SoFi Stadium Solidifies Production Output With Multi-Layered Tech Renovation

The six-year-old venue is expanding capabilities for NFL action, Super Bowl LXI, 2028 Summer Olympics

SoFi Stadium, as well as the surrounding area known as Hollywood Park, has nonstop activity throughout the entire year. The six-year-old venue, which serves as the district's main focal point, will get even busier with the start of the 2026 NFL regular season and the home schedules of both the Los Angeles Chargers and Rams. Prior to this Sunday's Chargers vs. Arizona Cardinals matchup, the building embarked on an ambitious renovation that included a new production control room (PCR3), upgrades to its two pre-existing control rooms including replacing its Ross XPression Tessera system and adding new TouchDrive switchers, and updates to its lighting control and audio system including spatial audio.

Technology keeps getting better, and we are always looking to improve the fan experience, says Josh Mark, VP, broadcast operations and production, SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park. With Super Bowl LXI coming up in February, the Olympics coming up in less than two years, and everything that the Rams and Chargers want to do, this [renovation] will give us more opportunities to provide more capabilities to our teams and clients.

Time for a Refresh: Venue Works With Diversified to Streamline Workflows

To accomplish this multi-pronged renovation, the team at SoFi Stadium needed to get going at the earliest possible date. With the Rams and Chargers clinching NFL Wild Card appearances as lower seeded teams, both clubs were on the road for their postseason matchups. This meant that after the Rams' final home game of the regular season against the Cardinals on Jan. 4, the physical portion of the project was commenced to improve workflows in their primary and secondary control rooms. Two key partners from the building's initial opening in 2020, Diversified and Ross Video, returned to piece together the two control rooms and the new third control room (PCR3).

We started talking about a year and a half ago about this project because we had to figure out its scale, how we would make all of this work, and find the time to do the work and replace it, says Mark. We ended up building the new XPression system while our old system was fully active, since we could never find the right time to take our system offline.

The project began in early January and was brought online in late JulyThe construction was completed in April and the new space was brought online in July, which allowed the Chargers' and Rams' production teams to come onsite starting July 20 to work on their game presentation shows before the Chargers' first home preseason game on Aug. 20 and the Rams' first home preseason game on Aug. 22.

Thrice as Nice: Ross Video's New TouchDrive Control Panel Tethers PCR3 to Existing Space

The main control rooms received an industry-first upgrade as the first venue to install the brand-new, ultra-advanced Ross Video TD5L switching panels in both PCR1 and PCR2, giving technical directors the largest and most advanced switching interface available on the market.

We wanted to make all three control rooms interchangeable, so we can start building upstairs and take it downstairs or vice versa, adds Mark. Our directors and technical directors have rebuilt the shows on the new TD5L's and are loving it.

This new control room was coming at an appropriate time. The stadium sustained a summer's worth of 2026 FIFA World Cup matches, but heading into a chaotic NFL season with two home teams, the single XPression stack received some much-needed reinforcements.

We would work with one team from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., the other team from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m., and we'd trade off who got the day and night shifts, continues Mark. With the new control room and new XPression Tessera system, we're able to have them both in at the same time during the day and run all of the control rooms simultaneously. We've only had this operational for two months and it's been transformational.

PCR3 is extending the broadcast capabilities of SoFi Stadium and the entire campus of Hollywood ParkSoFi Stadium is a large building, and although a ton of the real estate was used to house critical production infrastructure or cater to fans in attendance, there was still enough room to accommodate a third control room. This new space is housed within a former storage room downstairs from the main production hub and is taking pressure off of the primary control rooms, creating redundancy for disaster recovery, and assisting ancillary productions. For example, an onsite mobile unit isn't needed for a halftime performance or other on-field presentations while the main control rooms focus on the in-venue production.

PCR3 has access to all of our infrastructure, says Mark. It can also help out with events at YouTube Theater or anywhere on the Hollywood Park campus as everything is interconnected.

PCR3 incorporates similar equipment seen in the main control rooms, including a Ross Ultrix Acuity 4ME production switcher with a smaller TD3 Panel, Ross XPression graphics, Evertz Dreamcatcher playback and replay systems, a Yamaha QL1 audio console, Riedel Communications' Intercom network, Ross DashBoard production control software, IP routing through the stadiums Cisco's IP Fabric and Evertz Magnum connecting all broadcast systems across Hollywood Park.

Handling More: Ross XPression Tessera's UHD Upgrade Provides More Power and Flexibility

A massive slice of the renovation that will better serve each production team is the installation of the Ross XPression Tessera UHD system, which will greatly impact the 70,000 sq. ft., 80 million pixel Infinity Screen. Graphics and animations can be more complex on the 71 total XPression servers, more than 50 servers dedicated to the m

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2026/09/10/sofi-stadium-solidifies-product...
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