The New Charlotte Arena today unveiled the concept and design of its center-hung video display and scoreboard, which will be the most technologically advanced board in the country when the arena opens in November 2005. Created together with Spurgeon Design Group and manufactured by Daktronics, the scoreboard will have a larger video screen with higher resolution than any other arena in the country, and will feature a 360-degree projection system with ground-breaking, three-dimensional images of the Charlotte city skyline.

“From the start, the Charlotte Bobcats organization has been committed to bringing an emotionally engaging sports and entertainment experience to the Charlotte region,” said Ed Tapscott, president and chief operating officer of the Bobcats organization, which owns and operates the Bobcats, the WNBA's Charlotte Sting, C-SET (Carolinas Sports Entertainment Television) and the New Charlotte Arena, which will be managed and operated by the Bobcats organization. “This new scoreboard will be the centerpiece of our vision.”

“The scoreboard is the most dominant component within any arena, but until now has not been fully utilized as a design and theatrical element to entertain the fan,” said Barry Silberman, executive vice president of arena development, operations and entertainment for the city-owned New Charlotte Arena, which will be managed by the Charlotte Bobcats. “Our concept has a forward-thinking design that will revolutionize the sports and entertainment industry.”

Standard scoreboards have typically featured fixed digital displays surrounding an LED screen averaging nine feet wide by 16 feet high. The New Charlotte Arena’s four-sided, center-hung scoreboard will feature four 16-foot-high by 28-foot-long LED (light emitting diode) screens that can change throughout an event to feature one full-screen image or an assortment of animations, graphics, video, text, scores and other event-relevant information.

“In essence, the LED screen is a blank canvas that has no fixed digital displays and instead features multiple video and data inputs that can be windowed in an infinite number of combinations, sizes and configurations” Silberman said.

At concerts, an audience can see a larger than life image of their favorite performer. At sporting events, fans in one moment may see a combination of game statistics, on-court action, shot clock, running time and quarter information and in the next moment watch a full-screen replay of a key game moment.

“We envisioned and created a unique concept and then sought out the best theatrical designers to develop our idea. The last piece of the puzzle was to select the best scoreboard company to implement our vision,” Silberman said.

Working with noted arena and stadium consultant Michael Deutsch of Phoenix, the arena partnered with Spurgeon Design Group, who are experts in lighting, video, sound and sets for Broadway shows, themed venues and Las Vegas theatrical extravaganzas, to design the concept they had generated.

“The Bobcats desired a leading edge idea of building an impressive video board with features that would allow them limitless opportunities to provide an experience to the fan that could be changed easily. This ‘virtual’ video board is exactly what was needed to meet the challenge and is the wave of the future,” said Rod Sintow, a Principal with Spurgeon Design Group. “Due to the impressive size of the display and its pixel spacing, the video screens in the arena will boast the highest resolution of any indoor sports display in the world.”

In addition to the four horizontal high-resolution displays, the 38-foot-high by 36-feet-wide, 80,000-pound scoreboard will feature four LED vertical displays on the corners of the structure. All these high-tech components will be manufactured and installed by Daktronics, the world’s leading designer and manufacturer of integrated scoring and video systems.”

“This project will push the envelope and expand the possibilities of what can be done with LED technology,” said Reece Kurtenbach, vice president, video systems, for Daktronics, Inc., which showed off its technical implementation skills in a side-by-side audition for the arena scoreboard development held at Sony Studios in Culver City, Calif., last month.

“Working closely with the arena’s scoreboard design team, we’ve built a great innovative display system for this incredible new facility,” he said.

Daktronics also created three LED ribbon displays surrounding the New Charlotte Arena interior seating bowl to provide spectators with easily viewed game and event information and graphics. One display will surround the circular perimeter of the lower seating bowl and two others will run parallel to the basketball court sidelines on the upper level fascia.

More than 6.3 million light emitting diodes will be incorporated into the various displays including accent lighting for the arena name.

The scoreboard’s most unique design element will be a three-dimensional, back-lit Charlotte city skyline that sits atop the center-hung display. The skyline will come to life through a 360-degree projection system, whose multiple projectors will offer a seamless movie-screen projection of a limitless variety of creative images. For example, the skyline may feature day-time or night-time views and can be altered to entertain the crowd in a variety of ways, from fireworks shooting across the sky after an emotional moment in a game or event to a hot-air balloon or airplane passing by. An endless amount of animated effects can be created by the arena’s design and graphic team to bring the skyline to life.

“Through the combination of our high-definition content displayed on the LED video boards and the Charlotte city skyline, the new scoreboard and display will become the signature icon for the New Charlotte Arena, giving fans a new level of entertainment experience in a way they could have never imagined before,” Silberman said. “It is truly a groundbreaking and revolutionary board for the sports and entertainment industry and will undoubtedly set the stage for the next generation of display systems.”

The New Charlotte Arena opens in November 2005 and will be home to the Bobcats and Sting. The state-of-the-art facility is located in the heart of Charlotte, N.C., and will host close to 125 events a year including sports, concerts, family entertainment and other special events. The arena will feature restaurants, retail and a range of visitor-friendly amenities.