Ottawa, Canada, April 30th 2021 – For Gridiron fans everywhere, the annual NFL entry draft is a highly anticipated event, bringing all thirty-two teams together to announce player selections, which can ultimately alter the fate of a franchise. First held in 1936, the draft has increased in popularity every year. The words "you're on-the-clock" have become synonymous with an event that is now a full-scale production, garnering primetime TV audiences measured in the millions.
Following 2020's all-virtual affair, this year's event is being held across three days in Cleveland, Ohio, at three historic downtown locations: the FirstEnergy Stadium, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Great Lakes Science Center. A select number of prospects, fans and media are permitted to attend. The draft's main stage is located in the North Coast Harbor just outside of FirstEnergy Stadium against the backdrop of Lake Erie. Once again, Ross Video's Sports team is working alongside Van Wanger to support the event – marking the fourth year that Ross and Van Wanger have collaborated to drive the draft. Ross is powering over twenty-five million pixels of LED displays within the outdoor draft theatre, with the XPression Tessera and Carbonite Mosaic graphics rendering solutions handling the bulk of the heavy lifting. The Ultrix routing and AV processing platform are taking care of signal routing, while the control of the entire system is through the DashBoard platform from Ross.
"Ross has what we need to drive these large screens and understands how we and the NFL want to do this show," notes Bob Becker, EVP of Productions with Van Wagner. "When you're working with Ross, it's a huge weight lifted off of shoulders."
For Kevin Cottam, Ross VP of Sports & Live Events, this year's draft is another step forward, both in terms of creativity and the comeback of live events. "The league and Van Wagner continue to raise the bar when it comes to production creativity and quality, and it's no surprise Van Wagner has become the ‘go to' team for flagship events like the Super Bowl and NFL Draft. Once again, we are proud that Van Wagner has chosen Ross Solutions and services for the draft. We provide the tools and services personnel to get the job done with maximum creativity and efficiency, and we're thrilled to be in Cleveland this year for the spectacular event."
Draft main stage image courtesy of Linda Borrelli (Twitter: @Lintendo_64) (c) 2021