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
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
David Dvir, 2D founder (left), Sundeep Reddy (center), and Jean-Marc Bouchut (right), both of Zeiss...
23/07/2026
Screen Australia announces new national documentary accelerator program 23 July 2026
Screen Australia has today announced the Above the Line Documentary Accel...
22/07/2026
Among other tweaks to coverage, the broadcaster added announce positions in the ...
22/07/2026
The Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN) has reported a sharp acceleration in Australia's sportstech sector, with revenue growth rising from 10% in...
22/07/2026
From a retrofitted broadcast bus to packed Match Day Live! events, Bennett detai...
22/07/2026
TMRW Sports has named Brendan Donohue as President, Flag Football, where he will lead the company's professional flag football business in partnership with ...
22/07/2026
Stephen Arnold Music (SAM) designed and produced soundtracks for nine projection...
22/07/2026
Harmonic has announced a $25,000 donation to Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) fo...
22/07/2026
Telemundo has announced it has acquired from UC3 exclusive U.S. Spanish-language...
22/07/2026
The Rest Is Football, hosted by Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, and Micah Richards, ...
22/07/2026
Sports Studio has announced a partnership with TheSoul Group to distribute Free ...
22/07/2026
Daktronics has concluded its 2026 High School Video Summit, a two-day hybrid event combining virtual sessions with hands-on host school visits across the countr...
22/07/2026
FOR-A America will exhibit at the MMCA Show in Pensacola, Florida (July 21-24), marking the company's first appearance at the house of worship AV event. FOR...
22/07/2026
The New York Yankees have selected Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) to connect Ya...
22/07/2026
Calrec will exhibit at IBC 2026 (Stand 8.C47) with demonstrations of its IP-native audio ecosystem built around the Argo console range, and will announce two ne...
22/07/2026
Solid State Logic has announced the appointment of Algam EKO as its distributor for SSL large format consoles in Italy, covering the Live, Broadcast, and Studio...
22/07/2026
FloSports has announced the launch of the FloSports Channel, a free ad-supported streaming channel premiering on Prime Video in the U.S. on July 21. The channel...
22/07/2026
Banana Ball TV (BTV), the broadcast operation of the Savannah Bananas, has insta...
22/07/2026
SiriusXM and Audacy have announced an agreement bringing 42 Audacy sports, news, and talk stations from 29 U.S. markets to SiriusXM. Twenty-three Audacy sports ...
22/07/2026
The collaboration produced more than 500 short-form videos across four cities th...
22/07/2026
At 2,600 sq. ft., the new home of digital content houses a main studio, podcast space, and an auxiliary control room
NFL franchises are accelerating their prod...
22/07/2026
Library now available in Engine Player
Another of Eduardo Tarilonte's popular sample libraries has just been moved over to Engine Audio's Engine Pla...
22/07/2026
All-in-one mic & DSP interface overhauled
Cloudvocal have just refreshed the design of their all-in-one mic, audio interface and DSP processor, introducing ...
22/07/2026
The final boss of the lost dual-op-amp circuit
Electro-Harmonix have just introduced the Deluxe Big Muff Pi 2, which they say offers their latest take on t...
22/07/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Proven managed IP solution helps broadcasters confidently navigate the future of broadcast distribution
LTN announces it has completed successful satellite-to-...
22/07/2026
Today, Chaos announced V-Ray 7, update 4, eliminating the need for asset conversions and tool switching, which slow down media and entertainment pipelines. Arti...
22/07/2026
An AI playground for the Project Indigo camera app
Marc Levoy July 22, 2026
0 Comments
At left is the user interface of our Playground, running on an ...
22/07/2026
Custom Consoles announces the completion of a large technical furniture project for Radio T l vision Suisse (RTS) at the networks recently inaugurated productio...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Culver City, CA, July 21, 2026 3D streaming infrastructure provider Miris today announced glTF intake, including the binary .glb form, to its spatial streamin...
22/07/2026
Documentary Lo Invisible Captured with Blackmagic PYXIS 6K
Brie Clayton July 21, 2026
0 Comments
Camera's versatile design allowed filmmakers to c...
22/07/2026
AAF Bridge converts AAF and XML Timelines to Ableton Live - and back
Jerome Gardier July 21, 2026
0 Comments
A two-way converter for macOS and Windows...
22/07/2026
From Class to Concert: Explore a Student-Led Production of David Bowies Work Thr...
22/07/2026
NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang today visited the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, to commission an NVIDIA DGX GB300 system - bringing one...
22/07/2026
A poisoned spy, a secret war, and a small English city contaminated by a deadly chemical weapon. Available on Sky Documentaries from 4 AugustWednesday 22 July 2...
22/07/2026
Audio at Parity: Comscore Launches Transcript-Level Targeting and Measurement wi...
22/07/2026
Arvato Systems and Lobster Enter into a Partnership and Combine the Integration Platform and Managed Services
Flexible integration solutions for cloud, hybrid...
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 
