Future of scoreboards in HS basketball - Fully digital scoreboards?

Yappi

Yappi

Go Buckeyes
Fully digital scoreboards. Is this the future of scoreboards in HS basketball?

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Seems in the long run, these could be cheaper and far more versatile.
 
 
Raider6309 said:
Seem like a waste of money
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I don't know how much they cost, but they offer the potential to generate more advertising revenue to help offset the cost over the life of the board. There's no limit to how many ads you can run on these things vs. how much space there is for ad panels on the more traditional scoreboards. The digital boards also enable the school to show things like pregame hype videos, halftime stats, senior tribute videos, and postings about upcoming events for other sports teams without much difficulty. I attended a game at Cardinal Mooney last year and liked what I saw. Additionally, the board software offers a variety of layouts that can be toggled through during the game. The only problem is the displays can be extremely bright which is potentially problematic for some players who have a history of concussions.

Another thing I have seen some schools have is a scorer's table with a TV/monitor built into the front of it to run a slideshow of ads during the entire game.
 
Slightly off topic but I know Cedarville University does something similar with a projector while still having actual scoreboard. I think that may be more cost effective for most schools.
 
With the cost of digital boards dropping, I would think that most schools are going to go to them when it comes time to replace their current boards. As others have mentioned ad revenue can cover a significant portion of the cost of the boards.
 
Good solution if you don'T want to be a slave to one sponsor who bought the scoreboard. Again, talking to you Saint X.
 
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Like that board but I prefer to see the player # and fouls+ pts in addition to the usual scoreboard info. If you could put that into a digital format great.
 
James x2 said:
Like that board but I prefer to see the player # and fouls+ pts in addition to the usual scoreboard info. If you could put that into a digital format great.
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Pretty sure it can be done. There are numerous layouts and data that can be displayed with these boards.
 
Yappi said:
Fully digital scoreboards. Is this the future of scoreboards in HS basketball?

Image


Seems in the long run, these could be cheaper and far more versatile.
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I'm going to be honest and plead stupidity here. Other then this being a scoreboard, what am I looking at that's so special? What am I missing?
 
Caleb said:
I'm going to be honest and plead stupidity here. Other then this being a scoreboard, what am I looking at that's so special? What am I missing?
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It plays Netflix. ;)

Flexibility.

For the "waste of money" crowd,
A 76in tv costs less than a $1000, is wi-fi ready and bigger than most scoreboards. Cost more to make a wooden scoreboard with letter lights that needs wires run.
 
I’ve heard talk that Barberton is looking at replacing the Jumbotron with full Digital scoreboards.
 
James x2 said:
Like that board but I prefer to see the player # and fouls+ pts in addition to the usual scoreboard info. If you could put that into a digital format great.
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I'm with you. I do believe they can format the screene to display the same info as the "player-points-fouls " boards do, however, it takes one or two additional competent people to keep up with the info entered into the computer at the table ( player #10 enters game for player #12) or your information on the board is really meaningless. Fouls get assigned to wrong players or teams and points get added to wrong players so soon the board does not look anything like the official score book other than number of team fouls and number of points in game. For this reason I suspect many scoreboards will stick with the traditional format and not display all the additional information until they have a team at the scorers table competent enough to put it out for public consumption.

It is amazing how many fans sitting behind the scorers table will immediately start to vocalize their awareness of a mistake on a simple traditional scoreboard, while the official scorer is trying to work through the problem with the operator of the scoreboard all the while the game continues on and each person has to continue monitoring what happens on the floor. Sometimes mistakes take 30 seconds to find time to correct, other times, when points are added to specific players who perhaps left the game as in player #30 makes a free throw then player # 42 subs in for player 30, but the score board operator forgets to credit #30 with the made free throw before taking him out of the program, he has to wait until a break in the game to re insert #30 into the program, credit him with 1 free throw, remove #30 and re insert his sub in order to keep correct points and player numbers accurate. It is much simpler to give any player on the team 1 point and keep moving than to have the mistake displayed on the board, and #30's mom is yelling that you gave #42 her sons point, and "what are you going to do about it, you have stolen and defrauded my son of his due glory on the big scoreboard? "
 
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D4fan said:
I'm with you. I do believe they can format the screene to display the same info as the "player-points-fouls " boards do, however, it takes one or two additional competent people to keep up with the info entered into the computer at the table ( player #10 enters game for player #12) or your information on the board is really meaningless. Fouls get assigned to wrong players or teams and points get added to wrong players so soon the board does not look anything like the official score book other than number of team fouls and number of points in game. For this reason I suspect many scoreboards will stick with the traditional format and not display all the additional information until they have a team at the scorers table competent enough to put it out for public consumption.

It is amazing how many fans sitting behind the scorers table will immediately start to vocalize their awareness of a mistake on a simple traditional scoreboard, while the official scorer is trying to work through the problem with the operator of the scoreboard all the while the game continues on and each person has to continue monitoring what happens on the floor. Sometimes mistakes take 30 seconds to find time to correct, other times, when points are added to specific players who perhaps left the game as in player #30 makes a free throw then player # 42 subs in for player 30, but the score board operator forgets to credit #30 with the made free throw before taking him out of the program, he has to wait until a break in the game to re insert #30 into the program, credit him with 1 free throw, remove #30 and re insert his sub in order to keep correct points and player numbers accurate. It is much simpler to give any player on the team 1 point and keep moving than to have the mistake displayed on the board, and #30's mom is yelling that you gave #42 her sons point, and "what are you going to do about it, you have stolen and defrauded my son of his due glory on the big scoreboard? "
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That's a perfect example of scoreboard issues that trigger a crowd full of finger pointing at the board and yelling. Wow, have I seen some crazed people thinking their team was getting jobbed on the score of the game. Especially the game clock.
 
James x2 said:
That's a perfect example of scoreboard issues that trigger a crowd full of finger pointing at the board and yelling. Wow, have I seen some crazed people thinking their team was getting jobbed on the score of the game. Especially the game clock.
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Funny thing there is the game clock is the only thing on the entire scoreboard that matters. Everything else displayed on the board is officially recorded in the scorebook. You can give a kid 80 points and 9 fouls on the side panel, and it doesn't mean squat, but the majority of fans don't get that.
 
Mr. Slippery said:
Funny thing there is the game clock is the only thing on the entire scoreboard that matters. Everything else displayed on the board is officially recorded in the scorebook. You can give a kid 80 points and 9 fouls on the side panel, and it doesn't mean squat, but the majority of fans don't get that.
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I worked the game clock for a girl's basketball the Tuesday before Thanksgiving this season and these visiting fans (who sounded like middle school or high school students) were getting upset at the scoreboard operator (who I was sitting next to) for not having a home team's player on the stats side panel. This player for the home team happened to have four fouls. They were acting like this player couldn't get her 5th foul because her number wasn't on the side panel.
 
LED technology has made this type of scoreboard less expensive than traditionally. When the LED billboards started going up the costs then were 3X higher than they are now for the same type of board. The costs have come way down and the old type with incandescent bulbs are now pretty much in the class of a buggy whip.
 
D4fan said:
I'm with you. I do believe they can format the screene to display the same info as the "player-points-fouls " boards do, however, it takes one or two additional competent people to keep up with the info entered into the computer at the table ( player #10 enters game for player #12) or your information on the board is really meaningless. Fouls get assigned to wrong players or teams and points get added to wrong players so soon the board does not look anything like the official score book other than number of team fouls and number of points in game. For this reason I suspect many scoreboards will stick with the traditional format and not display all the additional information until they have a team at the scorers table competent enough to put it out for public consumption.

It is amazing how many fans sitting behind the scorers table will immediately start to vocalize their awareness of a mistake on a simple traditional scoreboard, while the official scorer is trying to work through the problem with the operator of the scoreboard all the while the game continues on and each person has to continue monitoring what happens on the floor. Sometimes mistakes take 30 seconds to find time to correct, other times, when points are added to specific players who perhaps left the game as in player #30 makes a free throw then player # 42 subs in for player 30, but the score board operator forgets to credit #30 with the made free throw before taking him out of the program, he has to wait until a break in the game to re insert #30 into the program, credit him with 1 free throw, remove #30 and re insert his sub in order to keep correct points and player numbers accurate. It is much simpler to give any player on the team 1 point and keep moving than to have the mistake displayed on the board, and #30's mom is yelling that you gave #42 her sons point, and "what are you going to do about it, you have stolen and defrauded my son of his due glory on the big scoreboard? "
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#30's mom should be punched in the face for being a terrible person. That's what should be done about it. Society would be better if this happened more often.
 
Centerville has had these for a couple years. They drive me nuts trying to keep stats because the player foul/scoring info slides on and off the screen in an animation and then disappears, making it difficult for me to register that information in the middle of a broadcast, where the older style boards either show that constantly at the side or retain it at the bottom until it is changed by the operator at the next score or foul.
Ordinarily I could watch the officials signal the table, but the broadcast location there is at the end of the gym behind the basket which makes that difficult.
 
sportsvoice said:
Centerville has had these for a couple years. They drive me nuts trying to keep stats because the player foul/scoring info slides on and off the screen in an animation and then disappears, making it difficult for me to register that information in the middle of a broadcast, where the older style boards either show that constantly at the side or retain it at the bottom until it is changed by the operator at the next score or foul.
Ordinarily I could watch the officials signal the table, but the broadcast location there is at the end of the gym behind the basket which makes that difficult.
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Even the time remaining in a quarter when a timeout is taken, either gets shrunk to a new spot on the far left bottom of the scoreboard or disappears altogether. You have to be fast to catch it before it is gone.

I prefer the static boards as well, but they don't sell soap. Gotta run those adds during game stoppages.
 
I was at a powerlifting meet a few weeks ago at Springfield Northeastern and noticed that their football field had one of these all digital boards recently installed.
 
AllSports12 said:
Remember working a few games with this on the wall.
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Reminds me of my old high school football scoreboard clock when I was in grade school. I could tell time on a regular clock in the first grade, but could never figure out how to read the football dial with respect to time left.

Found a learning video on one of these scoreboards. The basketball display looks pretty traditional and is easily visible. Running the controller on a laptop (starts at 1:30 mark) is another matter. Maybe the whippersnappers will catch on quick, but I'm guessing there's a significant learning curve for traditional board operators, especially starting/stopping/resetting the shot clock with the mouse:

 
If we could afford to do so, I bet we would. Especially to the scoreboard type in the post above but basketball isn't as much of a priority as Football and Baseball is in Coldwater so maybe it won't happen for awhile. I certainly wouldn't be against it.
 
Zunardo said:
Reminds me of my old high school football scoreboard clock when I was in grade school. I could tell time on a regular clock in the first grade, but could never figure out how to read the football dial with respect to time left.

Found a learning video on one of these scoreboards. The basketball display looks pretty traditional and is easily visible. Running the controller on a laptop (starts at 1:30 mark) is another matter. Maybe the whippersnappers will catch on quick, but I'm guessing there's a significant learning curve for traditional board operators, especially starting/stopping/resetting the shot clock with the mouse:
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I'd think there would be more potential for error in that case vs. the traditional handheld start/stop toggle switch for the clock operator. However, if it's run from a laptop, they could probably come up with a USB based accessory.
 
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