The NHL has debuted Digitally Enhanced Dasher boards (DED) in a new partnership with Supponor – a technology provider focused on raising innovative commercial strategies through digital signage.

Described as an advanced approach to dynamic dasher board advertising, the technology  will launch for the 2022-23 season. 

Aiming to ‘push the next wave of innovation’ to create new opportunities for the league, its clubs and their media and corporate partners, the system allows for the digital replacement of camera-visible arena dasher boards within local, national, and international NHL game broadcasts. 

“Digitally Enhanced Dasher boards will revolutionise the way properties and broadcasters interact with brands across the world, not only in the NHL, but in all sports,” commented Keith Wachtel, NHL Chief Business Officer and Senior Executive Vice President. 

“This has been a significant undertaking for the League, which has included years of developing, testing and readying the technology for League-wide implementation. We are thrilled to partner with Supponor to bring this game-changing technology to life this season and provide increased opportunity and value to our business partners.”

The solution aims to create ‘never-before-seen dynamic dashboard branding and messaging’ including URLs, flighted marketing campaigns, co-branded official designations, social media integration and QR codes, to name a few.  

Additionally, the DED display will be programmable into multiple formats from a single-advertiser full-dasher board takeover to a split zone format with ten advertisers brands.  

The DED also gives the opportunity for clubs to provide their corporate partners and advertisers with this valuable exposure in both their home and their away game broadcasts for the first time.

“Our long-term collaboration with the NHL has achieved a historic league-wide signage solution.  With up to 15 concurrent games in one night and 40 game broadcasts per week during the NHL regular season, it is an ambitious large-scale deployment,” added James B Gambrell, Supponor CEO. 

“Working closely with the NHL to develop, test and implement Digitally Enhanced Dasher Boards has been the most  complex implementation of Supponor’s AIR® AI, software-based solution. Our system will support the NHL’s requirements and needs and will set a new gold standard for other sports. 

“We thank the NHL for their vision and commitment to innovation and collaboration and look forward to many more groundbreaking initiatives together shaping the future of sport advertising.”

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