Every weekend in college football is a big deal, especially in the southern half of the U.S., but this weekend will feature the undisputed biggest game in the history of the sport.
Not only with the Battle at Bristol pit two of college football’s most successful teams—Virginia Tech and Tennessee—against one another, but it will do so in prime time at the reconfigured Bristol Motor Speedway, with the largest crowd in the sport’s history AND under the world’s largest free-standing center-hung display, the world-famous Colossus TV.
Colossus TV weighs more than 67 tons and features four separate 63-foot-wide-by-29.5-foot-high Panasonic LED video displays. It is comprised of 8,694 square-feet of digiLED Toura 6mm LED panels.
Panasonic will be at the heart of the action for about 160,000 hyped fans, directing the game-day production and manage the content that’s displayed on the boards throughout the historic matchup. GoVision has been managing, operating and maintaining the screen since it was unveiled a few months ago after helping with design, engineering and proof of concept.
“The Pilot Flying J Battle at Bristol is a highly-visible and premiere event for us,” said Jerry Caldwell, executive vice president and general manager of Bristol Motor Speedway. “We’re inviting new guests into our home and, we need to ensure that all of our high-end production equipment and displays operate at peak performance for the best fan experience.”
Here’s a look at how Bristol Motor Speedway was transformed from a race track to a college football stadium expected to bring in more than 150,000 fans:
Each of Colossus’ four custom-built screens is approximately 30 feet tall by 63 feet wide. In total, the system features almost 54 million LEDs and 18 million pixels. The Toura 6 product was custom designed by digiLED to meet GoVision, Panasonic and BMS specifications and has a 6mm pixel pitch, meaning that the pixels are grouped tighter than any other large-scale, permanent outdoor display.
The result: a glimmering visual experience capable of offering 281 trillion different colors and that is 23 times brighter and 25 percent sharper than the typical home HD TV.
The display hangs from a halo-shaped truss and features an additional circular LED display beneath the screens measuring nearly 6 feet high. Between the screens and the LED ring, that’s more than 10,500 square feet of high-resolution, active viewing area.
“This is truly a one-of-a-kind, first-of-its-kind installation and I’m proud that our organization is the one with the capabilities to pull it off,” said Chris Curtis, CEO and founder of GoVision.
Panasonic has been the technology provider for some of the world’s most iconic sports and entertainment venues, including Churchill Downs, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, NASDAQ Market Site Tower and Lincoln Financial Field, the home of the Philadelphia Eagles.
The company’s largest installation, “Big Hoss TV” at the Texas Motor Speedway, earned a Guinness World Record in 2014 as the largest High Definition LED video display in the world—larger than a typical 12-story building.
Get excited for the Battle at Bristol:
