New Look of BYU Athletics Includes More Than Just New Logos

PROVO -- In conjunction with photo/media day for BYU men's and women's basketball teams, BYU officially unveiled its new, improved Marriott Center video walls Thursday. After two years of research and coordination, BYU has replaced the old video cubes in its scoreboard with four Mitsubishi Diamond Vision® LEDerboards®.

The 9 x 12 foot Mitsubishi Diamond Vision® LEDerboards® were installed in the Marriott Center scoreboard in mid-September, replacing the cubed walls installed in 1992. When the initial display of the prototype was shown to BYU Athletic Director Val Hale six months ago, he stood directly underneath the board and was impressed by the easy viewing of the overhead screens.

"The new Diamond Vision® panels will be a fantastic new addition to basketball games and other events in the arena," said Hale. "This really is as good as it gets in terms of picture quality. Even those in the top row of the Marriott Center will feel like they have courtside seats because of the close-up look created by the improved technology."

An 8-minute basketball highlight video was demonstrated and a behind-the-scenes tour of the control room was provided to those attending Thursday's media day. The control room with fiberoptics also connects to Cougar Stadium to run the scoreboards during Cougar football games.

Weighing 2,000 pounds each, the four LEDerboards® will be remote-controlled for brightness, contrast, color and hue, and also allow for overall light adjustments dependent upon the sporting arena's given event. Three new digital replay machines were also installed control room in efforts to enhance those capabilities and feature highlights.

The lack of available maintenance made continued operation of the old video cubes more difficult, whereas the new LED scoreboards allow direct HDTV and computer feeds because of its auto-synchronous processor, which is considered the best in the business.

"The biggest advantage in addition to the brightness is the viewing angle," said Larry Duffin, BYU director of special events. "Spectators can see the image from virtually anywhere in the arena."