San Jose Sharks Sharpen Live Production Solutions in SAP Center With Grass Valley

Grass Valley, a Belden Brand, along with global technology solutions provider Diversified, have joined forces to optimize the SAP Center in San Jose, California – home to the National Hockey League’s (NHL) San Jose Sharks. This project is part of a three-year, multiphase upgrade program that will see a complete overhaul of the stadium’s live production infrastructure and workflow.

To help the San Jose Sharks, Grass Valley provided live production and networking technologies to strengthen production capabilities at the SAP Center. Grass Valley’s strong line-up of successful deployments with other leading sports providers and the flexibility of its solutions to integrate with third-party systems were among the reasons why the company was selected for this project.

“Grass Valley is the ideal technology partner for this important upgrade,” says Mike Meglathery, senior project manager, Diversified. “SAP Center’s control room was built 25 years ago and was last upgraded 15 years ago, so the team’s attention was often diverted away from mission-critical tasks to keep the systems running. The control room now runs efficiently and smoothly thanks to Grass Valley, so the team can prioritize delivering stunning images to fans.”

The upgrade includes a Grass Valley 3 M/E Karrera K-Frame S-series Video Production Center, Sirius 830 Router, and a Densité 3 Frame. This new setup delivers the speed needed to handle fast live production turnarounds, and to seamlessly migrate to 1080p as needed.

“Our decision to work with Grass Valley on this important project was, and has proven to be, an easy one,” says Duane Yoslov, senior vice president, Diversified. “The SAP Center’s production team and the large pool of freelance operators that help them with bigger games and tournaments are very familiar with Grass Valley’s systems. As a result, they’ve been able to hit the ground running with no additional training required. This has made preparations for the All-Star Game that much smoother.”

The open architecture and interoperability of Grass Valley’s solutions means future expansions can be done with minimal disruptions to the operation.

“Fans have an unquestionable demand for high quality, engaging video content that keeps them on the edge of their seats,” says Jan-Pieter van Welsem, vice president sales, Americas, Grass Valley. “Our solutions have given the San Jose Sharks the power to deliver that and to address other challenging requirements – regardless of complexity, format or resolution. This project clearly demonstrates our ability to cater to our customers’ requirements at the highest standard. Together with Diversified, we are proud to be helping the San Jose Sharks take their live production capabilities to the next level.”