When Binghamton women’s basketball guard Jasmine Sina sinks a three from the left wing this winter, fans won’t just notice the number on the Event Center’s scoreboard rise by three. They will instead watch the newly-installed video scoreboard come alive with a replay of the shot and Sina’s name flashing brightly on each of its four LED panels.
The board, which is 18 feet, 2 inches wide and 14 feet high, will also be used to display relevant statistics, graphics and shots of fans in attendance at games.
According to Binghamton Director of Athletics Patrick Elliott, the total cost of the project was $1.3 million, $1 million of which was secured through a designated public funding source for the Events Center. The remaining funds were supplied by the athletics department’s commercial revenue, which is generated by corporate advertisements and ticket sales.
The planning and installation of the scoreboard was a joint effort between the athletics department, Physical Facilities and the company that won the bid to perform the installation — Eastern Sign Tech.
Leading the charge for the athletics department was Leigh Ann Savidge-Morris, senior associate director of athletics.
“I was basically the athletics representative who worked with Physical Facilities and then also communicated with the company who won the bid in regards to giving our vision, the functionality that we’d need for [the scoreboard], the overall look, how it’s going to be operated and the actual end use,” she said.
The implementation of this vision began in June, when there was a long window between the University’s commencement and local high school graduations for Eastern Sign Tech to complete most of the installation.
“The goal was to get [the hardware] installed at that point,” Elliott said. “But then there is subsequently a significant amount of wiring that needs to be done as well. Most of that’s been done over the course of the summer.”
Prior to the start of the basketball season, the scoreboard will be put through a series of dry runs in order to ensure its functionality.
“We’re really excited to get going,” Elliott said. “We’re still a couple weeks away, probably, from getting past the final adjustments and then we’ll have to get up to speed on [the scoreboard] quickly.”
In addition to featuring replays of key moments during games, the board will be used to enhance the experience of attending a game at the Events Center.
“Our goal is to make it interactive, to really improve the fan experience during games,” Elliott said.
The athletics department hopes to accomplish this by periodically using the scoreboard to display images of the crowd, similar to the “fancam” that is featured at professional sporting events.
“A video scoreboard provides almost unlimited potential,” Savidge-Morris said. “Not only from our perspective for marketing and advertising opportunities, but also with in-game engagement of the crowd during events.”
While the scoreboard will serve multiple purposes from an athletics perspective, it can also be utilized for non-sporting events, including concerts and commencements, that take place in the Events Center.
“We’re really looking to see how we can use this asset University-wide to help any of those events going on and to create a better experience for anyone who’s coming in for any type of event here,” Elliott said.