Technology

Revamped PhanaVision ready for action at Citizens Bank Park

Featured image credit: Citizens Bank Park

The Philadelphia Phillies have unveiled their new and enhanced ‘PhanaVision’ videoboard, which the club states will be the third largest in Major League Baseball (MLB).

Set to make its official debut for the Phillies’ 2023 home opener against the Cincinnati Reds tomorrow (Thursday), plans for the new PhanaVision were first unveiled in July, with officials seeking to add a “significant wow factor” to the Citizens Bank Park experience.

The new display installed by Daktronics is 77% larger in size than the previous scoreboard and features the latest high dynamic range (HDR) video technology. Measuring at approximately 152 feet wide by 86 feet tall, the new display will deliver nearly 13,000 square feet of digital space.

The new videoboard features 11.6 million pixels at 10-millimetre spacing. It weighs 116,298 pounds and is supported by 190 tonnes of structural steel. A modernised production control room has also been built to support the enhanced system.

“Think about how far the home experience has come,” Sean Walker, the Phillies’ vice-president and chief technology officer, told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “You have 85-inch TVs, HD broadcasts. It’s so comfortable to be at home that you’re almost competing with that experience.

“The audiovisual component is such a huge part of the game and we think this is transformative for the fans. The show is such a big aspect of going to a baseball game versus that era where the baseball itself was the experience because you couldn’t get it at home that way.”

The Phillies last upgraded PhanaVision in 2011 when they installed what was then the biggest scoreboard in the National League. Walker said the decision was taken to upgrade it two years ago.

He added: “Our board was at the end of life at that time. We knew we had to do something. It was very evident that that board had served us well since 2011 but it was time for a replacement, for sure – in size but also the viewing quality and the angles.

“There’s just been such advancements in LED technology over the past 10 years that we’re now at something that can easily carry the organisation another 10 to 15 years.”

The US division of South Korean firm Samsung Electronics and the New York Mets last week unveiled what they claim is the largest scoreboard across all professional ballparks, part of the latest developments of a multi-year partnership that was first agreed in December 2021.

Citi Field’s enhanced and fully upgraded dual-sided centrefield video board, which features a 17,400 square feet LED screen on the front and 6,900 square feet on the back, is part of over 29,800 square feet of new LED introduced since autumn 2022.