Merson Digital installs 500 sq m LED system at O2 Belfast arena
2026-09-02 · via AV Magazine
Merson Digital has completed an LED installation at O2 Belfast covering more than 500 square metres, giving the arena a single integrated display system for events, sport and sponsorship content.
The build includes a 200-metre-long, 1.5-metre-high LED ribbon that runs around the arena bowl, plus four corner scoreboards measuring 10m by 5.5m each. All of the displays use Yaham LED panels with a 3.9mm pixel pitch, which Merson Digital describes as high-brightness technology suited to sightlines from any seat in the venue.
For operators, the headline number is the scale: 500 sq m of addressable LED in one venue is a significant inventory footprint, and it points to arenas increasingly treating their perimeter and scoreboard displays as a single managed network rather than a collection of separate screens bought and controlled independently.
Navori CMS ties scoreboard and ribbon together
The system is run on Navori's content management platform, which Merson Digital says lets the venue combine live game data with branding, sponsor messaging and visual effects across both the ribbon and the scoreboards at the same time. This is the part that matters operationally: rather than running the scoreboard feed and the ribbon content as separate systems, The Odyssey Trust, which operates O2 Belfast, gets one platform to manage both, including for Belfast Giants ice hockey fixtures where the scoreboard needs to show live scoring alongside sponsor and atmosphere content.
Craig Barrington, associate director of estates and facilities at The Odyssey Trust, said the scale of the infrastructure is less important than what it lets the venue do, describing the system as a more adaptable platform for the varied requirements of different events. Merson Digital chief executive Josh Bunce said the challenge was integrating the LED, the CMS and the multi-sport scoreboard into one system that was straightforward to manage while remaining flexible.
What the announcement does not say is who supplied the media player or control hardware driving the installation, what the total project cost or contract value was, or when installation began and was completed. There is also no detail on how the system integrates with other in-venue signage, if any, or whether the arena plans to sell the ribbon and scoreboard inventory as advertising space to external sponsors beyond event-day branding. For an industry increasingly focused on retail media style ad sales in sports venues, that commercial detail would be the natural next question.
The announcement in full
Reproduced from AV Magazine for reference. Digital Signage Magazine did not write the text below.
By AV Magazine in Displays , Sports and arenas , UK&I , Venues September 1, 2026 0
A 200m-long, 1.5m high ribbon and four corner scoreboards, totalling 500 sq metres of displays, will give the venue more scope to connect audiences with what is happening around them.
Merson Digital has provided more than 500 sq metres of high-brightness LED for the O2 Belfast.
The installation comprises a 200m-long, 1.5m-high LED ribbon that encircles the arena bowl and four 10m by 5.5m corner scoreboards.
The displays deploy the company’s 3.9mm pixel pitch high-brightness Yaham LED technology to deliver high-impact content that is visible from anywhere in the arena.
The infrastructure creates greater scope to integrate event content, branding, messaging and visual effects into the audience experience, giving promoters and event organisers a platform that complements on-stage activity.
Integration with Navori CMS For ice hockey team Belfast Giants’ home games, Merson Digital has provided a multi-sports scoreboard solution integrated with the Navori content management system (CMS).
The technology provides the flexibility to combine essential game information with dynamic content and activations across the ribbon and scoreboards.
Craig Barrington, associate director of estates and facilities at The Odyssey Trust, which operates the O2 Belfast, said: “The sheer scale of the new digital infrastructure is impressive – but what matters most is what it enables us to do.
“We now have considerably greater scope to use the technology and content to add to the atmosphere and connect audiences with what is happening around them.
‘A more adaptable platform’ “It also gives us a platform that is much more adaptable, with every event having different requirements.
“Having more than 500sqm of high-quality digital inventory allows us to work creatively with various internal and external stakeholders to ensure that our customers have the best experience every time.”
Merson Digital’s chief executive, Josh Bunce, added: “Our challenge was to bring more than 500 sq metres of LED, the venue’s CMS and a multi-sport scoreboard together into one integrated system that was simple to manage and flexible enough for everything the venue hosts.
“It was a complex brief, but exactly the kind of challenge our team enjoys solving.”