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London manufacturer scores big with NFL teams

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When the upcoming National Football League season kicks off, a few teams will feature London-made technology in their stadiums.

OES Manufacturing recently installed scoreboard operating systems for the new Las Vegas Raiders, and two teams in Los Angeles now sharing a field, the Chargers and Rams.

The Blaikie Road manufacturer was hired by Samsung, provider of the scoreboards and screens in these stadiums, to build the operating systems or as OES chief executive Jeff Stewart likes to call it, “the brains behind the flash.”

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“We are the choice of the pros. We are a contractor to Samsung at the professional level offering scoring and timing systems,” said Stewart.

In fact, OES technology helps run scoreboards in about 40 per cent of NFL stadiums.

“It’s pretty cool,” he added. “We think here in London we are a mid-sized city, but we are doing work with professional sports leagues. We are not the flash, but we are the brains behind the systems.”

OES manufactures and installs both scoreboards and the technology that runs them – both the brains and the flash – for several teams in the Canadian Hockey League including the London Knights, and it recently landed a deal to build a new scoreboard for the Ontario Hockey League Soo Greyhounds.

Its scoreboards can be found in arenas in Strathroy, Mt. Brydges, Stratford and St. Marys, to name a few.

“We have about a 50 per cent market share in the CHL,” said Stewart.

He also recalls how OES at the NHL Winter Classic hockey game at Cotton Bowl stadium in Dallas on New Year’s Day operating the scoreboard from the penalty box.

“They had us on hand to make sure things went smoothly,” said Stewart.

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OES also struck a partnership with USA Football, the governing body for amateur football in the U.S., meaning it may provide scoreboards and their technology and systems to amateur and school fields across the U.S., a potentially huge market, said Stewart.

“We do a lot of work with schools and community facilities and recreational leagues. That’s a big part of the story we have to tell,” said Julie Neufeld, marketing manager at OES.

OES now employs more than 80 and has been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, laying off about 30 workers in March as there was “a dip in sales,” said Stewart.

“The interest is still there, there is pent-up demand for sports right now. We will see it come back,” he said.

Until it does, OES also has other work to keep it busy. Building scoreboards and operating systems is about half of the work OES does. It also makes quality control devices for the automotive manufacturing market and circuit boards for different manufacturers, including Trojan, General Dynamics Land Systems Canada and the local hospital bed manufacturer, Stryker.

As for the NFL’s Raiders, work is ongoing on Allegiant Stadium, but OES has completed its work on the scoreboard and screens, as it has at the new SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles for the Chargers and Rams. Its technology will run the scoreboard and help operate video screens around the stadium, as well as timing and play clocks.

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