A rendering of what the new video board will look like at Pepsi Center in Denver when the Nuggets play. (Photo by Denver Nuggets)
For Icon Venue Group’s President and CEO Tim Romani, this was unfinished business. Romani served as president and GM of Pepsi Center in Denver back when the building was built in 1999. He said the audio and visual components were among the last things purchased, so the National Basketball Association venue started with equipment that was “a cut below state-of- the-art, at that time.” Now, 14 years later, he’s getting a chance to make it right.
Icon Venue Group served as project manager for $15-million worth of technology upgrades at the venue, including adding the largest center-hung scoreboard in the NBA and National Hockey League.
“This is personal,” said Romani. “When they called me, first I had to do a little dance in my office because finally Pepsi Center was going to get the video and audio equipment they deserved.”
The new center-hung scoreboard at Pepsi Center.
Sept. 16, Pepsi Center unveiled the 1,300-sq.-ft. scoreboard, which is unique in the NBA because of its aspect ratio of 16:9. The video screens measure 48'x27', in contrast to other screens in the NBA, such as the one at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, that measures 50'x21', creating an extra-wide visual.
“The content that we produce is exactly the content that we can put right on the screen,” said Romani. “You can crop it if you want to put a band around it and wrap the image for a frame kind of viewing, but because it’s the aspect ratio video is produced in, the Nuggets will be able to do a true full screen.”
The Daktronics boards measure 27’x48’ lengthwise and 21’x25’ for the end screens, all with full 1080p HD capabilities. It’s an upgrade of almost eight times more video display than the venue’s previous center-hung board.
During the unveiling, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment’s SVP of Partnership Marketing and Media Sales Tom Philand said that the plan to upgrade the scoreboard first started in 2011.
“[The Kroenke family] laid out one goal for us: We want the best,” said Philand. “We want it to be the best quality. We want it to change everything about what it’s like to come to a game here.”
In addition to the scoreboard, the venue received a new loudspeaker system from LVW Electronics with 60 full-range loudspeakers and 24 subwoofers. The Center Replay Control Room has more than 21 miles of cables, and the installation of a robotic camera under the scoreboard will provide unique angles. With the new Center Replay Control Room, there are now two separate control rooms for scoreboard replay and broadcast production for live airing of Mammoth on Altitude TV, a KSE partner.
“I’m just so grateful to Josh [Kroenke] and everyone at KSE because they really wanted to do it right,” said Romani. “It’s so nice to have a client that wants the best product for their fans and not just make it an arms race.”
Construction on the upgrades began at the end of the Nuggets' season in early May and were completed in time for the National Hockey League’s Colorado Avalanche’s preseason, which begins Sept. 18. Icon Venue Group ended the project just under the $15-million budget, which will leave KSE with some extra funds to put toward other improvements they want to make, such as courtside LED advertising.
Denver Nuggets play the first preseason home game Oct. 14.
Interviewed for this story: Tom Philand and Tim Romani, (303) 405-6154