LAFC Explodes Onto L.A. Sports Scene With Beautiful Banc of California Stadium Soccer-specific venue features more than 15,000 sq. ft. of LED signage By Karen Hogan Ketchum, Director of Production
Thursday, February 21, 2019 - 11:18 am
Print This Story
Story Highlights
Compared with Los Angeles-area mainstays like the Dodgers and Lakers, Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC) is new to the L.A. sports scene. But its new home - Banc of California Stadium - already rivals the region's storied venues.
After Major League Soccer awarded Los Angeles an expansion franchise in 2014, the club quickly identified the area adjacent to Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Exposition Park as the site of its future soccer-specific home. Banc of California opened its doors on April 29, 2018, for LAFC's inaugural season. And, for the production team charged with entertaining the nascent fan base, the first season might have been a crazy ride, but it was undoubtedly a success.
The light-filled Banc of California Stadium houses two main videoboards. This one is in the northwest corner.
Last season was just a whirlwind, says Al Raitt, director, match day presentation, LAFC. It just felt like we were living at the stadium for the most part - and sometimes we were. But the biggest thing for us was just getting it working; we had no time to really think about things: it was just fly as fast as you can go, and see what happens. The great thing about the crew that we have is, we basically had the same crew throughout the year, the same people in the same positions just grinding it out and making sure that each element that we do is perfect.
When Raitt joined the LAFC family in early 2018, the production infrastructure to support match-day presentation was nearly complete. Early partners on the project included consultants Van Wagner Sports & Entertainment (VWSE) and Idibri, architect Gensler, and systems integrator Diversified. Panasonic Live Events group - now Southpaw Sports & Entertainment - also came aboard in the project's early stages to outfit the stadium with plenty of LED video-display signage.
Banc of California Stadium features two main videoboards in the bowl: the one at the south end measures approximately 129 x 29 ft.; the one in the northwest corner, approximately 50 x 29 ft. Nine field-level displays of various sizes surround the pitch, and a three-part fascia display stretches nearly 357 ft. along the east side of the stadium. A 38-ft.-long fascia stretches along the west side. Additional displays are mounted on the exterior of the stadium.
LAFC splits its team-created content - live game follow, replays, player features - across the two main videoboards and leverages the field-side displays for sponsor activation. Five Grass Valley cameras capture content from high-mid, reverse-mid, high-end-zone, and two on-field locations. In addition, the team accesses eight cameras from the TV broadcaster (YouTube TV handles home local broadcasts).
It's just a really great fan experience, which is what it comes down to in my field of work. How can we elevate the fan experience to something new and exciting? says Southpaw Sports and Entertainment Project Manager Dagan Pratt. Through this whole process, it's just like every other project, where you have struggles but you get through them for a final result that is pretty impressive.
Powering the more than 15,000 sq. ft. of LED signage adorning Banc of California Stadium is a press-level video-control room, integrated by Diversified and featuring a wealth of gear from Ross Video. At the core of the room is a 3M/E (with 4 MiniME) Carbonite Black Plus production-switcher frame.
A 129- x 29-ft. videoboard was installed on the south end of the stadium.
Two XPression Tessera graphics engines feed the stadium's interior video displays, a third handles the exterior displays, and a fourth serves as a backup. An XPression Studio takes care of additional insert graphics. They are tied together through a Dashboard display-control system in order to trigger a full-stadium takeover: for example, if LAFC wins, that can play out over every display with a single button press on DashBoard or the Carbonite production switcher. Rounding out the room are two eight-channel Mira replay servers.
Although installation and commissioning were completed prior to the start of the 2018 season, Ross Video Solution Specialist, Sports and Live Events, Andrew Lahey remains involved with the team at LAFC. One of the biggest things - and this is with any venue project - is that we do not finish the installation and walk away, he explains. It's a long-term partnership. Not two weeks have gone by that I have not had a conversation with Al to figure out what the plan is moving forward and how we can help them continue to grow with the Ross system.
As the installation of the videoboards and control-room gear was under way, the LAFC production team joined forces with VWSE Productions to determine just what the LAFC match-day video presentation would look like. The group's initial philosophy, which has served the entire club well over its inaugural season, is to celebrate the game of soccer and allow the game to speak for itself.
We're there to support the match but not overshadow it, says Raitt. We want the fans to drive everything, and we're there to support them. We're all soccer fans; [we] know the game, want to grow that game in America, and, through match day, we think we can leverage technology to help support the supporter culture in a way that they drive a lot of what we do. It's a unique take on game days that I don't think anybody else has really done, especially here in L.A. We went about to set ourselves apart; we're not trying to be the Lakers, the Clippers, the Kings, the Dodgers. We think we're deliveri
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
LAFC Explodes Onto L.A. Sports Scene With Beautiful Banc of California Stadium Soccer-specific venue features more than 15,000 sq. ft. of LED signage By Karen Hogan Ketchum, Director of Production 
