Sony, Diversified Systems Team Up on Dodgers’ 1080p-Capable HD Control Room

As part of Dodger Stadium’s $100 million renovation, the team completely gutted the existing SD control room to make way for new equipment and cabling capable of feeding 1080p content to the stadium’s new HD videoboards. To tackle the project, prime contractor Sony tapped Diversified Systems, which had integrated the stadium’s previous control room in 2001.

Stripping the room down to the concrete pillars, the pair took over portions of the press dining area and concourse to create a more spacious video-replay area. Located behind home plate on the press level, the 1080p-capable control room occupies a space nearly double the size of its predecessor.

The Dodgers’ revamped control room during a game against the Washington Nationals

“[The Dodgers’] goal was, as with any of these facilities, to enhance the fan experience and their presentation throughout the stadium,” says Duane Yoslov, SVP, sales and operations, western region, Diversified Systems. “They were upgrading the LED boards and, at the same time, upgrading the control room to high definition, and the decision was made early on that the control room should support 1080p.”

The room features a Sony MVS7000x production switcher, Evertz EQX router, Chyron graphics engine, EVS replay server and IPDirector, and Elemental Technologies systems for storage, game recording, and transcoding.

Sony also supplied monitors for the control room and three Sony HDC2400 cameras to feed the video boards and began replacing the HD TV sets around the Stadium. Besides integrating the control room, Diversified subcontracted Bexel to replace or rerun structure cabling to the control room and mount the 11 POV cameras throughout the ballpark.

Dodgers Technical Director Dan Valdivia mans the new Sony MVS-7000X switcher.

The team upgraded its edit capabilities last year, moving its Apple Final Cut Pro workstations and ingest racks from a temporary facilities near the truck docks to a permanent location in the stadium. An additional Final Cut Pro workstation was installed in the control room during the renovations.

The project schedule was tight. Having received notice to proceed with the control-room integration in late October, Sony and Diversified had to have the room ready for Opening Day on April 1.

“As everybody knows in the sports business, Opening Day doesn’t move,” says Chris Sullivan, national sales manager, sports venues, Professional Solutions of America, Sony Electronics. “[We] needed to allocate the manpower and put more people on the job, from both us and DSI, to make sure that everything was completed by Opening Day. It was a tight timeframe, but we made it.”