Collegiate softball and minor league baseball demand top-notch performances from participating athletes. These days, the facilities that house these sports are expected to deliver as well, with engaging video and graphics presentations for fans. Recently, two organizations turned to Daktronics to upgrade their on-site displays and bring new excitement to their ballparks.
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Looking for Love's
Last March, the University of Oklahoma (OU) celebrated the opening of Love’s Field, a new stadium in Norman. Home to the Oklahoma Sooners, the facility opened just in time for the 2024 softball season. The university worked with Daktronics to deploy two backstop displays, two canopy displays, and, most notably, an Oklahoma-shaped video scoreboard.
“One of our goals was to create something that’s unique and memorable, and we felt that a shaped board might have a chance to do that,” said Jacob Potter, associate athletic director, video services for University of Oklahoma Athletics, who pitched the idea to OU administration. Originally, he’d considered a screen in the shape of the interlocking OU logo but decided it wouldn’t provide enough pixel space for game information and the other elements slated for display. “That’s when I began toying with the state of Oklahoma as the possible shape—and really the light bulb moment was when I realized I could use the panhandle of the state of Oklahoma as the line score.”
At approximately 27 feet tall and 55 feet wide, the main portion of the 10mm custom LED wall displays full 16:9 video, which was an important component for Potter. “If we don’t have a true 16:9 space, then our camera operators are going to have to adjust how they shoot, and that means our content is harder to share across our different platforms,” he explained, noting that OU provides game content to broadcasters and features it on its social media channels.
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The bottom section of the display outlines the Red River, and is reserved for information on balls, strikes, and sponsorships. With variable content zoning capability, the screen may feature multiple content zones—including animated sequences, game information, graphics, sponsorship messaging, statistics, and video—or one large image. A red LED strip outlines the entire display. “It’s a really nice element at night, as the stadium lays in rest,” Potter said.
Sponsorship Behind Home Plate
Positioned behind the batters on each site of home plate, the 2.5x8.5-foot, 6mm backstop displays run animations, graphics, and messages from OU sponsors. It was important to provide ample opportunity to showcase sponsors, which is one reason for deploying backstop displays.
Potter said this emphasis on sponsors is becoming more prevalent in college sports. “Many big-league parks have backstop LED signage just for the purpose of getting sponsorships on TV, and so it makes sense to do that in this scenario for our sponsors to have that opportunity,” he added.
In fact, sponsorship presence across all displays was essential given the interest in OU’s softball program, according to Potter. He points out that the Sooners won their first national title in 2000 and have won multiple titles since. “It’s been an upward trajectory,” he said.
The two 10mm canopy displays, which are roughly 3.5x7 feet, deliver game-related information and sponsorship messaging. In conjunction with these displays are two fixed-digit scoreboards that show both scores and important stats.
In addition to collegiate softball, Potter relays that Love’s Field hosts events such as youth camps and practices throughout the year. While the main screen isn’t used for these, the canopy displays can serve as scoreboards. This enables OU to optimize the use of its new facility year-round while decreasing wear and tear on the principal display.
For Perry Grave, regional manager at Daktronics, the most rewarding part of this project was watching the displays on game day. “With a project like this, it’s fun to work through the design part of it, but once you get it fired up and running is the most exciting part for me,” he said. “It’s a good layout, the fans love it, and it’s really unique and drawing a lot of attention.”
Potter noted that his team invests a significant amount of time in remaining up to date on trends in video, which helped in developing the ideas behind the deployment. He also said the timing was right to try something different. “We don’t have any specialty-shaped boards here on campus, and I thought it would be a good idea to capitalize on the new stadium build,” he said. “It’s very rare that you build a new facility from the ground up and to be able take advantage of that opportunity.”
Fightin Words and Videos
At FirstEnergy Stadium in Reading, PA, Daktronics worked with the Reading Fightin Phils—a minor league Philadelphia Phillies affiliate—on the design, manufacture, and integration of LED video and ribbon displays. This installation, too, was performed prior to the 2024 season.
“We had just completed the massive main video board upgrade for the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park,” explained Charley Bocklet, regional manager at Daktronics. “Reading, being affiliated, had heard about the work we did and reached out to us about their videoboard.”
Part of the project required the new display to be positioned in a slightly different spot. “The [old] video board wasn’t facing straight at home plate—it was more oriented towards third baseline,” Bocklet described. “The new display is a bit bigger, and we changed the orientation so that we’re facing more directly towards home plate.”
The roughly 37x60-foot Daktronics 15 HD display features variable content zoning, allowing for the screening of one large image—such as live action content and instant replays—or multiple zones featuring animations, graphics, stats, and sponsorship messaging. A 15 HD LED ribbon board, which is 6 feet high and more than 100 feet wide, complements what’s being shown on the main display with additional graphics, statistics, and sponsor messages. The Daktronics Creative Services division provided the Fightin Phils with a digital content package that enables creators to load content into a series of templates.
“It helped them get off the ground the first year with everything they needed for their content, their layout, and their in-game presentation,” Bocklet explained.
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Both video displays are operated through a Daktronics Show Control system, which provides control software, video processing, data integration, and playback hardware. Bocklet noted that the Fightin Phils production team started learning the system around Thanksgiving 2023, giving them enough time—with the help of some training sessions from Daktronics—to get familiar with it before the 2024 season started.
“They didn’t have Show Control at this location before, so it was good [for them] to have it early,” Bocklet said. “It worked out well.”
This was a long-anticipated deployment, according to Andrew Nelson, director of client fulfillment and clubhouse operations for the Reading Fightin Phils. He said getting replacement parts and support for the facility's previous videoboard and ancillary equipment had become increasingly challenging over the last few years. “[Our] main goal was to have a great-looking videoboard and ribbon board," he added. "They look awesome.”
