Unique LED Boards to Tampere Deck Arena
Vepe Oy is bringing unprecedented ice hockey dasher boards to the market – unique boards that the whole world has not witnessed before.
Vepe Beta NextGen ice hockey rink brings the existing flexible board standards to a totally new level by making it possible to install LED screens to the whole set of boards. The new screens offer great new potential to visual effects and entertaining spectators in a spectacular way, as well changing the whole way of advertising and marketing in the boards themselves.
“Compared to static advertisement prints, videos and constantly changing content makes it possible to use different content as well in advertisement as in the game itself. In addition to that, the board screens support other events in a multifunctional arena, thus enabling visible and targeted content on an event specific basis for just that audience and the moment it is intended to. This solution changes the actions of advertisers, clubs and arena organisations, and brings added value to all parties” says Mr Antti Terkomaa CEO of Vepe Oy.
Mr Jussi Maaniitty, the Director of Digital Business of Tampere Deck Arena, is excited about the new screen technique. “It is great to be a pioneer in the new techniques and what is even better, in a Finnish innovation. The rink we use in the events has completely different role from anything seen before. This will offer event organizers unique possibilities in the whole world. In addition to advertisements, we can create something unique with the LED screens. It can mean different atmospheres in the events, such as the Northern Lights in a dinner gala” he envisions.
Patent Pending
In terms of technology, this is a very demanding and exceptional product compared to many other applications. Even though LED screens are used in many places today, it must be said that an ice hockey dasher board is a tough environment for LED screens with its hard attacks, tackles and puck hits against the boards. In the Vepe NextGen boards, however, thanks to our innovative solutions, we have been able to install the LED screens very close to the playing surface thus granting the best optical condition and the best spectator experience to every seat in the big arena. The starting point of the design and development has been and is modern flexible boards that is of utmost quality, user friendly and safe both for players and other users. “Integrating LED screens into flexible board frames in such a large scale has been a challenge, but we have overcome such challenges in Vepe Beta NextGen boards. We have applied for a patent to the product”, says Mr Terkomaa.
Ilves and Tappara involved in the acquisition
The research and development have been long and intensive, but with the help of Finnish know-how we have achieved the first ever ice hockey dasher boards including more than 160m of LED screens integrated into modern flexible boards. “We want to give big thanks to Tampere Deck Arena organization, main constructor SRV and the clubs Tamhockey Oy (Tappara) and Ilves-Hockey Oy (Ilves) because they have trusted in Vepe and had the courage to be the first one in the world to take the lead in the development of ice hockey world with this step”, appraises Mr Terkomaa.
“We feel privileged to obtain state-of-the-art technology in every field in our home arena. Vepe LED boards will offer us new possibilities to earn money and most of all to have screens that we can use in a comprehensive way in match events”, is commented by Mr Risto Jalo, MD of Ilves-Hockey Oy.
“With this innovative solution all display surfaces in the Tampere Deck Arena are now digital. It allows us a creative and flexible use of displays as well in marketing as in making the match events more vivid” says Mr. Mika Aro, CEO of Tamhockey Oy.
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Vepe Oy has developed and manufactured ice hockey dasher boards as a pioneer in Finland since 1976, bringing the first flexible boards into Europe to the IIHF World Championships in Stockholm in 2011. Our story will continue next year in Tampere Deck Arena with Vepe Beta NextGen ice hockey dasher boards being the IIHF World Championships main stage in May 2022.