...and then there was light!

OK, video board training is NOT exciting...I repeat, not exciting, but we have at least learned about the graphic player cards (I gotta manual lighten the pictures and get rid of the drop shadowing), and we got the BigSkyTV feed on the video board, and it looked pretty sensational. Here's some more pics and video!

This is the new control room to house all the computer equipment that will run the board. It can do some neat things ... we can split the screen and stuff. Eventually, we can buy a component that will wire my stat computer to the board, which would be groovy.


This is the American flag icon, which we might or might not use, since we have the gigantor-flag that comes down. Still, it was cool.






Hard to see, but this is the test graphic card for the players (I used Amir). We manually lightened this up on the computer, so honestly, it looks like doggie-poo, but the ones we did afterwards were super-sweet. Trust me.




They were running this as the "blue test"...they also have it in red and green...the red is really red by the way. It was fun to watch this...




OK....how's about some video....again, my digital camera was purchased in 2000, so it doesn't record sound, but here is what the American flag graphic looks like.

And this is the fireworks display, which they like to use because it is mostly red, green, and blue, so it's a good pixel test, since they are all .... wait for it .... red, green, and blue.



This is the live feed...the were shooting me walking to the video board to shoot the board, but the pan around a little on the board. The quality is really solid (hard to tell a little bit with my cheapo camera), and it was cool. They will probably run the game live on the board while the game is being played.



OK....hope you enjoyed it! It was awesome to see it actually on and running and functioning and everything. Yeah Idaho Potato Commission!!!!!!

Yes...It's Really Happening! I Saw It With My Own Two Eyes (and one lens)

So today was the day the new Idaho Potato Commission Video Board started to go up in Holt Arena. I don't get very misty eyed much anymore (I'm fairly jaded), but as much as a tear dribbled out of my eye when Ray Bourque finally lifted the Stanley Cup, or the overflow on the plane to Hawaii reading about Tony Dungy's son, well, I pulled a Daniel Ocean-watching-Oprah today, and so I grabbed our trusty old (like seven years old) digital camera to let you folks see what's going on....

Here is the left side of the board, which isn't changing. You can see there is emptiness to the right of it, and also the clock is missing. Above the got milk? ad it used to say Idaho State University, but I believe that is now where the Idaho Potato Commission logo and stuff is going. Don't remember the Idaho State University sign?








Well, this is it...on the Holt floor. If it looks a little lonely to you, don't worry, his good friend the clock is right in front of him....











See?
















Finally...the new board...you can see the first two panels of the four are in place along the bottom (nearly 16 feet across....right now about my height 5-9 or so). There will be all sorts of board around it as well to make it blend in.









This is what the other two boards look like sitting in the crates waiting for installation. Those oval things are actually the doors for housing all the wiring and stuff.












What the boards look like from the side.























OK, this is cool....I got right next to it and shot this picture. The little red green and blue dots make up one pixel, and the board is 200 pixels by 288. the better your board, the closer these dots are to each other. The dots on ours is 17 millimeters apart (the best is 15, Utah and BYU have 19 millimeter boards for comparison). So, those dots can combined based on the intensity to showcase over 4,000 colors, meaning the board will be very bright, and very sharp. When you are looking at the board from like 20 feet away, you can't even see the different colored lights....it's pretty nifty.






I had this last one taken so you can get a gauge of the height of these things...the test will run sometime Wednesday, and then a bunch of us will get training on Thursday, which will be way cool.

And the big news is.....

This won't officially get posted until 4:00 pm or so, but if you like the blog, you get it here first...Idaho State is hosting a press conference to announce that finally...finally (can I do this instead...FINALLY!!!!) getting a video display board to replace the old one in the east end zone scoreboard. That board used to actually work when I got here...but it was pretty ratty back then, and currently, you can only put text up there. The new one will sort of be like this one in Stockton, 12 x 16, and can do video and replays and stats and promotions and things like that.

How did this get done? Jeff Tingey worked with the Idaho Potato Commission, and they are funding the nearly $200,000 board. It will officially be the Idaho Potato Commission Video Board, but I think SpudVision will cover it (BengalVision is great, but SpudVision can go for the rodeo and high school events and stuff like that). Anyways, presser and full release later today...oh, and we have another cool announcement sometime next week it sounds like. Gotta love gearing up for football! Two words....KISS CAM!!!!!!

Frank