University of Pittsburgh Decks Out Petersen Events Center With New Centerhung Ahead of Busy Fall Sports Schedule LED displays were placed in two other venues By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor
Thursday, November 14, 2019 - 8:30 am
Print This Story
Story Highlights
In the city of Pittsburgh, the fall and winter months bring temperatures below the freezing point and a sun that sets earlier than usual. With professional networks in the area enhancing their facilities, programs at the collegiate rank have made some major upgrades to bring some additional (albeit artificial) light into the lives of college basketball fans. Before the rush of an unrelenting fall season, the University of Pittsburgh went to work inside of The Petersen Events Center to install a brand-new Daktronics centerhung with 3.9mm LED line spacing.
The 3.9mm of LED line spacing is the lowest in college athletics.
Competitively, this centerhung really sets us apart in college athletics because we are now the only college in the country that has a sub-4mm board,' says Seth Graham, assistant athletic director, information technology, University of Pittsburgh. The centerhung has taken us from a college-type venue to one with more of a pro-style look.
Let There Be Light: Four Separate LED Structures Brighten Petersen Events Center
More affectionally known as The Pete , Petersen Events Center's crown jewel hovers just above the hardwood floor. At the center of it all, the centerhung features four noncontinuous LED slabs with the two 15 ft. by 28 ft. panels along the sidelines and two 15 ft. by 16.5 ft. panels along the baselines. At 654 sq. ft., the scoreboard can be experienced at a maximum viewing angle of 140-degrees.
Unfortunately, this wasn't always the case. Years prior to the installation, the in-venue production was hampered by a scoreboard that functioned with bulky and lackluster technology.
The old video boards were purchased about 10 years ago, so as we rebranded athletics, we identified these displays as antiquated, says Graham. They didn't offer us much value with enough real estate because the structure was a lot larger than the usable screen, so they didn't offer fans the best viewing experience. People mainly looked at the old video board for stats.
In addition to the main video board, a light-up Panther head is sandwiched in between two massive 16.5 ft. by 31 ft. video displays are plastered against the arena's back wall above the concourse area. These large screens can project detailed statistics of key players and provide pertinent game information. Lastly, a new 2.1 ft. by 50 ft. scorer's table comes with six 2 ft. by 8 ft. panels of lighting that allows sponsorship and other messaging to run along courtside.
Now, pristine video quality and motion is at a premium inside of The Pete. With a total pixel count of more than 4.6 million, the entire arena is lit as bright as a light bulb. As for content consumed on any given night, the entire layout allows Graham to up the gameday atmosphere.
The Petersen Events Center also includes two additional LED displays and a light-up Panther head above the concourse.
What we have now is a more video-oriented structure. Our rallies look better because before we could only show them on the fascia, scorer's table, and the top boards, he says. The sequence of playing the intro video and introducing the players have become 10x better. It's become an integral part of the game presentation.
Three-for-One: Pitt Juggles Simultaneous Projects at Other Athletic Venues
Although the overhauls at Petersen Events Center lead the headline, two other venues (Fitzgerald Field House and Ambrose Urbanic Field) were given a revamp in the visual department as well.
Hosting the school's volleyball, wrestling, and gymnastics teams, the former now includes two 10 ft. by 23 ft. end-wall videoboards after 15 years of operating with the older videoboards from The Pete. As the dwelling place of both men's and women's soccer teams, the latter was outfitted with the venue's first-ever visual display of any kind in the form of a singular 17 ft. by 30 ft. videoboard of its own.
In any other season, the extensive project of constructing multiple displays would have more time to marinate, but because of the timing of it all, Graham and the rest of the staff needed to operate quickly.
The RFP [request for proposal] went out and the selection was made in June of 2019 to go with Daktronics and a lot of the fall sports start in August, he says. We went by the start of each season, so we prioritized soccer and volleyball first since they both happen at the same time. Those video boards were installed during the last week of July.
Although the displays weren't anywhere near the field of play inside Ambrose Urbanic Field and Fitzgerald Fieldhouse, the university developed a give-and-take solution to make progress in the Petersen Events Center.
We needed to be conscious of access to be able to work, so we had to get a [temporary] floor down to support the weight of the lifts. We had to work with both of our basketball teams and also our volleyball team because their practices are sometimes down at The Pete along with their summer camps. We have concerts and other events at this building, too, so we had to get to a point where the centerhung is complete enough to be raised and lowered.
The Next Phase of Video Content: University's Mission to Enhanced Productions
It's been a period of immense growth over the past year. In the classroom, the university established a partnership with nearby NEP Group to foster the next wave of AV professionals. For the sake of the program and the then-upcoming launch of the ACC Network, the program redid their production studio to become a central hub of operations inside of t
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
21/10/2025
As Amazon's Prime Video prepares to launch its coverage of NBA basketball under a major new deal, Grup Mediapro has announced that it is working with the st...
21/10/2025
ATLANTA Good news for consumers using an Atlanta DTH receiver to watch ATSC 3.0: with a new software update, they will be able to blanket their homes with Wi-Fi...
21/10/2025
While recent news has been heavily focused on Hispanic migration into the U.S., The 2025 Hispanic Market Report from Claritas highlights the fact that this gr...
21/10/2025
MAIDENHEAD, UK RWS has hired Michael Wayne as its head of media and entertainment in Los Angeles where he will lead the company's media localization busines...
21/10/2025
Imagine Communications and Rohde & Schwarz today announced a definitive agreement under which Imagine will acquire Pixel Power Limited, a wholly owned subsidiar...
21/10/2025
Atlanta DTH (ADTH) today announced a major update that will expand the functionality of its NEXTGEN TV receiver by enabling gateway capabilities allowing viewer...
21/10/2025
Heartland Video Systems, Inc. (HVS), a premier video systems integration, consulting, and expert ATSC 3.0 implementation firm announces that it has partnered wi...
21/10/2025
QuickLink, the leading provider of award-winning video production and remote guest integration solutions, today announced the appointment of Austin Hinton as it...
21/10/2025
nternet connectivity startup Miri Technologies Inc. will use this week's NAB Show New York as the launch pad for its latest ground-breaking innovation, the ...
20/10/2025
Inside TAMS: How Time-Addressable Media Stores could redefine sports workflows By Paul Markham
Friday, October 17, 2025 - 08:57
Print This Story
A penalty...
20/10/2025
Transformational production: Inside TVN's remote production push for the DFL...
20/10/2025
How NBC Sports Transitioned Stamford Facility to One Format: 1080p HDRMulti-year plan harmonizes workflows, simplifies operationsBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial ...
20/10/2025
NBA on NBC' Studio Production Team Is Ready for Tip-Off With Coast-to-Coast...
20/10/2025
Under pressure: TVN CEO Markus Osthaus considers the German sports broadcasting ...
20/10/2025
(L-R) Maria Dizzia, Carmen Emmi, and Russell Tovey attend the Plainclothes pre...
20/10/2025
In March, we launched Concerts Near You to help listeners find concerts from their favorite artists. Since then, more than 3 million people have used it to disc...
20/10/2025
Em diversas cidades do Brasil, um movimento tem se fortalecido para celebrar o poder, a beleza e a profundidade da criatividade negra. O Dia AMPLIFIKA, agora em...
20/10/2025
In cities across Brazil, a movement is growing that celebrates the power, beauty, and depth of Black creativity. AMPLIFIKA Day, now in its fifth edition, return...
20/10/2025
Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft rendering...
20/10/2025
DENVER and MUNICH Imagine Communications today announced its plans to acquire Pixel Power Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Rohde & Schwarz. Financial terms of...
20/10/2025
LOS ANGELES G Morgan has joined Globecast, a provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, as executive vice president of sales, Globecast Am...
20/10/2025
PLYMOUTH, Wisc. Heartland Video Systems and Zixi have partnered to enable broadcast-quality live video delivery over any IP network....
20/10/2025
A. R. Rahman on Facing Fear and Finding the Divine In an interview with Berklee President Jim Lucchese, the Oscar-winning composer reflects on how courage and...
20/10/2025
Monday 20 October 2025
To view this content, please enable our use of cookies. ...
20/10/2025
Rohde & Schwarz transfers Pixel Power to Imagine Communications Companies work collaboratively to ensure continuity and ongoing support for existing customers...
20/10/2025
RT 's Prime Time is set to host the final Presidential Election Debate this Tuesday night, October 21, providing an opportunity to hear directly from Irelan...
20/10/2025
NVIDIA and Google Cloud are expanding access to accelerated computing to transform the full spectrum of enterprise workloads, from visual computing to agentic a...
19/10/2025
Back to All News
Sins of Kujo' Comes to Life in New Live-Action Series Set for Spring 2026
Entertainment
19 October 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied to cl...
18/10/2025
New England Sports Network (NESN) has chosen Harmonic, working with Astound Business Solutions, as its enterprise technology partner to transform primary distri...
18/10/2025
NEW ORLEANS, La. In the run-up to the start of the NBA season, WVUE-TV and Gray Local Media have announced a deal with DirecTV that will greatly expand access t...
18/10/2025
Berklee Celebrates 40 Years of the Fall Together Concert Faculty composers Bob Pilkington and Greg Hopkins are among the featured artists for this year's ...
17/10/2025
NEP Group Receives New Equity Investment From 26North Partners LP, Co-InvestorsCarlyle remains the largest shareholder as the company prepares for the futureBy ...
17/10/2025
Apple Lands Five-Year Deal for F1 Distribution in the U.S.Besides airing on Apple TV, the sport will be amplified on other Apple servicesBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Ed...
17/10/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Marshall Electronics' Bernie Keach on the Future of PTZ Camera...
17/10/2025
L2 Productions' REMI Facility in Austin Can Produce Content From AnywhereMusic festivals, sports events are produced via flypacks and remote control roomsBy...
17/10/2025
By Lucy Spicer
One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Festival...
17/10/2025
(L-R) Christopher Meyer, Addison Timlin, Cooper Raiff, Lili Reinhart, Alyah Chan...
17/10/2025
M sica e arte se uniram em uma noite especial na semana passada na ZIV Gallery, ...
17/10/2025
Music and art came together for one special night last week at ZIV Gallery, an i...
17/10/2025
Spotify and FC Barcelona are extending our partnership through 2030, continuing a collaboration that's redefining how fans, players, and artists connect. Th...
17/10/2025
MURRIETA, Calif. The Sports Fishing Championship (SFC) has deployed DigitalGlue's creative.space storage platform to streamline video production by centrali...
17/10/2025
BELLEVUE, Wash. Football continued to cement its reputation as a bulwark of TV advertising in Q3 2025 with new data from iSpot that showed both the NFL and coll...
17/10/2025
The Sports Fishing Championship (SFC), the premier competitive saltwater fishing series, has transformed its production workflow by adopting creative.space, the...
17/10/2025
QuickLink, a leading provider of award-winning multi-camera video productions and remote contribution solutions, announces the release of StudioPro Version 4, ...
17/10/2025
Although the annual Grammy Awards celebration is best known for recognizing achievements in the recording industry, the show often proves a visual spectacle as ...
17/10/2025
OpenDrives, Inc., a leading provider of software-defined data storage and data services, has promoted Alex Dunfey to Chief Technology Officer (CTO) from his for...
17/10/2025
The University of Arizona (UofA) has significantly upgraded its broadcast communication infrastructure with the integration of Riedel Communications' advanc...
17/10/2025
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced that New England Sports Network (NESN), owned by Fenway Sports Group and Delaware North, has selected Harmonic as its en...
University of Pittsburgh Decks Out Petersen Events Center With New Centerhung Ahead of Busy Fall Sports Schedule LED displays were placed in two other venues By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor 
