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Auburn wanted the biggest screen it could get, AD Jay Jacobs says.
Photo by: AUBURN UNIVERSITY
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As a member of the Auburn University video staff drove through the Alabama countryside some 20 miles from campus, he saw a distant light in the sky changing colors from red to green to blue. The light was coming from the gigantic new video board at Jordan-Hare Stadium on the Auburn campus.
The 190-by-57-foot LED screen, which made its debut on Saturday night as the largest in college football, caused quite a stir on Twitter during the weeks leading up to the Tigers’ home opener against Jacksonville State. Several people in neighboring Opelika, about eight miles away, posted photos on social media of the video board lighting up the night sky as school officials put it through several rounds of color testing. One Tiger fan on Twitter named the green-lit sky the “AUrora borealis.”
“It was a conscious decision to have the biggest screen we could have,” said Jay Jacobs, Auburn’s athletic director. “We asked what if we could have a screen that goes sideline to sideline and pretty much covers the south end zone. So that’s what we did.”
The SEC didn’t coin the term “Go big or go home,” but it might as well have. Just about every time a new video board has been installed in the SEC, it’s been the largest in the country at that time. Mississippi State and Texas A&M have previously owned the biggest boards, before Auburn came along with Daktronics’ latest display.
Auburn’s new screen, which would be the fifth largest in the NFL, is 435 percent larger than the surface of the old board at Jordan-Hare and it comes at a cost of $3.5 million. When combined with a new sound system, ribbon boards and the framework for the LED screen, the total project came in at $13.9 million, including installation of the new board and removal of the old one. A new production control room and other infrastructure costs, which were made in preparation for the 2014 launch of the SEC Network, were another $5 million.
The decision to go with the biggest board that would fit the south end zone was driven by feedback from Tigers fans, Jacobs said. In surveys after the 2013 season, fans cited four areas of need: video, sound, connectivity and concessions. Auburn upgraded its Wi-Fi and concessions last year and went to work on its video board and audio for this season.
“Our goal is to have the best game-day experience in the nation,” Jacobs said. “This is not about ROI. It’s a $14 million investment in our fans. And for the first time in more than 20 years, we’ve sold out of tickets before the first game.”
Delivering the content to the big board is Andy Young’s job. He’s the assistant AD in charge of video services, and he’ll direct a team of more than 40 people on game days. Auburn’s War Eagle Productions, the athletic department’s in-house production team of 13 full-timers, will produce a full game broadcast for the video board, as well as pregame, halftime and postgame content. As many as 20 to 25 students will be used in the control rooms and behind the cameras.
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The decision to go with the biggest board that would fit the south end zone was driven by feedback from Tigers fans, AD Jay Jacobs said.
Photo by: AUBURN UNIVERSITY
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The school bought four new cameras to go with four it already had. In addition, the control room has access to four more feeds from the TV truck that’s televising the game, for a total of 12 camera angles. Auburn’s crew intends to run replays of every play during the game from a variety of angles.
“One of the big differences people will see compared to most others is that our board is much lower and closer to the field,” Young said. “It kind of fills in the south end zone. We’ve even run the video board during the team’s practices in the stadium so they could get a feel for what it’s like.”
Auburn’s multimedia rights holder, IMG College, lost six static signage spots from the old board, so the school is compensating with additional inventory within its video content, such as a sponsored play of the game. But Auburn will not be running any traditional 30-second commercials.
“We’re steering clear of commercials, but IMG has worked very closely with us to determine the best approach,” Young said. “They’ve been in every meeting with us. We’re going to start off walking, not running, as far as advertising goes. We’re not going to overwhelm the fans from the get-go.”
