Rice news release Wrote:The main video display ... will measure 29 feet high by 49 feet wide and will feature a 13HD pixel layout ...

According to this Wikipedia list, the 1,421 square feet of our new board's main display space (29x49 feet) would make it the 87th-largest D1 football-stadium video board, just behind SMU's 2010 Daktronics HD-15 screen (32x45=1,440 square feet) and just ahead of Kansas State's ProStar display (23x61=1,403 square feet), which the Wildcats said was "one of the largest in college football" when it was installed in 2006.

The line and column pixels of our HD-13 display are spaced closer together than those on SMU's HD-15 board (13.06 mm vs. 15.24mm), so it should have finer resolution.

If you include the 29x10 free-form "stick applications" on either side, the today display size (29x69=2,001 square feet) is nearly as large as UTEP's main screen installed in 2014 (34x60=2040 square feet; 67th in D1), although that one is a single screen, not a compound one as ours will be.

The video board at Auburn is just ridiculous. When they tested it for the first time people could see the light from multiple miles away. I think ours looks just right size-wise for the location on top of the EZF. Very happy with how it turned out.

It looks good.
Here's hoping that, as MOBweb says, it also sounds good for our scripts.
We knew the old one could be loud enough for the obnoxious canned music, but it always seemed to have a big drop in volume while we did our shows.

(06-27-2016 02:44 PM)Grungy Wrote:  It looks good.
Here's hoping that, as MOBweb says, it also sounds good for our scripts.
We knew the old one could be loud enough for the obnoxious canned music, but it always seemed to have a big drop in volume while we did our shows.

What? I can't hear you...

(06-27-2016 12:41 PM)cr11owl Wrote:  The video board at Auburn is just ridiculous. When they tested it for the first time people could see the light from multiple miles away. I think ours looks just right size-wise for the location on top of the EZF. Very happy with how it turned out.

I agree. The video board is so much closer to the fans now. It doesn't need to be huge. Very cool.

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/morni...rades.html

I don't have a subscription so not sure if there is anything new in there.

(06-28-2016 07:18 PM)cr11owl Wrote:  http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/morni...rades.html

I don't have a subscription so not sure if there is anything new in there.

Here is the full text

Quote:Exclusive: Rice moving forward on massive upgrades to football stadium

Jun 28, 2016, 7:23am CDT
Cara Smith
Reporter
Houston Business Journal

Rice University is moving forward on several phases of renovations to its football stadium, with significantly more upgrades in the pipeline.

The private Houston university is in the process of installing a new high-tech scoreboard and sound system. The scoreboard, by South Dakota-based manufacturer Daktronics (Nasdaq: DAKT), costs just under $900,000, according to a building permit filed with the city of Houston, and Rice is one of only two schools in the country with a scoreboard of this kind.

Rice is also wrapping up construction of its $31.5 million, 60,000-square-foot Brian Patterson Sports Performance Center in the north end zone at Rice Stadium, which should be complete this fall. Dallas-based HKS Architects designed the facility and Houston-based Anslow Bryant Construction Ltd. is the general contractor, a Rice spokesperson said. That development includes an auditorium that will seat 150 people, a football team lounge with areas for training and sports medicine that includes hydrotherapy and plunge pools, according to Rice.

But the university and HKS Architects are in the midst of "some pretty intense study" on how Rice will continue to spruce up its football stadium, which was built in 1950, Bryan Trubey, who leads HKS' Sports and Entertainment group, told the Houston Business Journal.

"This is what great universities do first when they begin focusing on developing a program — they create the finest football operations facility they can," Trubey said. "That project itself is really representative of where the whole program is going."

Neither Rice nor HKS would disclose specifics regarding the stadium's renovation, but Doug Childers, principal in Houston for HKS, said that Texas Christian University's 2010 renovation of its Amon G. Carter Stadium serves as a good "analogy" for the scope of what HKS and Rice are discussing in Houston. TCU's $105 million renovation of its stadium included reducing the amount of seating to 40,000 from roughly 44,358, adding suites, a club level, a new press box and an exterior renovation of the stadium, ESPN reported. HKS also designed TCU's stadium renovation.

Trubey said that preliminary plans for Rice's stadium renovation include making it more accessible for disabled patrons, and offering more options for families.

“Rice is one of the campuses in the country that is only going to do the highest-quality build environments, so you've got incredible (academic buildings built by) some of the finest architects," Trubey said. "That’s one thing for us that's the most encouraging – what we do here isn’t going to be seen as a functional solution, but a example of how these kinds of projects should be done.”

A Rice University spokesperson said the university is in the process of trying to bring the next phase of the project into scope, and to pinpoint a price tag.
In addition to the Brian Patterson Center, Rice has announced a $2 million sports facility that'll include a grandstand, enclosed press box and team facilities for soccer, track and field, and cross country. That project should also deliver this year; Houston-based Jackson & Ryan Architects designed the grandstand, which will replace a nearly 50-year-old facility.

In recent years, Rice has renovated the Tudor Fieldhouse multipurpose arena, built the Barbara and David Gibbs Recreation Wellness Center and opened the new George R. Brown Tennis Center.

By the way, HKS, headquartered in Dallas, is a big firm that does a lot of stadiums, big hotels and hospitals. I have sometimes got them mixed up with HOK, the St Louis-based firm whose division HOK Sports became famous for designing Camden Yards and its progeny. HOK Sports was spun off as Populous in 2009.

If they're talking about a project similar to TCU's (over $100 million), I think the university would have to chip in some money, and not just raise it from private donations.

(06-28-2016 11:45 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  If they're talking about a project similar to TCU's (over $100 million), I think the university would have to chip in some money, and not just raise it from private donations.

Id guess it's 3 more phases like they've been talking about. So 100+ divided by 3 is like doing a new EZF every 5 years or something. Still might need institutional help but I don't see us doing a full stadium renovation in a single year.

And thanks George. I'm glad we are getting some of this news out to the local community. Now the chronicle needs to pick up on it.

(06-29-2016 06:37 AM)cr11owl Wrote:  

(06-28-2016 11:45 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  If they're talking about a project similar to TCU's (over $100 million), I think the university would have to chip in some money, and not just raise it from private donations.

Id guess it's 3 more phases like they've been talking about. So 100+ divided by 3 is like doing a new EZF every 5 years or something. Still might need institutional help but I don't see us doing a full stadium renovation in a single year.

And thanks George. I'm glad we are getting some of this news out to the local community. Now the chronicle needs to pick up on it.

This is incredibly exciting news. I knew Rice would really fix the stadium up, but I didn't expect anything this major to be planned. I like how the article mentions "more options for families." There's so much space that a lot can be done. There are a lot of possibilities. I would also assume that the university will have to pay for a big chunk of this. If it does, that would be a helluva statement on it's behalf.

What we thought were white boxes appear to have been stacks of styrofoam slabs that are being used to lend shape to the lower grade of the ramp space.

The concept of using low-density material below ground in Houston just seems odd.
I know there haven't been many flooding events that have filled the bowl in HRS, but they have happened.
If it happens again, the ramp might become a raft.

(06-29-2016 12:35 PM)Grungy Wrote:  What we thought were white boxes appear to have been stacks of styrofoam slabs that are being used to lend shape to the lower grade of the ramp space.

The concept of using low-density material below ground in Houston just seems odd.
I know there haven't been many flooding events that have filled the bowl in HRS, but they have happened.
If it happens again, the ramp might become a raft.

Are you sure it is styrofoam, or could that be pre-cast concrete?

I witnessed a worker carrying one over his head. That was either super human or they are styrofoam like.

(06-29-2016 01:07 PM)RiceBull Wrote:  I witnessed a worker carrying one over his head. That was either super human or they are styrofoam like.

Are you sure that wasn't the new S&C guy?

(06-28-2016 11:45 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  If they're talking about a project similar to TCU's (over $100 million), I think the university would have to chip in some money, and not just raise it from private donations.

That's against the charter. Can't use the endowment for facilities. In theory you can use the earnings, but those are almost always already spoken for in operating expenses. The MOST they can do is 'borrow' from the endowment for future pledges... i.e. if someone gives the AD a $100mm gift as a generation skipping trust, so they won't actually see the money for say 30 years... the University might still PV that gift assuming a reasonable rate of return for the endowment (their actuarial assumption) and allow the AD to spend say $25mm today.

Or if someone pledges $2mm/yr for 10 years, the school might let them spend $15mm today

(06-29-2016 02:10 PM)I45owl Wrote:  

(06-29-2016 01:07 PM)RiceBull Wrote:  I witnessed a worker carrying one over his head. That was either super human or they are styrofoam like.

Are you sure that wasn't the new S&C guy?

Uh oh, looks like the video board is already malfunctioning!

https://twitter.com/RiceFootball/status/...3852334082

This image says we have three timeouts left mid-way through the 4th quarter. Must be an error...

(07-01-2016 11:56 PM)FeistyNightBird Wrote:  Uh oh, looks like the video board is already malfunctioning!

https://twitter.com/RiceFootball/status/...3852334082

This image says we have three timeouts left mid-way through the 4th quarter. Must be an error...

I chuckled.

(07-03-2016 09:31 AM)wrysal Wrote:  

(07-01-2016 11:56 PM)FeistyNightBird Wrote:  Uh oh, looks like the video board is already malfunctioning!

https://twitter.com/RiceFootball/status/...3852334082

This image says we have three timeouts left mid-way through the 4th quarter. Must be an error...

I chuckled.

+1

Lots of activity in front today. Can see where they've laid out the path leading down to the field from the ramp. Concrete will pour soon.

The concrete has been poured on the lower path.