
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
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
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
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
17/11/2025
EA SPORTS Madden NFL Cast to Return Thanksgiving Night With Immersive, Data-Driv...
17/11/2025
Behind the Broadcast Booth: Impact Ventures' Greer Christian on Building Her...
17/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Sportradar's Brian Josephs Talks Peacock's Powerful Perfor...
17/11/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Greg Gumbel, Iconic Voice and Comforting ...
17/11/2025
ESPN, Pixar, the NFL, and Beyond Sports Team Up for ESPN's Dec. 8 Monsters,...
17/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: EA SPORTS' Evan Dexter on How the EA SPORTS Madden NFL Cast...
17/11/2025
Cast your votes and sail into 2026 with the return of SBS's the Chillest 100
17 November, 2025
Media releases
Voting is now open for Australia's ul...
17/11/2025
When VSI Group, one of the world's leading localisation providers, set out to modernise its complex, multi-site operations built through years of acquisitio...
17/11/2025
Dealmaking for broadcast stations continues to heat up with Sinclair reporting that it has built up a 8.2% stake in E.W. Scripps and that it has been talking to...
17/11/2025
The worlds online population grew by more than 240 million people in 2025, according to Facts and Figures 2025 released today by the International Telecommunica...
17/11/2025
ASB GlassFloor, the leading provider in LED sports flooring, today announced the opening of Athletes Lab 2.0, a premier athletic training facility designed to e...
17/11/2025
SmallHD today announced the release of its popular Camera Control for Canon cinema cameras. This new integration enables filmmakers to adjust critical camera se...
17/11/2025
Luxury is in the details, and no one captures that better than the creative team at Samuel & Sons. As the visionaries behind iconic photography and advertising ...
17/11/2025
17 Nov 2025
VEON Commences USD 100 million Buyback Program Dubai, November 17, 2025: VEON Ltd. (Nasdaq: VEON), a global digital operator ( VEON or the Compan...
17/11/2025
Monday 17 November 2025
Sky brings top comedy talent to screens with new stand-up specials
Sky and streaming service NOW are bringing audiences a fresh dose o...
16/11/2025
L3Harris to deliver advanced electronic warfare systems quickly for worldwide F-16 programs...
16/11/2025
Upgrading your Apogee Symphony MKII from TB2 to TB3: Need to Knows Upgrading your Apogee interface to Thunderbolt 3 isn't difficult - but it's not a cas...
16/11/2025
Apogee Electronics Acquired by Dirk Ulrich's Rockforce Tech Holding, Parent ...
15/11/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The Walt Disney Company and YouTube TV have reached a new multi-year distribution agreement, ending a carriage dispute that had blacked out ABC,...
15/11/2025
PLYMOUTH, Wis. A group of about 20 TV technology vendors supporting NextGen TV are wrapping up their ATSC 3.0 Interop here at Heartland Video Systems headquarte...
15/11/2025
NEW YORK NBCUniversal has announced that it will be launching NBC Sports Network (NBCSN), a 24/7 linear network featuring a wide range of marquee sporting event...
15/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has released an updated agenda for its Open Meeting on Thursday, November 20, 2025, which is scheduled to comme...
15/11/2025
JERSEY CITY, N.J. OpenVault has released new data showing that DOCSIS 3.1 and higher services are driving significant across-the-board increases in speed and co...
15/11/2025
ATLANTA Gray Media has concluded an agreement with the Ohio Valley Conference ( OVC ) to broadcast OVC college basketball games across 20 Gray markets in five s...
15/11/2025
NEW BERN, N.C. Wheatstone has named company veteran Darrin Paley vice president of business accounts, effective immediately....
15/11/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Serves Up the Trailer for Dining with the Kapoors'...
14/11/2025
Op-Ed: The Automation Imperative - Why AI Is the Only Scalable Defense Against L...
14/11/2025
FutureSPORT 2025: Caretta Research on why streaming won't save broadcasters By Jo Ruddock
Monday, November 10, 2025 - 14:37
Print This Story
Caretta R...
14/11/2025
Daneysse Daniels, Emmy-Winning Production Manager and Beloved Teammate at TNT Sp...
14/11/2025
The NBA 2K League Returns as an Immersive Entertainment Ecosystem' With Non...
14/11/2025
Inaugural SVG LIVE! Conference Brings 250 Top Sports and Entertainment Producti...
14/11/2025
(L-R) Suzette Quintanilla, Isabel Castro, and Chris P rez attend the 2025 Sundan...
14/11/2025
This week, Casa Spotify lit up Las Vegas with an unforgettable celebration of Latin music and culture ahead of the 26th Annual Latin Grammy Awards. Hosted at th...
14/11/2025
Boston Conservatory Orchestra to Perform at Carnegie Hall for United Nations Gen...
14/11/2025
Berklee Alum Lewis Pickett Wins Record of the Year at Latin Grammy Awards Pickett, a 2009 graduate, was nominated six times across three categories at this ye...
14/11/2025
PLYMOUTH, Wisc. A group of about 20 TV technology vendors supporting NextGen TV are wrapping up their ATSC 3.0 Interop here at Heartland Video Services headquar...
14/11/2025
What if your idle operations centers, inactive cloud time, staff or you as a freelancer could start generating revenue tomorrow?
NECF Corporation today announc...
14/11/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, today announced that it has been recognized as a Major Player in the IDC MarketS...
14/11/2025
The recent ADAC RAVENOL 24h Race at Germany's legendary N rburgring circuit marked a milestone for live broadcast production, and Clear-Com played a pivota...
14/11/2025
Streaming tech companies M2A Media and Unified Streaming provided key software components that enabled the world's leading sports entertainment platform, DA...
14/11/2025
Lightware, an industry leader in signal management solutions, is strengthening its commitment to sustainability through a series of people-focused ESG (Environm...
14/11/2025
WASHINGTON As the federal government shut down comes to an end, the Federal Communications Commission has further extended some filing deadlines and issued some...
14/11/2025
STAMFORD, Conn. In the run-up to being spun off from Comcast, Versant has announced that USA Sports will be the new brand and division name for the company'...
14/11/2025
Friday 14 November 2025
Documentary short, Children No More, comes to Sky this December
Following its world premiere at DOC NYC yesterday, Sky today announces...
14/11/2025
Friday 14 November 2025
Sky to remain the home of Ryder Cup and DP World Tour through 2029
Sky and the DP World Tour have today announced a four-year partners...
14/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz redefines border security with comprehensive signals intelligenc...
14/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz, together with Samsung, first to validate 3GPP NR-NTN conformanc...
14/11/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils the Trailer of City of Shadows
Entertainment
14 November 2025
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
PREMIERING ON NETFLIX ...
14/11/2025
Today's AI workloads are data-intensive, requiring more scalable and afforda...