LA’s New Intuit Dome Will Feature 38,375 Sq. Ft., Two-Sided LED Halo Over Playing Surface

April 24, 2023 by Dave Haynes

Big halo LED displays have received a lot of attention when then were lit up at pro football stadiums in Atlanta and LAS, but now there’s a version being manufactured and readied for installation at a pro basketball area – the new Intuit Dome in LA that will be home to the NBA’s Clippers.

The new-build arena’s signature feature in the seating bowl will be a huge, double-sided LED halo display – what manufacturer Daktronics says is the largest ever designed for an arena setting.

The inner halo measures 32 feet high by 623 feet in circumference, and its outer halo measures 28 feet high by 661 feet in circumference. The LED is all 3.9mm, so bordering on fine pixel pitch.

Daktronics has an interview up on its corporate site, relating some of the business and technical aspects of the job, notably a design that allows for part of the halo to be raised out of view for concerts. While the halo, as designed, allows people to see stats and replays from any angle in the seating bowl, they’re mainly looking at the playing surface. Concerts, on the other hand, tend to be at one end of the arena floor and can have tall and vast backdrops.

But it’s interesting when you sit in these meetings with architects, and you know how good they are at their jobs, and sightlines is a big part of that to make sure every fan has a great experience and can see everything they need to see. And something as large as that halo definitely had to be reviewed quite closely.

To add to that on the sidelines conversation, the halo is about 640 feet around on the largest circumference and on each end there are about 60-foot wide sections that we call the optimal hoist. They are actually on hoists, almost like a traditional center-hung, where they’re going to raise up out of the way. And that’s to improve sightlines for concerts. They will only be raised during non-basketball events to help audiences see stages if they’re on different ends of the arena.

Now, when you’re talking about something that large and the structure that comes with this, just to support the sheer size of it, you start talking about the alignment and the tolerances to be able to do that and then getting the technology a little bit.

This is currently sitting on a 3.9-millimeter display. And on these operable ends, the goal is to keep the gap where the hoisted ends meet at less than two inches. And to do that and repeat that precision we’ve actually had to employ some design partners on the hoist side and on the track system side.

So, we’re actually using a similar type of track system that they use on retractable roofs on these operable ends to be able to raise them up and down and repeat that setting. So, when it is lowered back in game mode, it lines up and looks continuous so that the engineering in this alone, just on the halo, is definitely something that’s unique.

I’ve not seen any details on digital signage technology planned for the concourses and the rest of the building, but team owner Steve Ballmer, who made his fortune succeeding Bill Gates at Microsoft, is spending $2 billion on the venue. The arena is targeted to open next year.

 

Leave a comment