UBS Arena Spotlight, Part 2: Inside the Transition From Nassau Coliseum to the Isles' New Home in Belmont Park The building's control room boasts a multitude of technologies integrated by Diversified By Kristian Hern ndez, Associate Editor
Tuesday, April 19, 2022 - 1:49 pm
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UBS Arena, the New York Islanders' new $1.1 billion home, is located next to the iconic, 117-year-old Belmont Park Racetrack in Elmont, NY. Featuring high-quality production technology in an IP HDR control room, the brand-new venue represents the culmination of a tumultuous seven-year process.
It has been a fantastic experience to have started in one place with the Islanders and be here with them now, says Brian Jones, employee, UBS Arena. We're at a great moment in the time for the New York Islanders.
For a look into game presentation at UBS Arena, click HERE.
Peripatetic Team: Switching Venues Provides a Handful of Lessons Prior to the early 2000s, the Islanders have a well-documented history of innovation at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, NY. Besides housing one of the NHL's most venerated dynasties, the building was one of the first in the league to implement digital dasher boards for virtual sponsorship and advertising. Even after time took away some of its technological ingenuity, the Coliseum was revered for the energy of the fans and became a formidable place for opposing teams. Although this was its saving grace for quite some time, the club began looking to upgrade its facilities and move in a different direction.
With the help of Diversified, the New York Islanders have constructed a IP HDR control room at the new UBS Arena.
There had been a long period of waiting for what the future would bring at Nassau and seeing where the Islanders would land, says Jones. During that holding pattern, we had to make productions work with a lot of analog equipment. We had a few pieces of more modern equipment to replace some of the older machines that had fully given out.
For Isles' home games in Uniondale, the production team needed to worry about downconverting to analog the video signals from the in-venue camera complement and the onsite truck. It was time for a change, and the decision to move operations to Brooklyn's Barclays Center was made in 2015. Not only did the shift bring the club to New York City, but the in-venue team had to adapt to a new and improved technological footprint for three consecutive seasons: 2015-16, 2016-17, and 2017-18.
From an employee perspective, it was a journey, says Ryan Halkett, SVP, event presentation and production experience, New York Islanders. The two buildings were very different. The Coliseum always felt more like home.
The rack room at UBS Arena features a Grass Valley Orbit router to handle native ST 2110 and baseband workflows.
At the time the Islanders were in Brooklyn, Jones was working as director, scoreboard and video production, for the New York Yankees. He had been with the Islanders from 2006 to '15 and, after the Coliseum was renovated in 2017, rejoined the team as senior manager, facilities presentation. With an upgraded infrastructure, the Islanders went back and forth between Brooklyn and Uniondale for their home schedules in 2018-19 and 2019-20.
We started off with a very small setup that was just enough to get by, he says. Since the Islanders were coming back for their second season, it was my first experience overseeing a renovation of a control room. I got to learn a lot and make a few mistakes along the way.
Jones had big plans for the Islanders' third year back at the Coliseum, but the club announced that it would be their final season at the Old Barn.
With UBS Arena on the horizon, Jones agreed to his current position, took the valuable lessons that he learned from the past, and leapfrogged from the bottom of the technological barrel in 2015 to the one of the newest NHL control rooms in 2021-22. We went from broadcast-quality workflows to cutting-edge technology and implementations that aren't really seen anywhere else.
On Schedule: Diversified Completes Systems Integration Prior to Home Opener Completing any new venue poses challenges. UBS Arena project was particularly challenging, from completing the foundation to putting on the finishing touches before the grand opening. The groundbreaking ceremony was in 2019, and then, one year later, the COVID-19 pandemic arrived. Hindrances lingered into 2021, and, when the timeline stretched into the summer months, the clock began to tick on the club and system integrator Diversified to cross the finish line before the first few events in November.
An Allen & Heath D-Live S5000 mixer controls audio in the venue,
In the back of some people's minds, the assumption was that opening night was going to have to shift, says Justo Gutierrez, director, AV and sound, sports and live events, Diversified. Islanders' ownership doubled down because they really wanted this building to be open for fans to enjoy.
As the pandemic lessened its grip, construction and onsite teams returned to the venue in droves. At that point in the project's timeline, the biggest obstacle was making sure that all the necessary equipment and material arrived on time.
There were a couple of real hardships that came from supply-chain issues toward the end of the project, says Dave Schwarz, senior solutions architect, Diversified. Some of the equipment was originally designed around [another piece of equipment], so they had to be redesigned, and that caused other delays.
Although Jones has experience with bringing a control room up from the ground floor, the hardware and software being used at UBS Arena are relatively new for most of the sports-video-production landscape. When a problem arose in the early sta
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UBS Arena Spotlight, Part 2: Inside the Transition From Nassau Coliseum to the Isles' New Home in Belmont Park The building's control room boasts a multitude of technologies integrated by Diversified By Kristian Hern ndez, Associate Editor 
