World Cup Going Up, Going Down
Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
Scotia Plaza, in the heart of Toronto’s financial district, kept tenants and visitors up to date on World Cup game days by streaming live match coverage into the building’s passenger elevators using the Audience digital signage platform supplied by Capital Networks Limited, Markham, Ontario.
The 68-storey head 
office of the Bank of Nova Scotia and home to a roster of national and international blue chip clients installed the digital signage system into the elevators approximately three years ago, housing 15” LCD monitors above each door.
Used primarily as a source of information and entertainment for tenants, the digital signage has also been integrated into Scotia Plaza’s Life Safety System via an IP wireless LAN core supported by Transformation Networks Inc., Brampton, Ontario. In the event of an emergency, the digital signage acts as a two-way video conferencing tool, connecting elevator passengers with security staff at both a primary and secondary location via an 802.11 wireless connection.
The idea to stream live World Cup matches to the elevators came from Scotia Bank property management group as a value-added service to their building tenants. Knowing the popularity of the World Cup soccer matches, the live IP streaming content to the elevator cabs allowed tenants to never miss a moment of the action. Transformation Networks’ enabled IP Wireless links into the elevator cabs to stream live video to 54 operational elevator cabs without impacting other services. A page schedule linked the streaming server IP address using the Audience system to display video content on demand.
Transformation Networks Inc. in partnership with Boss Networks Ltd., Markham, enabled the entire Scotia Plaza live streaming solution within a strict three-day delivery timeline.
“The ability to easily
schedule a page within the Audience system to display Live IP video stream made for a quick and trouble free implementation” says Jim Vair of Capital Networks Limited. “The video quality was impressive and the tenant feedback has been very positive. Live IP video streaming opens up endless possibilities to broadcast future big events”.
At the end of each game, the system was scheduled to automatically switch back to everyday content which includes news, weather and financial information provided by automated data feeds, as well as building information provided over the web by management.
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