News

Daktronics updating digital displays for the Houston Astros

November 17, 2010

Daktronics Inc. of Brookings, S.D., announced today that the company has been chosen to design, manufacture and install a multimillion dollar integrated video display system at Houston's Minute Maid Park, home of Major League Baseball's Houston Astros.

The video display system, featuring a 1080-line high-definition video display, will be installed before the start of the 2011 season.

"The Astros are very excited about our new state-of-the-art video and ribbon boards for fans attending events at Minute Maid Park beginning on Opening Day, 2011," said Pam Gardner, president of business operations with the Astros. "Our goal is to provide the latest technology in high definition entertainment, and working with our longtime partner Daktronics ... we know the in-game presentation for our fans will be very impressive."

The main 1080-line high definition video display will be located in right field and will measure approximately 54 feet high by 124 feet wide, nearly six times the size of the existing video display (26 feet high by 45 feet wide). An auxiliary display will be installed in left field and will measure approximately 24 feet high by 40 feet wide.

Both the main and auxiliary video displays will utilize Daktronics newest 15-millimeter LED technology, featuring a tighter resolution and improved image quality. The video board can operate as a single giant display or be divided into multiple zones (windows) to show a wide variety of statistics, information, graphics, animation, and live and recorded video.

A Daktronics digital ribbon display, stretching from foul pole to foul pole and measuring approximately 4 feet high by 1,000 feet wide, will also be installed. A similar display will be located under the main video display, measuring approximately 4 feet high by 188 feet wide.

Both ribbon displays will utilize 20-millimeter LED technology and are capable of showing game information, real-time team and player statistics, animations and cropped video clips. These displays can also be used in a variety of ways to recognize and activate sponsors, Daktronics says.

Also included in the project is the new Show Control system from Daktronics, which provides a combination of display control software, video processing, data integration, and playback hardware that forms a complete production solution.