Manchester, UK
3.9mm
LED Pixel Pitch
23,000
Total Venue Capacity
16
Large-Format LED Displays
1
Ribbon LED Display
Overview
A venue of this scale demands infrastructure that keeps pace with it.
AO Arena is one of the UK’s largest live entertainment venues, with a capacity of 23,000 and a calendar spanning music, sport, comedy, and major touring productions. Its existing digital infrastructure had not kept pace with the demands of modern live events, or the commercial opportunities they represent.
IUF delivered a comprehensive digital signage and AV upgrade across the full venue: large-format LED displays, digital menu boards, wayfinding screens, UHD back-of-house installations, and a purpose-built ribbon LED wrapping the interior of the bowl.
This was not a hardware refresh. It was a rearchitecting of how the venue communicates, with guests, commercial partners, and the touring crews who rely on its operational infrastructure.
Journey & Experience
Every screen working harder than the one it replaced.
- Large-format LED screens – above high-footfall concession points, carrying venue messaging, promotions, and live event information throughout the concourse
- Digital menu boards – real-time updates to menus, pricing, and promotional content based on event type and audience
- Wayfinding screens – reducing congestion during peak arrival and interval periods
- UHD displays and touchscreen control systems – flexible back-of-house AV for hospitality spaces, artists, and touring crews
- Ribbon LED display – a continuous ticker-style screen wrapping the interior of the bowl, delivering advertising, venue messaging, live prompts, and entertainer media to all 23,000 guests
The ribbon display is the centrepiece of the in-bowl upgrade. Engineered for high brightness, smooth motion content, and long-term durability, it keeps messaging visible across the full bowl throughout every event.
Technology Architecture
Purpose-built for a live events environment, resilient, flexible, and designed to perform under pressure
Core Infrastructure
- Centralised CMS – unified content management across concourse, concession, wayfinding, and bowl displays
- Real-time update capability across all screen types, supporting fast turnaround between events and during live trading
Hardware Ecosystem
- 16 large-format LED displays – concourse and concession areas
- 3.9mm pixel pitch ribbon LED – bowl-facing, continuous format, high brightness
- Digital menu boards – bar and concession-facing
- Wayfinding screens – concourse and entry points
- UHD displays and touchscreen control systems – back-of-house
Implementation
Delivered without disrupting one of the UK’s busiest live event schedules.
Phase 1 – Concourse & Concession
- Large-format LED displays installed above concession points
- Digital menu boards deployed at all food and beverage service points
- Wayfinding screens installed at key navigation points
Phase 2 – Back-of-House
- UHD displays installed across hospitality and operational areas
- Touchscreen control systems deployed for backstage AV management
- Flexible AV configured for touring crew and artist requirements
Phase 3 – Bowl Ribbon LED
- Ribbon LED installed wrapping the interior of the arena bowl
- Configured for high-brightness playback, smooth motion content, and multi-source input
- Full estate brought under centralised content management and handed over to the venue team
Outcomes
A connected venue estate
Every public-facing area now operates within a centrally managed digital network, giving the venue team full control over content at speed and scale.
New commercial inventory at bowl scale
The ribbon LED introduces a significant new sponsorship and advertising asset, visible to all 23,000 guests, generating commercial return from a space that previously offered none.
Flexibility across every event type
Real-time content updates across menus, wayfinding, and promotional screens mean the venue can adapt its full communications environment between events without delay.
