Daktronics Aims To Put a Sound Peg Into a Square Screen Goal is the ultimate, large-scale integration of sound and picture By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Wednesday, October 27, 2021 - 7:00 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
As demand increases for ever larger video screens and ever louder sound systems, competing real-estate needs occasionally create a multimedia traffic jam in sports venues. For much of the past two decades, Daktronics, which holds a nearly 60% market share in main video displays and integrated super systems in the pro-sports venues, has been working toward mitigating that conflict by integrating sound systems into progressively larger videoboards. Putting big sound into a big picture creates a unique onsite fan experience, but it also has to deal with a few challenges.
Daktronics' John Olsen sees untapped potential for integrated audio systems in NBA- and NHL-arena videoboards.
Basically, says John Olsen, sales manager, audio systems, Daktronics, what we're doing is putting line arrays inside a huge display so that the effect is that of a point-source sound system. The goal of a point-source sound system is to create a coherent sound wave that reaches most of the seats in a stadium with minimal seat-to-seat variation. The effect feels like sound and picture are all coming from a single location.
With screens as large as Daktronics's nearly 900-sq.-ft. display at Auburn University's Jordan-Hare Stadium and integrated PA systems reaching sound-pressure levels of 120 dB and higher, one main challenge has been achieving plausible synchronization between picture and sound. The light of the video image travels at 186 million miles per second while its associated audio plugs along at a mere 700+ mph.
The solution, says Olsen, is to delay the video by about 500 ms in the video processor. In football stadiums, which have on average the largest videoboards, that's achieved by aiming at the 50-yard line as the target for the best sync for display/sound systems located at one end of the stadium.
That minimizes the effect of the delay to the point where most people won't notice it anywhere in the stadium, although it can't eliminate it completely, he says. It's a challenge with any large-venue sound system, along with loudspeakers installed for shadowed areas like concourses, concessions, suites, and other indoor or outdoor areas.
Bigger and Bigger Typical of the company's hybrid AV installations is one installed this year at Northern State University's new Dacotah Bank Stadium in Aberdeen, SD. It's 23 ft. high by 59 ft. wide within an even larger scoreboard structure measuring 42 ft. high by 76 ft. wide. A Daktronics Sportsound 2000HD audio system is integrated with the video and scoring system.
Auburn University's Jordan-Hare Stadium features a 900-ft. videoboard with integrated PA system.
Larger videoboards can accommodate the bigger sound systems needed for point-source, endfire PAs. That's good because, in an era when ever greater low-frequency energy (LFE) has become a staple of the pop and urban music genres regularly heard in large sports venues, that means room for more subwoofers - generally the largest type of speaker enclosure.
All that LFE could potentially distort the picture by rattling the superstructure, although Olsen says that any such distortions can't readily be picked up by the eye. For extremely large installations, such as the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, where any number of internal or external vibration sources could create a potential image distortion, Daktronics has developed stick products: long, slender epoxy LED rods assembled with space between them but, from a distance, forming a coherent image.
Another solution is GKD MediaMesh, which Daktronics markets and installs in a partnership with GKD Metal Fabrics, with Daktronics supplying the LED portion of the product. MediaMesh is a textile-like weave of stainless steel and electronics that can be fitted over a solid fa ade or in front of windows - or a sound system - and provides image and sound while also letting the underlying architecture remain visible.
But, at such large scale, every solution also has its considerations. For instance, spacing between sticks in a display assembly has to consider not only image coherency at certain distances but also how that spacing affects the frequency response of the sound system behind it.
Depending on the size of the sound system and its orientation to the listener, the LED fa ade may attenuate certain higher frequencies, explains Olsen, who came to Daktronics with its acquisition in 2005 of Dodge Electronics, which specialized in PA systems for the collegiate and professional markets. As you move to higher frequencies, the waves become smaller, and it takes less obstruction to block or attenuate them. With our LED Audio Facade product, we have created a happy medium for sound transmission. Really, the only issue is getting as much vertical resolution as possible and then letting our eyes put it all together. It's a matter of finding the right balance between picture and sound.
Daktronics' LED solutions prevent image distortion due to LFE in the huge integrated video/audio scoreboard at Las Vegas's T-Mobile Arena.
In fact, that's part of the strategy for the future, with sports venues in all markets turning to AV to help welcome fans back to the stands: using large-scale audio and video to engage fans in ways that can't be done at home.
To further that, Daktronics in July hired Diane Gonzalez-Ferranti as executive producer in its Creative Services division, which is tasked with helping the company grow its business in the digital-content-creation space across all markets, including sports. At the same time, Olsen says, integrated audio a
North America Stories
29/01/2026
MELBOURNE, Fla., January 29, 2026 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) reports fu...
29/01/2026
Bluey' Wins Second Consecutive Top Streaming Title of the Year with 45 Billi...
29/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/01/2026
Boston Conservatory Orchestra Presents East Coast Premiere of Peter and Leonardo...
29/01/2026
Back to All News
Love is Blind: Sweden Returns for a Third Season - Premiering ...
29/01/2026
Back to All News
Unmask Bridgerton' Season 4 With Our Complete Coverage Guide
Yerin Ha as Sophie Baek and Luke Thompson as Benedict Bridgerton in Season ...
29/01/2026
Back to All News
Extraordinary Crime Mysteries, Mythical Worlds and High-Stakes...
29/01/2026
Editor's note: This post is part of Into the Omniverse, a series focused on ...
29/01/2026
Get ready to game - the native GeForce NOW app for Linux PCs is now available in beta, letting Linux desktops tap directly into GeForce RTX performance from the...
28/01/2026
Top L-R: The Liars, Jazz Infernal, Living with a Visionary
Second Row L-R: Paper Trail, The Baddest Speechwriter of All, Crisis Actor
Third Row: The Boys and ...
28/01/2026
Airlines, cruise and tour operators double down on ad spend as Australians' prioritise travel
Sydney January 28, 2026 - New Nielsen Ad Intel data shows a...
28/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
28/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
28/01/2026
Marshall Electronics launches the CV420-27X, its next-generation ultra-high-definition (UHD) IP camera, at ISE 2026 (Stand 4N900). Engineered for modern IP-base...
28/01/2026
Grass Valley has announced that Television Mobiles Ltd. (TVM), one of Europe's leading independent outside broadcast providers, has carried out a major refu...
28/01/2026
AI, graphics and virtual software power new production capabilities
FOR-A is bringing remarkable new technologies to FOMEX, the Future of Media Exhibition (ex...
28/01/2026
Continuing a longstanding collaboration, Riedel Communications and Nordic media technology company Media Tailor have once again joined forces to deliver a state...
28/01/2026
Pebble has appointed Paul Nagle-Smith as vice president for customer fulfilment, strengthening its senior leadership focus on customer delivery and operational ...
28/01/2026
Cloud playout solutions provider, Veset has announced that leading Mexican broadcaster, TV Azteca is using Veset Nimbus on AWS as a disaster recovery (DR) playo...
28/01/2026
Ensuring it can keep pace with a rapidly evolving live sports market, Balkan broadcast facility provider MVP Most Valuable Production has upgraded its flags...
28/01/2026
Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the cloud solutions provider that powers and protects life online, and Yospace, the leader in dynamic ad insertion tec...
28/01/2026
The renowned Reykjavik City Theatre (RCT) recently underwent a major intercom system upgrade using Clear-Com solutions. This milestone project utilizes Clear-C...
28/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
28/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
28/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
28/01/2026
Boston Conservatory Orchestra Premieres a New Piano Concerto by Peter and Leonar...
28/01/2026
Back to All News
Netflix's Kohrra Season 2 Unveils A Thrilling Whodunnit Tr...
28/01/2026
Back to All News
What Next? Netflix Presents the Latest German-Speaking Series,...
28/01/2026
Quantum technologies are rapidly emerging as foundational capabilities for economic competitiveness, national security and scientific leadership in the 21st cen...
28/01/2026
Back to All News
The Wait Is Over: Teaser Trailer Drops for Jo Nesbo's Dete...
28/01/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Announces a Fictional Miniseries Inspired by the Marta del Castillo Case
Entertainment
28 January 2026
GlobalSpain
Link copied to ...
28/01/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Announces Santiago Mitres New Film Starring Ver nica L...
28/01/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils the Teaser Trailer for Berlin and the Lady wit...
27/01/2026
L-R: Jonathan Cuchacovich, Sonia Kennebeck, Alan Fischer, Daeil Kim, Andrew Sta...
27/01/2026
Nielsen will continue to drive growth and provide local audience measurement
in...
27/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Pinterest
Bluesky
Email...
27/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Pinterest
Bluesky
Email...
27/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Pinterest
Bluesky
Email...
27/01/2026
Amagi Media Labs Limited, the only cloud-native SaaS provider offering end-to-end solutions across live production, content preparation, distribution, and monet...
27/01/2026
Miri Technologies Inc. today unveiled its V410 live 4K video encoder/decoder for streaming, IP-based production workflows and AV-over-IP distribution. Designed ...
27/01/2026
The Paul E. Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell in Massachusetts has chosen Ikegami cameras for incorporation into its broadcast-quality television production facili...
27/01/2026
SipRadius, specialists in secure, low latency media transport, will show the pro AV community its end-to-end solution for high quality content distribution and ...
27/01/2026
Hiltron will highlight the fruits of its 45-plus years of experience in satellite communications system integration and product development at the annual GovSat...
27/01/2026
Klvr will demonstrate how its Charger Pro solution is delivering cost reduction and performance benefits for live entertainment and pro AV markets at ISE 2026 (...
27/01/2026
Amino, a global media technology leader in enterprise video and digital signage, today announced that its Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) 2026 booth (4N700) wil...
Daktronics Aims To Put a Sound Peg Into a Square Screen Goal is the ultimate, large-scale integration of sound and picture By Dan Daley, Audio Editor 
