Overview
The Emirates Stadium is the home ground for Arsenal Football Team, located in Holloway London. With an attendance of around 60,000 fans at each home fixture and millions of fans worldwide.The club plays football within the UK Premier League and ranks in the Top 5 football teams in the UK.
Client Brief
Back in 2017, Arsenal FC contacted us alongside The Shippey Campaign with an interest in offering a specially designed area for their supporters who have sensory processing issues, anxiety and other additional needs, allowing them to attend home fixtures whilst in a calmer environment.
The goal was to create an accessible space within a soundproof viewing room to watch the game when in play, but also a specialist sensory space for that bit of time out to regulate. In a bid to become more inclusive and offer their fans who wish to follow the game the accessibility to do so without the experience being as challenging.
What We Created
We are very proud to have worked with Arsenal FC to create both spaces they requested, with the end results receiving positive reviews from the football community.
The new sensory room featured a range of interactive features to achieve levels of engagement and calming features to help relax the fans whilst they enjoy the game, including:
- Bespoke football themed tactile panels to the window area for visual stimulation, motor skills and exploration during the match to keep the users regulated and concentrated.
- A soft padded den, acting as a quiet, calm safe space to reset.
- A Borealis Tube displaying different LED light sequences that can be enjoyed in comfort by the user when seated on the plinth. With acrylic mirrors placed behind the tube, the visual effect of the tube is enhanced and allows the user to marvel and gain self-awareness.
- Visual projections including a media projector displaying a moving projected football club badge, and a mirror ball filling the room with mesmoring and calming mirror ball patterns.
- An LED Infinity Panel which offers visual tracking and engagement from the user via light sequences that create an infinite light illusion.
- Colour-changing mood lighting to offer the overall calming ambience required.
All of these products possess the bonus of an interactive feature to allow the user to operate them via wireless remotes. A Sensor Floor was also installed, to offer a multitude of software controlled games via interactive motion tracking, which is detected by the users movement for cause and effect and cognitive stimulation.
Ongoing Maintenance Support & Aftercare
As with all our customers, the club was offered the option to extend the warranty on their equipment after the first year of installation and receive service visits at regular intervals throughout the year, as well as fault visits to address any issues that arise between service visits and a budget to cover any repairs or replacements.
The club opted to extend the warranty for a further three years, selecting one of our silver plans. This plan offered them six monthly servicing, two fault call-outs a year (all carried out by our services and maintenance engineer), plus a budget for any equipment repairs or replacements required through equipment malfunction. Along with remote support from our support staff as and when required.
Equipment servicing for their rooms would consist of:
- Re-calibration of the interactive Sensor Floor
- Cleaning of all equipment including projector lens’, vents and filters.
- Service, condition, audit and function test of equipment.
During the course of their extended warranty servicing plan, the clubs equipment has received beanbag repairs, replacement batteries for remotes, refixing of loose parts, replacement audio setup for the sensor and cabinet keys amongst other things, which were all within their repairs budget.
This allowed them to always have fully functional sensory spaces that keep the facilities accessible for every fixture. By maintaining the equipment, it improved productivity and made sure the spaces were at their full potential as well as enhancing the longevity of the equipment to protect their investment for continued use from the community.
We are proud to continue our work with Arsenal FC, who are currently in their second three-year extended warranty plan and the spaces are performing just as they did when installed in 2017. And positive feedback is still echoed online to the current day which is testament to the club for their continued investment to maintain the resource to a high standard.
Maintenance Visit - 2023
Maintenance Visit - 2024
More Importantly - What The Customer Says!
The decision on an extended warranty would have certainly been because the sensory room and its benefit to our supporters is a crucial element for our matchday operation and aligns with the Club’s philosophy and therefore it should be maintained accordingly. The service we receive is great. In terms of what else could be covered, servicing the new equipment that in now in the second studio is important. Servicing has enabled us to offer a guaranteed quality of provision at every event we have run for the last 7 years.
