Dome's new hi-def scoreboards make debut

By CHRIS VIVLAMORE

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Falcon fans get their first live glimpse of the team’s two biggest offseason acquisitions Saturday night.

No, not Tony Gonzalez and Mike Peterson. We’re talking bigger, much bigger.

The exhibition game against the San Diego Chargers will be the first football game at the Georgia Dome with the stadium’s new high-definition scoreboards. They each measure 101 feet wide by 24 feet high, and the project cost $7 million. The old scoreboards measured 34 feet by 24 feet.

“What we can provide now is almost like being in a movie theater,” said Roddy White, the Falcons’ Director of Event Marketing who has the same name as the receiver.

Along with the scoreboards, there are new high-def cameras with longer lenses. They will provide four different angles for live action and replays. The scoreboards can show two camera angles at the same time. There is also a new slow-motion device.

“You can do things that surround the whole stadium,” Falcons president Rich McKay. “It’s very similar to what’s done at Turner Field. The actual experience of watching the game, with some new camera angles, the fans will enjoy watching the replays.”

The installation of the scoreboards began in January, and a whole new control room was needed to accommodate them. There have been five events at the Georgia Dome with the new scoreboards operational, beginning with the Mexico-Venezuela soccer game in June. The Falcons had to build nearly 100 graphic elements for the new scoreboards, such as the words “Touchdown” or “Defense.”

The scoreboards are part of a series of improvements to the Georgia Dome over the past three years. New luxury suites have been installed, all the seats were replaced, the exterior was painted and the concourses were re-done. According to McKay, sound improvements are the last phase of planned improvements. The Falcons are working on a plan to build a new stadium.

“We are coming to an end of the improvements,” McKay said. “In our case, this three-year plan we executed gives us the ability to keep this stadium at NFL standards and lets our fans get the experience that most fans in the league get to enjoy. Since we’ve opened the Dome, 25 new stadiums have been built. This was a way to bridge that gap. We feel pretty good about it.”

McKay estimates that $50 million will be spent on the dome with the cost split between the Falcons and the Georgia World Congress Center Authority, which operates the facility.