Auburn goes HD to tune of $2.9 million

The Auburn University Athletics Department will install the first true high definition (HD) video display in the Southeastern Conference inside Jordan-Hare Stadium prior to the start of the 2007 football season. The HD display will measure approximately 30 feet high by 74 feet wide and will take advantage of Daktronics latest HD-12 light emitting diode (LED) technology.

“We are extremely excited to make this significant enhancement to Jordan-Hare Stadium as a sign of our commitment to the Auburn fans, student-athletes, alumni, sponsors and all others who enjoy and support the great tradition of Auburn football,” said Jay Jacobs, Auburn Director of Athletics. “We also wanted to invest in high definition video technology because of the incredible detail of the imagery and the flexibility this exciting technology provides. We are excited to be working with Daktronics because of their extensive experience and proven success with their products for top level collegiate and professional sports venues.”

“The tradition of Auburn University athletics is well known around the country,” said Reece Kurtenbach, Daktronics Vice President of Video Systems. “We are very pleased to make this announcement and continue our partnership with Auburn with such a unique, truly high definition system.”

The $2.9 million upgrade will incorporate the latest Daktronics video technology with high density full-color Pure Pixel resolution, incredibly wide viewing angles, and resolution enhancement with sub-pixel control. As with all Daktronics LED video displays, Auburn’s new HD screen will have the capability to show a single, wide screen image, and can also be split into multiple windows to show lineups, game statistics, out-of-town game information and much more. The active area of the new display, to be populated by more than one million individual LEDs, will exceed 2,200 square feet.

Auburn is the first Southeastern Conference school to install large screen HD video at one of its facilities, and only the second NCAA member institution to invest in true high definition LED video capabilities.

Prior to the start of the 2006 football season, Daktronics provided two large ProAd fascia LED displays inside Jordan-Hare Stadium, installed on the upper deck fascia, parallel to the sidelines. Additional ProAd sections will be added to the existing fascia displays, increasing the length of both to approximately 250 feet. Last year’s upgrade also included a large auxiliary scoreboard behind the north end zone, measuring approximately 18 feet high by 60 feet wide, new play clocks, and locker room clocks. The scoreboard and clocks use LED digits for greater visibility, increased reliability and reduced power consumption.

Daktronics HD-X LED video displays, available in a wide variety of sizes and configurations, represent a new generation of large screen technology. The product line features a number of industry advances including a high-density pixel layout, improved contrast levels and enhanced viewing angles. Using the latest LED and control system technologies, Daktronics large screen displays present live and recorded video images, colorful animation and vivid graphics. The new HD board, and other existing display system components will be controlled with the proven Daktronics Venus controller, V-Link video processor, and All Sport scoring controller.