Anyone who has been to a match at Allianz Stadium over the past few months will have noticed the new big screens. They measure a whopping 27 metres wide and 10 metres high.
The manufacturers, Daktronics, have squeezed more than 1.6 million bright LED pixels into them.
The 270 square metre screens may look massive, but they are not Australia’s largest.
The screens erected in the summer of 2014-15 at the MCG are just bigger, measuring 25m x 13m, but they seem to fit in a lot better, nestled high in the massive grandstands of the famous stadium.
Of course in other countries, namely the US (where else), both these stadiums’ screens are dwarfed.
NFL stadium EverBank Field in Florida holds screens measuring 110m x 18m. Installed as part the stadium’s revamp in 2014, the two massive screens at either end are the largest of their kind in the world. The northern end scoreboard sits high up in the stands above a party deck, equipped with wading pools and food and drink stalls.
These screens surpassed the massive screens installed at the $US1.3 billion AT&T stadium in Arlington, Texas. The video board there is the jewel in the crown of 105,000 capacity stadium that features a massive retractable roof. Issues have arisen with the screens however, primarily punts – one in a 2009 preseason game and in a regular-season Cowboys game – hitting the screen.
Manual scoreboards like those at the Adelaide oval and WACA will be all but a novelty to future generations as big screens, WiFi technology and mobile food and drink delivery services start to make their way into grounds around the world.
With technology being developed at an ever-increasing pace, and the public’s thirst for immediate replays at sporting matches, could these huge, bright HD screens affect the games themselves? Surely the massive screens at either end of Allianz must be off-putting for even the most focused kicker.
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