After winning back-to-back Stanley Cup championships, it'd be easy for the Florida Panthers to rest on their laurels. Instead, the offseason was spent installing a new center-hung video scoreboard and other significant AV upgrades at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, FL. The new elements, which debuted on Sept. 29 during a preseason Panthers game, have taken the fan experience to a level befitting the reigning NHL champs.
The new 4K scoreboard features four joined displays that produce a 360-degree canvas that's 31 feet high and has 27.6 million pixels. "The scoreboard itself provides us with 180% larger viewing area than the prior scoreboard," explained Mike Masino, VP of game entertainment and operations for the Florida Panthers.
But wait—there's more. Underbelly screens ensure that premium seating around the arena gets a good look at the video action. There's also a 7-foot-high LED halo screen above the scoreboard providing additional display space above the ice.
The Panthers had been using its previous video scoreboard since 2012. Masino told SCN the unit had reached the end of its life cycle—and with limited service options available, it was time to bring in a new system that would improve the fan experience and show off the talents of the franchise's creative team. Typically, the Panthers have 30-45 crew members during a game, including producers, directors, announcers, and camera operators. "We function the same way as a broadcast truck on game day," Masino noted.
Arena audio also got some attention during the upgrade. If left alone, the center-hung JBL Professional speakers would have been too low and interfered with the new scoreboard. Masino said the system was raised and repositioned to avoid any issues, and new end zone fill speakers were added to ensure there were no coverage gaps.
The project was designed and overseen by Anthony James Partners (AJP). ANC manufactured and integrated the scoreboard and other displays across the facility using Yaham LED displays. Masino also credited the scoreboard project to a "huge public private partnership between us and Broward County." Amerant Bank Arena is owned by the county but operated by the Panthers.
Beyond the scoreboard, the Panthers also refaced the arena's 360-degree ribbon and its club-level horseshoe ribbon, installed new vomitory displays throughout the arena, and upgraded its lobby displays. According to Jon Holvey, senior project manager at AJP, the entire project, from design to deployment, took 10 months, though the installation only took about 90 days.
To control all this screen area, the control room was upgraded around a Ross Video Xpress Tessera One content management system powered by NovaStar processors. (The existing Ross Vision switcher remained.) With the renovation, the Panthers also made the move to ST 2100, because it provided the "flexibility to scale video and provide content autonomy," Masino said.
BeckTV built the systems off site to save time, then spent several weeks on site with wiring, cabling, and testing. Ross even came to the buildout to create the Panthers Dashboard, a customized user interface for the Tessera that includes a "GOAL" button, which launches coordinated celebratory graphics over all displays in the building with one button press.
"The fan experience is why we're here," Masino said. "It's everything that we pour our passion into from a creative and game presentation standpoint. We want to create an immersive fan experience. we want to make sure that we are meeting the needs of our fans from a statistical and information display standpoint, but also from a content standpoint. From our augmented sound system to our brand-new Ross Tessera video system for our video scoreboard outputs and LED displays. Everything we do from an AV standpoint enhances the fan experience."
