BMW Park is now the world’s first sports arena with a permanently installed video floor
Technological advances in recent years have turned sporting venues into places where people can enjoy a spectacle that goes far beyond the games themselves. Sports arenas are now concert halls, movie theaters, and feature all sorts of dynamic displays that make games and competitions a little more interesting to the eye.
The latest technology of this kind is the video floor. Mostly used indoors, these are literally floors made of glass on which different images can be played. Not many venues use this technology yet and all of them are only temporary, since you can’t play any game on a glass surface. Or can you?
As part of its commitment to sport, the German car manufacturer BMW supports, among others, the FC Bayern Munich basketball team. It also owns the Munich indoor arena BMW Park (formerly the Olympic Basketball Hall, Rudi Sedlmayer Hall, now the Audi Dome).
In September last year, BMW tested the idea of a complete video floor for the basketball court. It remained switched on for the duration of a basketball game played there, making history: never before had a game in a professional league been played on a video floor.
Building on this success, the car manufacturer decided to leave the horizontal LED screen, which people can step on, permanently in place. According to the Bavarians, the BMW Park is now “The first professional sports venue in the world to have a fully installed LED video glass floor.”
The first test of the technology will take place at FC Bayern Munich’s season opening match against Chemnitz in September. All of the team’s other home games will be played under the same conditions.
The video floor itself is a technological marvel. It can turn on its LEDs to display animations and graphics across the entire length and width of the floor. It can also display real-time information, including player running speed and ball tracking, which can be used during training and practice.
And the best part: Thanks to the AI system behind it, the playing field can also display optimal passing options or the best defensive positions.
Unfortunately, the exact specifications of the system are not known, but it is said that the system consists of millions of LEDs, the surface is slightly elastic to protect the players’ joints, and it is equipped with ceramic dots that are supposed to provide better grip.
But it’s not just the Bayern basketball players who will be able to enjoy the new technology. The volleyball Bundesliga team from Herrsching also plays its home games at BMW Park. In addition, the floor could also be used for company presentations, entertainment and music events, which could take place in the arena in the near future.
