Author: Dan Daley, Audio Editor Wednesday, October 27, 2021-7:00 AM Print this story | Subscribe

As the demand for larger and larger video screens and louder sound systems increases, competing real estate needs sometimes cause multimedia traffic congestion in stadiums. For most of the past 20 years, Daktronics has held nearly 60% of the market share in the main video displays and integrated super systems of professional sports stadiums, and has been working on integrating sound systems into increasingly larger video boards. Reduce this conflict. Incorporating loud sounds into the big picture creates a unique live fan experience, but it also has to deal with some challenges.

John Olsen of Daktronics saw the "untapped potential" of integrated audio systems in NBA and NHL arena video boards.

"Basically," said John Olsen, Daktronics Audio System Sales Manager, "What we are doing is placing the line array in a huge display so that the effect is like a point source audio system. The goal of a point source audio system is to produce Coherent sound waves reach most of the seats in the stadium with the smallest change between seats. This effect feels like the sound and the picture come from the same place."

The screen is as large as Daktronics's nearly 900 square feet. One of the main challenges for the display and the integrated PA system of the Jordan-Hare Stadium of Auburn University with a sound pressure level of 120 dB or higher is to achieve reasonable synchronization between the image and the sound. The light of a video image travels at a speed of 186 million miles per second, while its associated audio travels at a speed of only 700 miles per hour.

Olsen said the solution is to delay the video by approximately 500 milliseconds in the video processor. In a football stadium with the largest video board on average, this is achieved by using the 50-yard line as the goal for optimal synchronization of the display/sound system at one end of the stadium.

"This minimizes the impact of the delay so that most people will not notice it anywhere in the stadium, although it cannot completely eliminate it," he said. "This is a challenge for any large venue sound system and speakers installed for shadowed areas such as lobby, franchise areas, suites and other indoor or outdoor areas."

The company's typical hybrid AV installation is this year at North State University's new Dacotah Bank Stadium in Aberdeen, South Dakota. It is 23 feet high and 59 feet wide, located within a larger scoreboard structure, 42 feet high and 76 feet wide. The Daktronics Sportsound 2000HD audio system is integrated with the video and scoring system.

The Jordan-Hare Stadium at Auburn University has a 900-foot stadium. Video board with integrated PA system.

The larger video board can accommodate the larger sound system required for point source, end-fire PAs. This is good, because in an era where greater low frequency energy (LFE) has become the main content of popular and urban music genres often heard in large stadiums, this means more subwoofers can be accommodated-usually the largest Type of speaker enclosure.

All of these LFEs can distort the picture by shaking the superstructure, although Olson said any such distortions are not easily noticeable by the eyes. For very large installations, such as the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, any number of internal or external vibration sources may cause potential image distortion. Daktronics has developed a "rod-shaped" product: long and slender epoxy LED The rods are assembled together, there is space between them, but from a distance, they form a coherent image.

Another solution is GKD MediaMesh. Daktronics cooperates with GKD Metal Fabrics to sell and install it. Daktronics provides the LED part of the product. MediaMesh is a textile-like woven fabric of stainless steel and electronic equipment that can be installed in front of a solid external wall or window-or in front of a sound system-and provide images and sound while keeping the underlying structure visible.

However, in such a large-scale situation, each solution also has its own considerations. For example, the spacing between bars in a display assembly must not only consider the image consistency at a specific distance, but also how the spacing affects the frequency response of the sound system behind it.

"Depending on the size of the sound system and its orientation to the audience, the LED exterior wall may attenuate certain higher frequencies," Olsen explained. He came to Daktronics when he acquired Dodge Electronics in 2005, which Dodge Electronics specifically designed for College students provide PA systems and professional markets. "As you move to higher frequencies, the waves become smaller and fewer obstacles are needed to block or attenuate them. With our LED Audio Facade products, we create a happy medium for sound transmission. Really. Yes, the only problem is to get as much vertical resolution as possible, and then let our eyes put them together. It’s a matter of finding the right balance between image and sound."

Daktronics' LED solution prevents image distortion caused by LFE in the large integrated video/audio scoreboard of the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

In fact, this is part of the future strategy. Stadiums in all markets are turning to AV to help welcome fans back to the stands: using large-scale audio and video to attract fans in a way that can't be done at home.

In addition, Daktronics hired Diane Gonzalez-Ferranti in July as the executive producer of its creative services department, whose mission is to help the company develop its business in the field of digital content creation in all markets, including sports. At the same time, Olson said, the integrated audio and video structure creates the cost-effectiveness that teams and venue managers need.

Since the largest arena cannot become bigger, the other part of the future strategy of combining audio and video systems is the arena. Although Daktronics has screens in 11 NBA and 17 NHL arenas, none of them have integrated audio systems. Olsen optimistically describes this possibility as "unexploited potential."

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