Adirondack Bank Center Is First North American Venue To Install Permanent Digital Dasherboards Finland's Vepe-Icepro provides 360-degree LED system for Utica Comets, Utica City FC games By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor Wednesday, January 22, 2025 - 12:20 pm
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Utica, NY's Adirondack Bank Center, home to the American Hockey League's Utica Comets and the Major Arena Soccer League's Utica City FC, has earned the title of first North American sports venue to install permanent digital dasherboards. The affiliate of the NHL's New Jersey Devils put the 360-degree LED system to the test against the Rochester Americans on Dec. 28, but the new in-venue production tool is already paying off.
Along with the new LED dasherboards, Adirondack Bank Center has a 1,408- x 128-pixel halo board above a static stats centerhung and two videoboards.
For a small-market team, it's a huge honor to be the first to showcase this, says Eric Kowiatek, VP, creative services, Utica Comets. It's such a cool piece of technology, and we're excited to see what we can do with it.
Visit Abroad: Trip to Finland Connects Team President to Vepe-Icepro Near the end of the 2023-24 AHL season, Mohawk Valley Garden/Utica Comets President Robert Esche had an important plane to catch: he was headed to Finland and a meeting with Vepe-Icepro. Located in the town of Tuusula - which is about 45 minutes north of the Finnish capital of Helsinki - the developer of this engaging in-venue technology is heavily involved with professional-hockey venues and competitions across the continent of Europe, including at Nokia Arena and Kivikyl Arena in Finland and the 2021 IIHF World Championship at Arena Riga in Latvia, and the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. The long experience, technological innovation, and relationship with Vepe-Icepro CEO Riku Kallioniemi and Export Sales Representative Matti Karmala spurred Esche to fly to Finland to see the technology for himself.
The Utica Comets hosted the Toronto Marlies on Star Wars Night on Jan. 11.
He wanted [the digital dasherboards], says Michael Lehr, VP, marketing and content, Utica Comets, and it ended up creating a great partnership with Vepe-Icepro. [The company] wanted to get into the North American market, and Rob was innovative enough to say we could do it.
The only problem was that the time needed to install the massive fixture wouldn't line up with the offseason. To solve the logistics issue, the organization circled a block of time during the 2024-25 regular season when the team would be on a road trip. After hosting the Providence Bruins on Friday, Dec. 6, the team wouldn't return home until three days before New Year's Eve, playing one game in Syracuse, two in Cleveland, and one game in Rochester. While the team was away, the in-venue crew got to work
The LED fixture has full takeovers for Comets' goals.
We had to melt the ice and rebuild the whole arena in that short time, explains Lehr. It would've been a much different experience if these dasherboards came in June and we could play around with them.
With the help of Mohawk Valley Garden COO Rick Redmond and Adirondack Bank Center Facility and Event Manager Chris Burns, the dasherboards were installed and powered up on Dec. 21, a full week before the targeted first game on Dec. 28 and nine days before Utica City FC's home opener on Dec. 29 against the Harrisburg Heat. Given the time crunch, Kowiatek clocked hours on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to configure the boards.
Guess and Check: Downtime Allows Workflow, Durability Tests The video display also has full goal takeovers for the venue's other tenant, Utica City FC.
To make sure the boards - and the holidays - were merry and bright, the 27,840 128-pixel video display was put through its paces and stress-tested to ensure maximum efficiency. Its main driver is Chyron PRIME Click Effects, but, to deal with any system failure or connectivity issues, Vepe-Icepro built contingency plans into the load-in process.
We have another backup computer that's feeding [graphics] through HDMI. In case something goes wrong, we can flip that switch, Kowiatek notes. There's also a built-in redundancy in the system itself: it shows a default image that's loaded in and can be switched to if it's not getting a source from anything else.
Games during the holiday season were accented with lights.
Since the video display is right next to the field of play, experiments in trying to make the system break were important. In addition, the digital dasherboards are in the field of play. Although most LED displays can't be disturbed by brute force, these fixtures needed to be checked and doublechecked by the NHL's and AHL's player-safety departments.
They had to test curved glass, how the boards interacted with pucks and players, and how the glass gave when the boards shake, Lehr explains. One of the biggest players on the ice went into the boards during the first game, and [the LED] was no more than four frames [off] before it synced again. We haven't had any issues other than that. Whether it's adjusting brightness or resetting panels if we have to, the staff with Vepe-Icepro have been really good about any kind of troubleshooting.
It's Showtime: Crew Adapts Game-Day Script for New Tech Toy For the season's 10 games before the digital dasherboards were installed, Lehr and Director, Game Presentation, Matthew LaRochelle had to create a standard run of show with the knowledge that the video display would soon be ready. Not only has it helped in programming a show for the Comets, but the display's ability to swap to a Utica City FC match has been beneficial as well.
Fan pumpers are taken up a notch wit
