HD Scoreboards Gain In Popularity; Drive HD Production Gear Purchases

By Andrew Lippe
Washington State University and the
University of Mississippi are the most recent schools to jump on the
HD bandwagon with new Daktronics HD scoreboards. Both
decided upon LED technology to replace outdated
scoreboards but WSU will also roll out a new Sony MVP HD trailer to handle production of scoreboard video.

“It has a five-camera setup and enables us to produce live events,” says
John David Wicker, associate
athletic director, for events and facility operations for WSU.
Shane Sanford, director of Internet
and graphic design services at TeleSouth, had similar sentiments for
the scoreboard at the University of Mississippi. “Their scoreboard
was a Sony Jumbotron and was small,” he says. “People were having a hard time seeing the scoreboard,
especially in the opposite end zone.” The video display will be the
largest true high definition display in the SEC.
Washington State University’s new
video display will measure approximately 53 feet wide by 25 feet high. SportSound, a division of Daktronics, will design
and install a new sound cabinet on the large scoreboard display using
a single point source to provide smooth and even coverage throughout
the entire facility.
Washington State University had Sony
custom-build a Sony MVP truck for live production.
The scoreboard
is run by a booth in the press box and is coordinated with the production
truck. The entire video, scoring and sound display will be 53 feet wide
and 41 feet high and will be controlled by the Daktronics
Venus 7000 controller, V-Link video processor and All Sport controller.

“We will probably replace the scoreboard
at Beasley Coliseum where we play basketball games,” adds Wicker.
“We will just take the production trailer over there and plug it in
as opposed to having to run fiber from a stand alone production room
located on campus.”
The University of Mississippi HD
display will be 75 feet wide by 48 feet tall and installed
at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium/Hollingsworth Field. Daktronics PS-X video display technology
will be featured in the stadium, both on the front of the display and
greeting visitors on the back of the display. Daktronics SportSound
division will also build a sound cabinet for the school.

“There are no students involved in
graphics creation but students are helping out with some of our camera
work,” says Sanford, and the students will
use four JVC GY-HD250CHU cameras. “We
approach our video board show as if it were a television broadcast,” says Sanford. “We want it to look like an ESPN broadcast.”
Washington State Cougar fans will see
the new scoreboard system for the first time on September 6. Ole Miss
Rebel fans can see their new scoreboard August 30 for the team’s home
opener.
The University of Mississippi joins
a number of SEC universities that have chosen Daktronics including Auburn,
Alabama, Florida, Louisiana State, Georgia, Vanderbilt and South Carolina.
“Nobody is using analog anymore,” says Sanford. “So why not go HD?”