Heading into the team’s 100th season, the New York Giants feature one of the richest histories in professional football and have played a significant role in the growth of the National Football League (NFL).

Representing the country’s largest city, the Giants helped the new sports league gain national media attention and an extensive fan base in 1925. The Giants are a family-led enterprise with eight NFL championships, including four Super Bowl wins. 

When general manager Joe Schoen joined the Giants organization, he sought to modernize the team’s draft room to upgrade the process from manually moving magnets on the walls to a digitally powered command center with multiple screens that could display resourceful data to power some of the team’s most important decisions. As director of football Data and Innovation, Ty Siam researched for a partner to help design and install a state-of-the-art facility that could display the analytics and details pulled together by the team. 

“On draft day, one of the most important parts for us is keeping up with the draft trades as they happen live,” states Schoen. “We used to do it by hand by marking them on paper and with the technology we have from Crestron, real-time updates are now viewable from around the room. It’s hard to believe how we used to do things before partnering with Crestron.”

Crestron System Brings the New York Giants into the Modern World of the NFL

Image Engineering specializes in sports entertainment and has experience in permanent installations for other draft rooms and live event production, covering everything from laser shows to architectural lighting. Because of this, the Giants selected the company for this project. To meet the task, the Image Engineering team turned to Crestron Control and the Crestron DigitalMedia platform. 

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As the focal point of this project, the draft room was a critical, high-impact space that needed to support operations during the three intense draft days, which are scheduled to run from April 25-27.

The New York Giants and Crestron point out the NFL Draft is one of the most popular use cases for this room as football leadership, the owners, and many more come together to participate in the live event, which ties together 32 teams in a national broadcast. When teams are on the clock they are given a specific period of time to make their draft selection, and with the Crestron control system, Schoen and his staff can pull up every piece of information on a player as needed. 

“Working long days for an NFL organization, the staff at the New York Giants doesn’t have time to mess around with technology, and that’s why we went with Crestron,” comments Ian Bottiglieri, vice president of operations, Image Engineering. “It just needs to work. Crestron offers such a depth of products, and there are so many offerings that can natively tie together in a truly dependable system.”

Crestron points out that while these decisions are made final on the draft days, there is a multitude of analytical data and background information pulled together in the months prior that can be accessed instantly with a simple tap on its touch screens.

The Crestron DigitalMedia platform works in the background to route specific content to the intended screens, giving the team the best look at the statistics available to them as they make their picks. The Crestron system has brought a new personal element to these memorable days; those in the room can make a video call on the large screen to virtually bring in their latest draft picks for a quick interaction to meet with their new team. 

Beyond the draft days, the room supports the team through crucial decisions year-round. Preprogrammed scenes make repeatable actions easy for the staff to recall, and the system’s responsiveness plays a critical role in the room’s success.

Whether it is used for the roster selection in August, making trades through free agency by the football side of the organization, or client visits by the business side, the draft room has become a dynamic space worth highlighting for the entire New York Giants organization. The multiple screens around the room and the dynamic ability to route content to each as needed have given the staff the flexibility to adapt to the needs of any meeting. 

The rest of the Quest Diagnostics Giants Training Center leverages Crestron technology to maintain a consistent and reliable approach to accessing content as and when needed. The football team works on a strictly detailed schedule that balances on-field and off-field activities. Any delay will cut into the team’s flow and derail the focus of the staff and players, serving as a distraction as they prep for that week’s game during the season. Crestron control with accompanying touch screens and DM NVX AV-over-IP technology are present in each classroom.

These classrooms are dedicated spaces for each position group to get together and discuss their specialized game plan. The auditorium, used for large team meetings and some press functions, also leverages the same technology with multiple touch screens that allow for flexible access to control around the room. During the season when every win is on the line, this high-pressure environment thrives with a reliable system that empowers the staff and players to focus on the task with technology that supports their mission.

“Compared to our old system, the process with Crestron now saves us two- to three-minutes per player,” adds Siam. “When you’re talking about 500 players, that saves you days of work and those days are now used to make better decisions with the information we have and the confidence in our picks.”

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