The Systems Integrator’s Guide to Replacing K-12 Gymnasium Technology

Gymnasiums act as auditoriums, host sporting events and are even used for instruction in many K-12 schools. Upgrading gyms with direct-fire LED screens can help schools save money and operate more efficiently.

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You can also be creative with modular LED screens to create custom sizes, shapes and aspect ratios for signage, or other display elements, both within the gym or in other areas of the school.

Higher screen resolutions beyond P3 are available from many suppliers, but prices go up dramatically placing these devices beyond the budgets of most schools.

Still, over time, costs will come down on higher resolutions as the category matures.

Today, P5 is the sweet spot for most gyms while offering much better viewing than the P13 spacing seen in many pro-sports franchise HD LED displays.

Leverage Large LED Screens into Multi-purpose Scoreboards

In professional sports venues and universities, the trend is building to replace purpose built, old-style scoreboards with more flexible and customizable scorekeeping systems that leverage investment in LED displays.

Solutions exist for this from inexpensive and limited software only offerings installed on a laptop to professional-franchise-level systems. These extremes are typically not the best fit for most schools as software only does not provide the full operational reliability school teams need and pro-franchise systems are beyond the funding abilities of most schools.

New offerings are now on the market providing similar features and functionality of systems that only professional franchises could previously afford – along with the demanded performance reliability.

These new systems are pre-packaged hardware and software solutions combined together in reliable server-style appliances, connect to virtually any large LED display and employ modern mobile touch screens and other simple user interfaces to make score and timekeeping easy to accomplish for even minimally trained operators or volunteers.

These pre-integrated systems can change from say, basketball to volleyball at the click of a mouse, turning the display into a completely new scoreboard. They also allow for simple user visual customization of colors, logos, text, etc. to match a team’s changing needs.

In addition to multi-sport scorekeeping, new virtual scoreboard solutions leverage the extreme price reduction in HD cameras, live editing, video switching, content push, instant replay and slow motion.

These relatively cost effective options, as well as others like shot clocks, whistle integrations, ribbon boards, scorer tables and media streaming turn even a small school into a powerhouse presenter of a multi-media game day experience.

When the screen is not a scoreboard, typical presentation systems can be quickly switched to big screens for video, multi-media and other content display needs, making the total solution valuable for a wide range of uses.

System integrators can benefit by checking out these new opportunities in system design, to capture more projects and revenue from customers eager to make a switch to better and more modern system solutions.

Steve Olszewski is Vice President of Dimensional Communications, Inc. (DCI)

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Comments

  • Erich Friend says:

    The author writes: “P5 or P3 resolution (5mm or 3mm spacing between pixels) work well . . .
    Display sizes in the range of 170”-260” measured diagonally …”

    These numbers don’t work: a 170”-260” (diagonal) 16:9 screen needs to be 2.00 – 2.85mm pitch to present a 1080 (1K, HD) image. Modern audiences are used to seeing a full HD image from their TV’s and Computers, so giving them a grainy low resolution version of ‘HD’ and calling it ‘HD’ is bait-and-switch marketing. Not an ethical thing to do with public tax dollars.

    Also, to say that “P3 or P5 . . . work well for creating virtually any size displays for most gym functions and curriculum content” is foolhardy. If they really are using this for movies or teaching, then a true HD image is much more important than if they are just showing game statistics and scores. In an assembly use function the audience may be much closer to the display than if they viewing it all the way across the room as a ‘score board’. Image size is determined by the farthest viewer, where image resolution is determined by the closest viewer (those closest to the screen shouldn’t have to suffer seeing the individual pixels that make-up an image.

    Please don’t misunderstand me, I’m a huge advocate of using direct view LED screens where the budget allows, however, providing a potential customer with an honest assessment of the Total Cost of Ownership is very important. Leaving out the ‘little things’ that make the project costs real is disingenuous at best. Will that LED screen hold-up to the constant ‘target practice’ of basket balls, volley balls, tennis balls, and hand balls? Better add a protective screen into that install cost (not to say a video projector wouldn’t need the same).

    Similarly, when comparing systems costs, the use of projectors, lenses, and screens that would provide a similar viewing experience for the audience is a worthy exercise — this alone is typically much different from what the school actually uses (successfully, or not). If they are accepting of a washed-out image provided by a 2000 lumen projector on a 12 foot (diagonal) matte white screen, then just the thought of the expense for a 12,000 lumen projector on a high contrast ratio ambient light rejecting 20 foot (diagonal) screen may be beyond their comprehension (and budget).

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