With New IPTV Platform, Kansas City Royals Engage Fans on Every Display at The K' Latest renovation integrates centerfield videoboard with 450+ video displays By Karen Hogan Ketchum, Senior Editor
Thursday, January 18, 2018 - 12:05 pm
Print This Story
Story Highlights
Kauffman Stadium may be nearing the big 5-0, but you wouldn't know it, thanks to the Kansas City Royals' continuing efforts to breathe new life into their longtime home. In 2009, a top-to-bottom, $250 million renovation installed a new video-control room, the now iconic centerfield videoboard, and more than 450 video displays throughout the venue. Today, an overhaul of the IPTV system and integration of the videoboard with those displays are designed to better engage Royals fans on game day.
The VITEC IPTV platform powers more than 450 displays throughout Kauffman Stadium, including Konica Minolta Diamond Club.
In 2008-09, we moved from what looked like a 30-year-old stadium to what looked like a relatively brand-new stadium, and that included a complete redo of a lot of the footprint of the stadium plus the introduction of a lot of technology, including IPTV, says Brian Himstedt, senior director, information systems, Kansas City Royals. At that time, [it was] very early days of IPTV, and a lot of that technology didn't exist in the stadium prior to that. That's now eight or nine years ago. [We] needed to reconsider what we're doing with our IPTV platforms.
After experiencing some of the benefits of IPTV with the system installed in 2009, the Royals realized that they needed a system that could support low-latency, live in-venue streaming and enable them to create and update dynamic digital signage content. The team selected VITEC's EZ TV IPTV and digital-signage platform, which integrates IPTV distribution with digital-signage capabilities in one platform.
The quality of the product that we put out on a concourse or we put in our suites depends on the reliability of the video platform: no latency, no interruptions of service, well integrated with the rest of the venue, says Himstedt. VITEC hit a sweet spot for us just in terms of cost and performance.
In addition to an improvement in video quality and reliability, the Royals looked for a way to further integrate their fan-facing video elements, including the one-of-a-kind centerfield videoboard. Rather than maintain a separate IPTV system with a separate operator, the Royals tied the VITEC platform into a Daktronics DMP-8000 media digital-media player to integrate the IPTV system with the LED displays.
Now we can really make IPTV a part of the event presentation and give it the same look and feel as we have on the main scoreboard, says Steven Funke, director, event presentation and production, Kansas City Royals. It's another element we have to give out information or make it part of the show, as opposed to before, when it was a standalone system. That's been exciting to us, since we now have the capabilities to do pretty much anything we want on the IPTV system that we haven't done in the past.
The new workflow, which debuted prior to the 2016-17 season, has given the Royals' in-house production team added flexibility. The main game presentation can be encoded and delivered to the stadium's hundreds of TVs with minimal delay but still act like a TV channel; the Royals can easily change the channel to a sponsor ad, a team promotion, and more. Furthermore, the system gives the Royals the ability to change the channel only on specific displays or in specific zones.
With The K well into its fifth decade (the stadium will celebrate its 46th season this year), the Royals see the potential upgrades on the horizon to keep the in-venue video experience fresh, dynamic, and engaging. The team recently invested in two Ross Video XPressions graphics systems to enliven the layout of the centerfield videoboard and enhance the overall presentation. Additional changes may soon follow.
Our philosophy is to entertain the fans, obviously, but we want to be a secondary to the game itself, says Funke. We want to be able to complement it as much we can.
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
16/10/2025
SVG Sit-Down: FUJIFILM Execs on GFX ETERNA 55 Camera, Importance of Shallow-Dept...
16/10/2025
Squash's Most Ambitious Broadcast Production To Be Deployed at Comcast Busin...
16/10/2025
Main Street Sports Group Inks Deal With Omaha Productions, Launches Original-Con...
16/10/2025
A Historic Precursor? FIFA, HBS, DAZN Offer an Inside Look at Production of FIFA...
16/10/2025
Prime Video Offers Sneak Peak at New NBA on Prime StudioThe massive 13,000-sq-ft, two-story studio features a LED regulation half court and hoopBy Jason Dachman...
16/10/2025
SVG Remote Production Forum Draws Record Crowd for Visit to PGA TOUR Studios, De...
16/10/2025
BitFire's Ben Grafchik on How Growing Cloud Workflows Are Impacting the Live...
16/10/2025
AI technology is advancing quickly, bringing both new creative possibilities and...
16/10/2025
In 2017, Imani Ellis launched CultureCon, a conference that's become a must-attend event for more than 10,000 diverse creatives and Black professionals to c...
16/10/2025
It might still be a little early to break out the tinsel and mistletoe, but Spotify's already queuing up some holiday magic. This year's Spotify Singles...
16/10/2025
Earlier this year, our in-house publishing imprint, Spotify Audiobooks, put out ...
16/10/2025
VAMPIRE has been integrated onto GM Defenses Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV), providing a mobile solution to effectively and affordably counter small drone threat...
16/10/2025
The AgilePod mounted on the host aircraft....
16/10/2025
60% say infotainment systems are a critical purchasing or leasing consideration,...
16/10/2025
NEW YORK The Broadcasters Foundation of America has launched its 2025 Year-End Giving Campaign, which seeks to raise donations from tax-deductible personal and ...
16/10/2025
Roku has added several new features to its user interface and operating system meant to make it easier to discover and personalize content, the company said....
16/10/2025
NEW YORK CNN has announced that its All Access subscription tier will launch in the U.S. on Oct. 28, providing audiences with a centralized destination for CNN&...
16/10/2025
Student Spotlight: Alan Villanueva The graduate student and saxophonist, who performed on Natalia Lafourcades Latin Grammy-nominated Live at Carnegie Hall alb...
16/10/2025
The XR Sports Alliance (XRSA) has announced the third cohort of members. The new members include Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment (MLSE), the Vegas Golden Kni...
16/10/2025
NEW YORK The Broadcasters Foundation of America has launched its 2025 Year-End Giving Campaign which seeks to raise donations from tax-deductible personal and c...
16/10/2025
NEW YORK Australia's Nine Network and the NHL today announced a media partnership that will bring the world's premier professional ice hockey league to ...
16/10/2025
Parks Associates has released new data showing that nearly half (45%) of U.S. internet homes watch free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) services and 89% of U.S...
16/10/2025
TROY, Mich. -New data from J.D. Power's 2025 U.S. Residential Internet Service Provider Study shows that residential wireless internet providers are growing...
16/10/2025
TV's most charming detective drama * Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investi...
16/10/2025
Back to All News
Thailand's Legendary Outlaw Returns: Tee Yai: Born to be ...
16/10/2025
Back to All News
Christmas Is Just Around The Corner: Home For Christmas Season...
16/10/2025
Back to All News
Trist n Ulloa Stars in El crimen de Pazos, the New Netflix Ser...
16/10/2025
ABS Completes Redomiciliation to Dubai Development Authority as Part of Strategi...
16/10/2025
This Saturday October 18 Katja Mia will burst onto the radio airwaves for the first time as she joins 2FM. Katja will be standing in for Bl thnaid Treacy on Sat...
16/10/2025
This October, RT is delighted to support Wexford Festival Opera, Babor International Arts Festival for Children, Open House Dublin and 36 other arts and cultu...
16/10/2025
GeForce NOW is more than just a platform to stream fresh games every week - it offers celebrations for the gamers who make it epic, with member rewards to sweet...
15/10/2025
Across the world, early-career reporters are interrogating systems that shape daily life, from mortuaries and classrooms to the corridors of legal education and...
15/10/2025
St. Louis Blues Pay Tribute to Ozzy Osbourne in New Pregame Open VideoThe NHL franchise worked with production firms 2WEI and 4th Floor CreativeBy Mark J Burns,...
15/10/2025
Cobalt Digital, G3DVu, Proxima Vision, and Telos Alliance Renew Premier Sponsors...
15/10/2025
By Paige Bethmann
Before my grandmother passed away in 2019, I went to visit her in the hospital where she'd been for a few weeks. When I arrived, the nurs...
15/10/2025
Two years ago, Spotify set out to grow the entire publishing industry by making ...
15/10/2025
People turn to DJ for a listening experience that feels personal, dynamic, and j...
15/10/2025
Las personas recurren a DJ para vivir una experiencia de escucha personal, din m...
15/10/2025
Rock legend Bruce Springsteen and luminary actor Jeremy Allen White came togethe...
15/10/2025
At Spotify, we're all about supporting rising talent and helping them connec...
15/10/2025
New SBS Documentary Series THE CANCER KILLERS Premieres 4 November on SBS & SBS ...
15/10/2025
SBS celebrates the Festivals of Lights with bold, illuminating stories across th...
15/10/2025
One of humanity's most profound questions continues: Is there any place in our galaxy suitable for life beyond Earth? NASA intends to find out, with the hel...
15/10/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
15/10/2025
Scality, a global leader in cyber-resilient storage software for the AI era, today announced the advancement of its comprehensive AI ecosystem certification pro...
15/10/2025
The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) today unveiled key highlights of the 2026 HPA Tech Retreat, scheduled for Feb. 15 19 at the Westin Rancho Mirage Go...
15/10/2025
At NAB Show New York 2025 (Stand 244), Interra Systems will showcase the future of media QC, monitoring, and captioning, highlighting its award-winning, AI- and...
15/10/2025
Grass Valley today announced that RMC BFM, part of the CMA-CGM Group and France's third-largest private media group, has chosen Grass Valley's productio...
With New IPTV Platform, Kansas City Royals Engage Fans on Every Display at The K' Latest renovation integrates centerfield videoboard with 450+ video displays By Karen Hogan Ketchum, Senior Editor 
