Vast LED Halo Video Board Lights Up At LA’s New NFL Venue
July 6, 2020 by Dave Haynes
It’s not at all clear when fans or even players will be inside big U.S. pro and college sports venues again, but one of the NFL’s new stadiums has upped the same on center-hung LED video boards.
This is the new SoFi Stadium that will be home to the LA Rams. The big Wow Factor component is a 70,000 square-foot, dual-sided, center-hung Samsung videoboard – billed as the most LEDs ever used in a sports or entertainment venue.
It also also has what is touted as the first and only 4K end-to-end video production in a stadium.
“SoFi Stadium features cutting edge display technology and serves as another example of Samsung’s commitment to changing the way fans interact with live sports,” says Harry Patz, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Display Division, Samsung Electronics America. “We are proud to outfit the stadium with an iconic, first of its kind, double-sided 4K LED display and additional Samsung digital signage technology to ensure that each fan has a unique experience every time they visit Hollywood Park. SoFi Stadium will instantly become one of the NFL’s most talked about stadiums and Samsung is honored to be a part of its history from the start.”
“The Samsung LED technology represented in the videoboard at SoFi Stadium is unlike anything fans have ever experienced,” says Jason Gannon, managing director, SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park. “The design as well as the board’s video and audio capabilities are the first of their kind in sports and will set a new precedent for the in-stadium experience.”
The 8mm pitch board has roughly 80 million pixels. The largest panel is almost 40 feet or four stories tall; its smallest panel is nearly 20 feet or two stories tall.
Its unique size and shape, says the PR, makes it wider than the field of play and offers fans a spectacular view from anywhere in the stadium, enhancing the action taking place on the field.
The different sizes of the video panels are designed to serve spectators in every seat, from the sideline to the upper deck. Fans sitting in the lower bowl of the stadium will view the inside of the videoboard as it sits directly across from their line of view, while guests in the upper bowl will view the outer panels of the videoboard.
It sits 122 feet above the playing field and 70 feet below the roof canopy
Built into the videoboard is a state-of-the-art JBL audio system with more than 260 of the stadium’s total 4,500 loudspeakers. The videoboard sound system accounts for half a million of the 1.3 million watts of Crown Audio amplification in the venue.
Here are the suppliers:
- Designer – HKSLED
- Technology Provider – Samsung
- Audio Provider – HARMAN brands
- Audio System Designer – WJHW (Wrightson, Johnson, Haddon, and Williams, Inc.)
- Audio System Contractor – Pro Media Audio and Video
This is reminiscent of the Daktronics halo display at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz stadium, where the NFL and MLS both play.
The new stadium that’s being completed for the Las Vegas NFL team (moved from Oakland) has a big LED on its exterior, but the inside LEDs are on the interior wall inside the bowl (they’re huge, too).
I think the numbers may be a bit off. 70,000 sqft and only 80,000 pixels? I think there may be a few zeros missing on the number of pixels.