
Snapdragon Stadium Is Shiny New Home for San Diego State University Athletics, NWSL's San Diego Wave In past five seasons, SDSU's Aztecs played in San Diego Stadium, Dignity Health Sports Park By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor
Wednesday, November 23, 2022 - 7:00 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
San Diego might not pop up in a discussion of large media markets, but, at the collegiate level, the city boasts one of the newest football stadiums in the U.S. At just over three months old, Snapdragon Stadium, the $310 million permanent home of San Diego State University (SDSU) Athletics, is providing a stellar fan experience for a community that's passionate about sports.
I think [the Aztecs] are thrilled to have a place to call home and create an experience that's 100% their own, says Brian Smith, director, operations, Snapdragon Stadium, Oak View Group, which manages the venue. They can now come in and develop a show that they want without someone telling them they can't do something.
Amongst the Bricks: Crew Overcomes Challenges Throughout Construction A little over two years after the groundbreaking, Smith joined the project in November 2021. Having served as director, events, during LAFC's first season at Banc of California Stadium in 2018, among other positions, he offered in-venue production experience tailor-made for the SDSU project. New builds always pose multiple challenges, but, with the stadium inaccessible until a month and a half before the first football game (vs. University of Arizona on Saturday, Sept. 3), Smith was particularly integral to navigating this phase. During construction, Oak View Group and SDSU relied on the partners chosen for the job, particularly Clair Global Integration for equipment procurement and installation and AmpThink for networking.
A mix of professional freelancers and SDSU students work productions in the control room.
When the workload of technologies became heavier in April and May, [Oak View Group A/V Broadcast Manager Ceci Becerra] and I sat down to plan out the venue, says Smith. Some of the areas that we discussed were the modifications that were needed, what training needed to be done, and what systems needed to be worked on.
Besides figuring out the necessary adjustments on the tech side, Becerra was tasked with recruiting freelancers who had worked at Dodgers Stadium, SoFi Stadium, and other sports venues throughout Southern California and pairing them with students working on games inside the control room. To bring the recruits up to speed, the department relied on Ross Video for training on the Ross-powered production tools deployed. Getting the crew acclimated to the new space was pivotal, and, although the team successfully grasped these workflows, these lessons were done amid unforeseen changes to construction.
Timelines shifted constantly, Smith explains. Working within a post-COVID world, we've dealt with the ongoing supply-chain crisis, so we secured more than one set of pieces from different places and saw which one came first. Today, there are still some things that we'll eventually replace with more of what is in line with what we were looking for.
In-Venue Arsenal: Control-Room Technologies, 7.5 Million Pixels of LED Heading into the Aztecs' first full season in Snapdragon Stadium, the in-venue production crew is armed with some of the industry's newest technologies. Inside the control room near the top of the building, Ross Video has a heavy presence throughout the back-of-house infrastructure. Driving each show are a Carbonite production switcher, Mira replay stations, XPression graphics for real-time and engaging visuals, and an Ultrix router. Other notables in the space are ClearCom for seamless communication, a Yamaha QL5 audio console, and Daktronics' Show Control system software that drive the LED displays throughout the stadium. Equipment in the control room is also managing the Tripleplay IPTV system in the concourse, suite level, and general areas.
Ross Video has a heavy presence at Snapdragon Stadium, including a Carbonite production switcher.
Outside of the control room, fans at Snapdragon Stadium are treated to an exciting in-venue show featuring 19 Daktronics LED video displays at 10-mm pixel spacing. Totaling 8,400 sq. ft. and 7.5 million pixels, several fixtures anchor each production, including a 42-ft-high by 73-ft.-wide main display at 3,000 sq. ft. and a 26.5-ft.-high by 50.5-ft.-wide structure in the opposite corner.
The LEDs provide real-time stats and pre-produced content, along with social-media-generated material through a partnership with Tagboard. For sponsorship opportunities and activations, two large ribbon displays - one measuring 2.5 ft. high by 420 ft. long, the other 2.5 ft. high by 400 ft. long - are mounted to the seating fascia. In addition, 14 ribbon boards offer advertising-partner messaging: nine at 2.5 ft. high and a total of 290 linear ft., five at 6 ft. high and a total of 167 linear ft. On the building's exterior, a 13-ft.-high by 23-ft.-wide marquee display welcomes fans.
A 42-ft.-high by 73-ft.-wide video display with 3,000 sq. ft. of LED is the main video attraction at Snapdragon Stadium.
Besides SDSU football, the marketing department is responsible not only for men's and women's soccer and other programs but also for providing entertainment for the National Women's Soccer League's (NWSL) San Diego Wave. Headlined by U.S. Women's National Team standouts Alex Morgan and Abby Dahlkemper, the first-year franchise made it all the way to the NWSL Semifinal vs. eventual champion Portland Thorns. The club's inaugural season was played mostly in the University of San Diego's Torero Stadium - less than 10 miles from Snapdragon Stadium - before moving to their new digs
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
David Dvir, 2D founder (left), Sundeep Reddy (center), and Jean-Marc Bouchut (right), both of Zeiss...
23/07/2026
Screen Australia announces new national documentary accelerator program 23 July 2026
Screen Australia has today announced the Above the Line Documentary Accel...
22/07/2026
Among other tweaks to coverage, the broadcaster added announce positions in the ...
22/07/2026
The Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN) has reported a sharp acceleration in Australia's sportstech sector, with revenue growth rising from 10% in...
22/07/2026
From a retrofitted broadcast bus to packed Match Day Live! events, Bennett detai...
22/07/2026
TMRW Sports has named Brendan Donohue as President, Flag Football, where he will lead the company's professional flag football business in partnership with ...
22/07/2026
Stephen Arnold Music (SAM) designed and produced soundtracks for nine projection...
22/07/2026
Harmonic has announced a $25,000 donation to Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) fo...
22/07/2026
Telemundo has announced it has acquired from UC3 exclusive U.S. Spanish-language...
22/07/2026
The Rest Is Football, hosted by Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, and Micah Richards, ...
22/07/2026
Sports Studio has announced a partnership with TheSoul Group to distribute Free ...
22/07/2026
Daktronics has concluded its 2026 High School Video Summit, a two-day hybrid event combining virtual sessions with hands-on host school visits across the countr...
22/07/2026
FOR-A America will exhibit at the MMCA Show in Pensacola, Florida (July 21-24), marking the company's first appearance at the house of worship AV event. FOR...
22/07/2026
The New York Yankees have selected Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) to connect Ya...
22/07/2026
Calrec will exhibit at IBC 2026 (Stand 8.C47) with demonstrations of its IP-native audio ecosystem built around the Argo console range, and will announce two ne...
22/07/2026
Solid State Logic has announced the appointment of Algam EKO as its distributor for SSL large format consoles in Italy, covering the Live, Broadcast, and Studio...
22/07/2026
FloSports has announced the launch of the FloSports Channel, a free ad-supported streaming channel premiering on Prime Video in the U.S. on July 21. The channel...
22/07/2026
Banana Ball TV (BTV), the broadcast operation of the Savannah Bananas, has insta...
22/07/2026
SiriusXM and Audacy have announced an agreement bringing 42 Audacy sports, news, and talk stations from 29 U.S. markets to SiriusXM. Twenty-three Audacy sports ...
22/07/2026
The collaboration produced more than 500 short-form videos across four cities th...
22/07/2026
At 2,600 sq. ft., the new home of digital content houses a main studio, podcast space, and an auxiliary control room
NFL franchises are accelerating their prod...
22/07/2026
Library now available in Engine Player
Another of Eduardo Tarilonte's popular sample libraries has just been moved over to Engine Audio's Engine Pla...
22/07/2026
All-in-one mic & DSP interface overhauled
Cloudvocal have just refreshed the design of their all-in-one mic, audio interface and DSP processor, introducing ...
22/07/2026
The final boss of the lost dual-op-amp circuit
Electro-Harmonix have just introduced the Deluxe Big Muff Pi 2, which they say offers their latest take on t...
22/07/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Proven managed IP solution helps broadcasters confidently navigate the future of broadcast distribution
LTN announces it has completed successful satellite-to-...
22/07/2026
Today, Chaos announced V-Ray 7, update 4, eliminating the need for asset conversions and tool switching, which slow down media and entertainment pipelines. Arti...
22/07/2026
An AI playground for the Project Indigo camera app
Marc Levoy July 22, 2026
0 Comments
At left is the user interface of our Playground, running on an ...
22/07/2026
Custom Consoles announces the completion of a large technical furniture project for Radio T l vision Suisse (RTS) at the networks recently inaugurated productio...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Culver City, CA, July 21, 2026 3D streaming infrastructure provider Miris today announced glTF intake, including the binary .glb form, to its spatial streamin...
22/07/2026
Documentary Lo Invisible Captured with Blackmagic PYXIS 6K
Brie Clayton July 21, 2026
0 Comments
Camera's versatile design allowed filmmakers to c...
22/07/2026
AAF Bridge converts AAF and XML Timelines to Ableton Live - and back
Jerome Gardier July 21, 2026
0 Comments
A two-way converter for macOS and Windows...
22/07/2026
From Class to Concert: Explore a Student-Led Production of David Bowies Work Thr...
22/07/2026
NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang today visited the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, to commission an NVIDIA DGX GB300 system - bringing one...
22/07/2026
A poisoned spy, a secret war, and a small English city contaminated by a deadly chemical weapon. Available on Sky Documentaries from 4 AugustWednesday 22 July 2...
22/07/2026
Audio at Parity: Comscore Launches Transcript-Level Targeting and Measurement wi...
22/07/2026
Arvato Systems and Lobster Enter into a Partnership and Combine the Integration Platform and Managed Services
Flexible integration solutions for cloud, hybrid...