The new Yankee Stadium in New York will soon possess high-def screens from Cisco Systems that can show live game play and later switch to giving exit directions and traffic information. This was announced on Tuesday in Manhattan and the screens are called Cisco StadiumVision.

They are the most visible element of a larger plan to use networking to enhance the audience experience at the stadium, which will open in April 2009. StadiumVision takes advantage of a technology called digital signage and the concept is based on flat-screen displays and wired or wireless networks to provide signs that can change depending on time, situation and specific location.

At the stadium, during a match, the screens will show live games in progress throughout the stadium, including the Great Hall, the restaurants and bars and the Yankees Museum. After the match, the screens will switch in order to give useful information keyed to each location, and in case of emergencies the displays will give evacuation directions. Furthermore, the new Yankee Stadium will also get IP phones in luxury suites that fans can use to order concessions and merchandise for delivery to the suite.

The main attraction and the most significant high-tech feature of the park, the one Cisco has been talking about ever since it announced a vision for a stadium bearing its own name in 2006, will not be available on the first day of the new stadium: the wireless system.

This will let the fans view instant replays and chat with friends inside and outside the stadium, Cisco reported on Tuesday. Unfortunately, the new stadium will only be built in order to support the features in the future, not contain them. As for the plans for Cisco’s own stadium, Cisco Field, they are still pending.