In an initiative spearheaded by the Arizona Sports & Tourism Authority, University of Phoenix Stadium has greatly expanded its roster of Vista Systems Spyder image processors with the addition of five more units. The stadium, which is owned by the Arizona Sports & Tourism Authority, is home to the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals; it hosted college football’s 2015 VIZIO Fiesta Bowl, the 2015 NFL Pro Bowl and Super Bowl XLIX.
The primary drivers for bolstering the stadium’s Spyder inventory were the installation of the South Board, a 165×59.5-foot Daktronics 13HD LED display in the south end zone and a large Christie MicroTiles digital display in the team’s Draft Room.
“We went from small video boards to much larger displays, moved from SD to HD, including 4K technology, and overhauled our control room,” reports Michael Conner, director of video board and event production for the Arizona Cardinals Football Club. “Now we use Spyders to do all the pixel mapping for the new South Board, the North Board, the MicroTiles wall and all the TVs in the building.”
The huge South Board displays live game footage, instant replays, and player and fan features. An Evertz Dreamcatcher captures the output of 4K cameras on the field and also allows videos shot on fans’ mobile devices to be displayed on the screen.
“The South Board is the equivalent of 4K resolution in width and 2K in height,” Conner says. “We needed to display two 1080p signals side by side on the board. We knew Spyder would be able to design how the images are displayed on all the different aspect ratios of our boards and TVs.”
The Arizona Cardinals were an early adopter of Spyder, he reports. “We were the first large sporting venue to use Spyder back in 2006. Now, Spyder has become a standard feature in many NFL stadiums.”
He notes that, “Vista Systems has always been a great partner for us. They worked hand in glove with us to develop how to use Spyder in the stadium and to envision what the next steps will be as we continue to push the envelope with our displays.”
Shane Gavin, event and system-engineer, says the original Spyder system is a 200/300 series unit. “We have four frames total: one 240, two 380s and one 326 all connected to function as one unit with 22 inputs and 6 outputs.
“That system runs at 60 fps and is limited to 6.6 million pixels, which wasn’t enough to handle the new South Board plus the North Board,” he explains. While the original Spyder remains on hand for other show uses, two new Spyders are used to achieve the needed pixel count on the South Board.
“We have two Spyder X20 1608 systems working in parallel for 32 inputs and 16 outputs,” he says. “They have the capacity to handle 40 million pixels: One X20 frame feeds the left half of the South Board and another frame feeds the right half. Two outputs feed the North Board, which has a 33:9 aspect ratio.” A second set of Spyder X20 frames are on hand as backup.
An additional Spyder X20 1608 is dedicated to the Christie MicroTiles wall, which is typically in a 10×5-module configuration with additional modules available for expansion. “For three months of the year it lives in the Draft Room, where our NFL draft picks are made,” says Conner. “But we also have road cases for it, so we can break it down and use it for event support like team golf and bowling tournaments and the tailgate show from the Great Lawn and all of this year’s Super Bowl-related events.”
Last year the NFL Network featured live reports from the Cardinals’ Draft Room. “We had been doing the NFL draft with cards and magnetic white boards, but now the MicroTiles wall and Spyder greatly aid the owner, GM and coaches in getting the very best draft they can,” says Conner. “We use Vista Systems Touch to program Spyder presets to create different looks on the board and to give the coaching staff the ability to hit the cover up button and conceal their picks from viewers.”
Conner says the new Spyders have been operating with “zero” failures. “We didn’t have any failures with our original Spyder either,” he notes. “They’ve been rock solid. There’s really nothing else on the market that can compete with them.”
He calls Spyder integration with other equipment “excellent” and notes that, “We got the second Ross Acuity switcher in the US, and Spyder speaks the same language as the switcher and the Daktronics South Board.”
Gavin reports that, “comments from fans say that the new South Board is so large and clean that they catch themselves watching action on the boards more than action on the field!”
Conner gives kudos to “very responsive customer service from Vista Systems,” too. “Training for such a sophisticated system is essential, and Vista provided excellent training for our staff.”
About Vista Systems
Vista Systems’ switchers have become the industry standard for live multiple-destination video and data mixed signal switching with real-time windowing and composition. For more information on Vista Systems, visit their website at www.vistasystems.net.
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