The SBC Centre at San Antonio, Texas, the new home of the San Antonio Spurs NBA basketball team, has at its technological heart a unique, tightly integrated, $6.5 million video package of live action screens, banner displays and a scoreboard system designed and co-ordinated by Lighthouse, in conjunction with a team of specialist partners. The project marks Lighthouse’s largest indoor installation contract to date, and features the company’s new M4 screen technology, unveiled in four new screen products at this year’s NAB and Infocomm shows.

The scoreboard module is four-sided and arranged on five levels, housing a total of 12 screens. At the top is a ring of eight Lighthouse LVP2056 (20mm pixel pitch/5,600 nits) screens, formatted in an unusual 2:1 ratio rather than the usual 4:3 or 16:9, for advertising and scoring. Next down is a custom-built LED digit scoreboard ring, and below that are the four main live action screens, using Lighthouse LVP1012 M4 screens, each measuring 16ft 9in (5.1m) wide by 9ft 6in (2.9m) high.

The fourth level features the new Lighthouse video banner product, the 16mm pixel pitch, 1600 Nit brightness LVB1616, which carries ads, sponsor logos and other graphics. The lower level is the naming rights module, bearing the SBC Center logo. The matrix and scoring portion consists entirely of LED components, while the matrix and advertising panels are fully integrated into the control system, running player and game statistics with real-time scoring. Running around the parapet of the arena bowl are 972 linear feet (296m) of Lighthouse LVB2550 (25mm pitch), the first video banner product to employ Lighthouse’s Quarter Bin production process and 10-bit image processing.

Finally, the control room integrates all the video systems as well as providing feeds for network broadcasters, and all its systems were commissioned by Lighthouse and the Whitlock Group. That package met the Spurs’ exact requirements with a completely integrated solution, and Lighthouse’s latest generation M4 LED screen technology was a key element, alongside the integration solutions and software provided by its partners.

(Lee Baldock)


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