In 2019, the Chase Center in San Francisco—the new home of the Golden State Warriors—opened its doors for the 2019-2020 season. A state-of-the-art facility that takes up four-plus city blocks in the Mission Bay area, the stadium features the Thrive City exterior plaza, numerous restaurants, bars and retail spaces, and an 18,064 seating capacity with video technologies that boggle the mind, including a new 85’ x 53’ Samsung scoreboard. No stranger to mammoth live event projects, Samsung installed what is touted to be the largest videoboard in the league—a massive 9,699 sq.ft.—and sports 15 displays, including 8 baseline boards beneath the cluster, as well as 24.95 million pixels and 74.8 million LEDs.

Recently, MarketScale Host Ben Thomas had the opportunity to catch up with Brett Unzicker, Vice President at Samsung Electronics America. In this videostream, they discuss live event technologies and the trends surfacing in Samsung’s large installations, such as the recent video enhancements at the Baltimore Ravens’ M&T Bank Stadium, the Atlanta Hawks’ State Farm Arena renovation which included the NBA’s first and largest center-hung 360˚ video screen (measuring almost 28’ high and wrapping around more than 160’), as well as 2,200 screens for Allegiant Stadium—home-to-be of the newly renamed Las Vegas Raiders.

Unzicker notes that with fan attendance down across the country, the technology enhancements and trends currently surfacing are in reaction to the competition stadium clients face with the high-definition, up-close experience fans get from watching games right in the comfort of own their living rooms.

“The trends that I see are, one, bigger and bigger. I think that we’re seeing an importance around refresh rates. I think that we’re seeing trends around—inside the venues—around connectivity, specifically being WiFi, DOS, 5G. And, I would also say we’re seeing trends around HDR,” states Unzicker.

When asked about the challenges of dealing with large installations in small spaces, such as Las Vegas, and within tight deadlines, Unziker remarks, “There’s issues with installation that often involve not just the tight spaces, but the time with which you can access these locations. So, if you think about the Las Vegas Strip—we know it’s the city that never sleeps, there’s always people out there—but if you get a road closure, a lane closure, in order to bring in the displays themselves, in order to get a crane to bring it up, there’s all of those type things that you have to factor in to place, and work in parallel with the city to have the proper permits to do so.”

To hear why challenges are viewed as opportunities at Samsung, how refresh rates and HDR compatibility are impacting the future-proofability of these large, expensive installations, and more about the trends driving the industry, be sure and watch this illuminating videostream interview with Samsung’s Brett Unzicker.

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