PPDS, the exclusive global provider of Philips digital signage, LED displays and professional TV solutions, is to become an official Red Bull Racing (RBR) Team Supplier.
The collaboration sees the global professional display provider delivering across its portfolio of products, with professional displays and monitors on tour with the team throughout the season.
Far from a traditional supply deal, the announcement follows extensive collaboration and meticulous proof of concept testing throughout 2021 with PPDS’ range of Philips professional displays and solutions for RBR’s VIP hospitality needs.
Offering beyond-the-grandstand, VIP hospitality experiences for the 2022 Championship season, a suite of Philips professional displays will now feature inside the Red Bull Racing Paddock Club, bringing F1 enthusiasts closer-than-ever to the action.
Housed above the team garages and pit lane, typically overlooking the start/finish straight, the Red Bull Racing Paddock Club will include PPDS’ Chromecast built-in Philips MediaSuite (x4) and Philips B-line (x2) professional TVs – providing live 4K UHD coverage of the race, access to exclusive behind the scenes content, coverage links to the RBR pit lane, and audio feeds from the drivers and crew. Guests are also able to virtually experience racing around the track for themselves, in RBR racing simulators equipped with powerful gaming monitors from sister company, AOC.
Taking center stage in the RBR Paddock Club, will be a 10m², 1.5mm pixel pitch, Philips L-Line 9000 UHD direct view LED display. Measuring 4.85m wide, and 2.05m high, the 48 cabinet, 8 x 6 LED wall eliminates pressures and challenges surrounding lengthy installation and deinstallation times for the RBR team, with the entire solution built into two bespoke, highly durable flight cases.
Designed by PPDS and manufactured by Dutch firm, AMPCO Flashlight B.V, the unique mounting mechanism allows two folded, half screens to seamlessly join together, giving the appearance of a single surface, while the cases allow safe and secure transportation.
Ron Cottaar, Marketing Director at PPDS, commented: “We’re proud and excited to have become an official Team Supplier of Red Bull Racing who, like PPDS, understand the true value and benefits of having deeply aligned, close working partnerships in order to achieve goals. We have worked to fully understand RBR’s deepest needs from their display portfolio – identifying and, for the LED wall, building from scratch, solutions that not only match their visions and ambitions, but surpass them.”
Building on PPDS’ sponsorships on the sporting stage, next to partnerships with the likes of the reigning champions of English Premiership Rugby Union, Harlequins, this latest relationship sees sixty Philips professional displays and monitors used by the RBR trackside hospitality team during all 23 x Grand Prix race events throughout the 2022 FIA World Championship Season, beginning in Bahrain.
Martijn van der Woude, director international business development at PPDS, commented: “When it comes to F1, every second counts, both on and off the track. A giant LED wall that needs to be installed 23 times a season in a busy, time and space restricted environment may have seemed like a non-starter for some. However, at PPDS, this is just the type of challenge our teams enjoy rising to – a challenge that, working together with our partners, we were able to overcome, ensuring RBR guests are engaged with the most immersive, high quality and visual race day experience available anywhere in the F1 Paddock Club.”
