

In February this year, the US NBA All-Star Game decided to be held on a brand new LED court. The colorful LED floor screen brings additional benefits to both the viewing and broadcasting of the game. It has become another example of the combination of LED screens and sports. It is reported that its LED court solution comes from a German company, and the LED screen products use my country's Absen PL series products.

Traditional LED large-screen sports applications mainly include three levels: the first is rigid demand, such as LED scoreboards. The large screen and high brightness of the LED screen ensure that the audience and the broadcast can clearly see the scoring, timing and refereeing. The second is the on-site LED playback screen. This application not only provides clearer details for the audience in the back row, but also can replay multi-angle images during the game to increase the fun of appreciation or play advertisements. ——The above two applications are more from the perspective of "better games" and "better appreciation of games". In terms of commercial sports, its greater value lies in enhancing the live viewing experience and thus attracting more live audiences.

The third combination of LED large screens and sports is the "fence screen" commonly seen in football and basketball fields. The main purpose of this screen is "sponsorship advertising". The 2024 European Cup also used VAR technology for the first time. That is, the display screen not only provides on-site advertising, but also provides "content replacement identification points" - that is, on-site audiences and broadcast and live audiences in different regions can see completely different advertisements. VAR technology increases the "commercial value potential" of fence advertising screens, which is equivalent to increasing the rigid demand for this application.

As for the "floor screen" that basketball courts are currently trying, it can be said to be the culmination of the above three functions: it can not only display field lines, field advertisements, and replace advertising logos with VAR technology, but also display scoring, replay game scenes, and even become the background stage for cheerleading - because it is directly on the floor of the competition venue, in the special "C" position of watching the game, the commercial value of this screen is the "greatest".

From the perspective of industry insiders, the NBA and European basketball circles use LED floor screens more to improve the experience of watching games on site and live broadcasts, as well as to explore more commercial value opportunities. That is, this is an additional tool for making money! This is of course good news and a good choice for commercial sports.

Constantly "stepped on", LED floor screens have "stronger technical requirements"

Whether it is a scoring screen, a replay screen or a fence advertising screen, these LED display facilities are in a "relatively safe position" in the stadium. Although the fence screen may occasionally collide with a football or basketball, the intensity of such collision is not great and the number of collisions is relatively limited, so the impact of partial damage to the fence screen on the game and advertising is very small.

However, the "collision" that floor screen LED equipment has to withstand is completely different. "Traditional LED displays should avoid bumps; floor screens are born for bumps." Compared with traditional stage floor screens, the intensity and frequency of bumps in the stadium are bound to be higher. Moreover, as the "C position of the event", the local failure of this floor screen has a greater impact on the game and viewing - for example, a partial black screen, resulting in incomplete field markings, etc., directly affecting the game. Therefore, the LED floor screen used for sports competitions must have extremely high requirements in terms of strength, stability and reliability.

On the other hand, different competitions have different requirements for the "physiological characteristics" of LED floor screens. For example, the basketball court requires the LED large screen to simulate the hardness, strength, elasticity and toughness of the wooden floor. This is a special and necessary new requirement beyond the display. It is reported that the 2024 NBA All-Star Game, the LED floor screen is designed in the form of a double-layer glass embedded LED screen, which provides strength and friction simulation of the wooden floor through special glass, and further simulates the deformation and elastic characteristics of the wooden floor through the added layer structure.

Of course, as a professional event and commercial operation, the LED floor screens that add extra costs to sports events must have a "feasible input-output ratio": in this regard, LED floor screens provide not only new advertising space, but also customizable regional advertising experience for global broadcasts brought by VAR technology.

On the other hand, LED floor screens can also participate in "game refereeing" and "athlete training". That is, by adding more sensors to the LED floor screen, many data such as athlete position, whether they cross the line, stay time, and force generation methods can be collected and provided to the referee and athlete coach. That is, LED floor screens are not only a "display tool" for the future of sports, but also a "data collection tool" to form more rigid demand value.

In this regard, industry insiders believe that for commercial events, LED floor screens may be more important, more rigid and more popular than "fence advertising screens" in the future. In terms of on-site advertising, game signs, replays, AR interactions, AI training, etc., especially the entire venue no longer has different friction areas caused by "traditional advertising stickers", and can form overall consistency, which is very beneficial to the safety and fairness of the game. For the sports industry, this is a new supply that is emerging.

LED large screens and sports are accelerating their integration, requiring more digital application innovations

The 2024 European Cup will use VAR technology for the first time to provide customized advertising services for the regional broadcast market. This is not only an innovation in the business model, but also one of the signs of the further integration of digital technologies such as AI with sports.

Including the Hawkeye referee system and VAR advertising technology, it represents the continuous digitalization and intelligent development direction of sports. From this perspective, as a typical digital scene technology, the innovation of LED large screens in the future will never stop. Fence screens can obtain more commercial value through VAR technology, and LED large screens that integrate more AI, sensors, and interactive technologies will also create more "miracles" in other subdivided spaces.

In the field of basketball, in 2021, the 3×3 basketball game held in the Ruhr area of Bochum, Germany became the world's first game to use LED glass floor tile screens; and in 2024, the US NBA All-Star Game will achieve the first "full-process commercialization" of LED floor tile screen applications. In addition, in terms of competition rules, in 2022, the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) officially approved the use of LED floors in the stadium to obtain new opportunities for watching, organizing, broadcasting and advertising events. In 2023, the LED floor screen will serve the FIBA U19 Women's Basketball World Cup, which is its first appearance in a global competition. In the 2024-2025 season, the German Bayern Munich basketball team and the Greek Athens Panathinaikos basketball team will realize the full-season home LED floor screen competition for the first time...

It can be seen that the application of LED floor screens in sports has quickly gone through the development process of trying out new things, commercial attempts, and redefining rules to the current standardized use of professional events. Industry analysts believe that in the future, in addition to basketball, games with strong viewing appeal, such as tennis and volleyball, are expected to welcome LED floor screens. Table tennis, snooker, etc. can also welcome LED tables. In addition, for "skill-based" projects such as gymnastics and diving, how to use AI sensor LED large-screen facilities in training is also an area that can be developed and innovated.

"Provide new training facilities and methods for sports, develop data-based, creative sensors, and interactive LED facilities; provide venue screens for professional events to enhance commercial development potential and appreciation..." The combination of LED large screens and sports will achieve a new leap and upgrade with the help of more digital technologies. This will definitely be a large market segment with differentiated innovation in the LED industry, and also a high-premium, high-value-added market for high-end applications.