The Palace of Auburn Hills underwent some renovation prior to the 2004-05 Pistons basketball season. You might have noticed the change already once you entered the arena.
The Light Emitting Diode (LED) boards, or "Pro-Ad" displays, as they also can be called, are manufactured by Daktronics in Brookings, South Dakota. The LED boards that circle the arena was installed this summer and has made a real impact on the way The Palace can advertise. The LED board is 948 feet long and three feet tall. It is able to display trillions of colors and can show still images, animated images and is also capable of replaying full motion video.
In past years, you probably did not pay too much attention to the advertisements that were being displayed throughout the duration of a Pistons basketball game. You might have noticed a sign or two during a timeout, but with this addition, many of the advertisements will easily be noticed due to the bright lights and animated features, an added bonus for the numerous companies advertising at The Palace of Auburn Hills.
There are also LED rings that circle above and below PalaceVision above center court. The screen above PalaceVision is approximately 120 feet by three feet and the LED ring below PalaceVision is approximately 80 feet by three feet. These rings can coincide with the same images that are being displayed around the arena or set up to run independently of each other.
Combined, there are a total of 555,264 pixels in all of the signs. The term "pixel" is actually short for "Picture Element." These small little dots are what make up the images on computer displays. Each pixel can only be one color at a time. However, since they are so small, pixels often blend together to form various shades and blends of colors.
The sights are brilliant and another aspect of a night out at The Palace is the sound system. If it’s at a basketball game, a sporting event or a concert, the sound at The Palace is top-notch with the help of JBL Professional, KLA Labs, Crown International and Soundcraft. These companies all played a part in making the voices and music you enjoy at The Palace sharper and clearer than ever before.
The Palace sound system is provided by JBL and installed by KLA Labs based in Dearborn, Michigan. KLA Labs also installed sound systems at Comerica Park where the Detroit Tigers play and Ford Field, home of the Detroit Lions.
JBL Professional Speakers, named after its founder James Bullough Lansing, was the official "Sound of Woodstock", first in 1969, then in 1994 and again in 1999 and supplied speaker systems for major special events including the Super Bowl, the Grammy Awards and the World Cup Opening Ceremony in Seoul, Korea in 2002.
Crown amplifiers are capable of 154,800 watts of power. The previous system installed at The Palace had just 10,000 watts. An amplifier is an essential component for getting the best sound from your system. The amplifier provides the sound system with more power, clarity, and detail and can reach higher volume levels without clipping and distortion.
The Palace’s Audio Engineer, Steve Conway runs the controls of the mixing board supplied by Soundcraft, located in The Palace Sound Booth. It features 72 inputs and 30 outputs and is used to blend and control the volume of each input signal, add effects where required and send the resulting mix to the appropriate destination, either the amplifiers, the tracks of a recording device - or both.