Major League Baseball's Minnesota Twins franchise has tapped Daktronics to design and construct a multi-million dollar "integrated video, scoring and advertising display system" (what used to be called a "scoreboard") at Target Field, the team's new ball park being built in downtown Minneapolis and set to open for the 2010 season. (Installation of the scoreboard itself will begin next April.)
The part-HD display will be comprised of more than four dozen digital LED displays, a scoring and statistics systems section, and both permanent and changing advertising panels.
The Twins management noted, among other things, that Daktronics is based "in Twins Territory," in Brookings, S.D. After reviewing what Daktronics had accomplished in some other major league parks, the Twins said they were sold on "the 1080 high definition video display and the other complementary components of the [Daktronics] system."
Daktronics, which also built what it said is the nation's largest HD scoreboard (at Kaufmann Stadium in Kansas City) said the Minnesota system likely will be the fourth largest of its kind to be constructed. Unlike the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, also in downtown Minneapolis, the new Twins park will not be covered.
The centerpiece of the integrated system will be an HD display measuring about 101-by-57 feet, featuring Daktronics' HD-X LED video technology. Daktronics said the new video board will have the option of being operated either as a single giant display—or divided into zones (or "windows") to show an array of content that is legible because of HD's quality, such as stats, graphics, animation, and both live or recorded video.
