Geiger scoreboard-to-videoboard transition

Image: Coliseum GSVA / Michael Rennschmied

Karen Lynch is the chief of Geiger Engineers, a structural engineering firm that specializes in the design of stadiums, arenas, tension structures, entertainment structures, and all the related structural elements.

Karen A. Lynch, P.E. serves as the President and a Managing Principal of Geiger Engineers, an engineering practice specializing in stadium and arena design, entertainment structures and long span lightweight structures.

In an interaction with ‘Coliseum’, Karen Lynch, Principal and CEO, Geiger Engineers, US, takes a deep dive into the world of scoreboards which have evolved into state-of-the-art videoboards now – “Years ago, all stadiums and arenas had simple scoreboards so that the spectators can keep track of the score in the game. Over time, these simple displays have evolved which provide not only scores and games but also announcement, instant replays and much more.”
 

Geiger Engineers

Suffern (US)-based Geiger Engineers has an international reputation for innovative engineering of tensile structures, long-span roof structures, entertainment and sports facilities, theatrical special structures, and rigging. The firm has invented and developed a number of long-span structural systems renowned for their economy and performance. Geiger Engineers also has expertise in a wide array of structural materials from tensile fabric and aluminum to the more typical construction materials such as steel and concrete.

Remarked Karen Lynch, “Almost people naturally focus on the great LED displays and few stop to wonder what’s behind the dynamic display. What goes into designing the board?”

Talking about the challenges that Geiger has addressed in design she pointed out, “From the centerhung giants that dominate the hockey and basketball arenas to the scoreboards of baseball stadiums and the massive endzone of boards in football venues today’s LED videoboards are bigger, brighter and more dynamic than ever. The centerhung scoreboards or videoboards have traditionally been found in hockey and basketball arenas but are also found in football and baseball stadiums. There are many factors we consider in designing the videoboards support structure. First and foremost is the weight inclusive of the LED displays, LED framing, Belly Boards, Catwalks for maintenance access and miscellaneous other items like lights, owner equipment, branding graphics. We must design a structural framing system and the support must be strong enough but also must be sufficiently stiff so that the deflection does not affect the delicate environment of the LED panels. But there are additional limitations. However, there are many existing arenas upgrading their center hungboards and cannot do much to increase their roof capacity. Thankfully, even though today’s videoboards are much larger with much more area of display than years ago the LED panels are lighter. In order to minimize the weight of our structures in some cases we switch from steel structure to aluminum structure and we have made meticulous efforts to get exactly what’s allowable.”
 

Wrap-up

Karen Lynch summed up by stating, “Today’s new football stadiums have larger and larger videoboard displays approaching the width of the field and dominating the endzone. In an ideal world the engineer who designs the stadium structure also designs the videoboard structure. This way the connections can be simplified. For the 65,000-capacity Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas (US) we were the engineers for the delegated design of the videoboard and we faced the same challenges just in the case of an existing stadium. We had to design specific weight limits and to connect to the existing elements. The LED displays are getting larger with high resolution. The videoboard structures are melted to the façades and buildings and in some cases integrated into the structure itself. It is often necessary to reinforce or replace the existing framing to support the new heavier LED displays. A challenge of working with the old structure is ensuring that the new components fill up with the existing.”

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