Miami HEAT Bring First-Ever Flame Ball Centerhung to Live Event Experience with Daktronics

September 23, 2024 at 09:00 AM EDT

Artists Rendering

BROOKINGS, S.D., Sept. 23, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Miami HEAT have partnered with Daktronics (NASDAQ-DAKT) of Brookings, South Dakota, to engineer, manufacture and install the first-ever Flame Ball centerhung at Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida. The logo-shaped LED sculpture is a part of 61 LED displays delivering more than 11,000 square feet of digital canvas to the live event experience in 2024. The system is a 585% increase from the previous displays and features 72 million pixels powered by Daktronics Show Control.

“Our new scoreboard is a marvel of modern technology bringing a significant increase in both the size and number of screens visible to HEAT fans,” said Eric Woolworth, President of The HEAT Group’s Business Operations. “The flame ball itself is an impressive piece of visual art that is going to revolutionize many aspects of our in-arena experience for fans and partners alike. Our friends at Daktronics have outdone themselves and we’re forever grateful to them for helping us bring this unique project to life.”

Flame Ball and Centerhung Display Details
The entire centerhung features 55 million pixels and 7,440 square feed of digital canvas. That is 1.5 times the square footage of a basketball court and would take 697 60-inch televisions to cover the entire centerhung.

The Flame Ball features 2,525 square feet of LED canvas at 2.5-millimeter pixel spacing to bring the Miami HEAT’s 3D logo sculpture to life in the middle of the centerhung configuration.

“Building first-of-its-kind creations using LED technology is something that drives our company forward and excites our employees,” said Daktronics President and CEO Reece Kurtenbach. “Bringing this iconic sculpture to life for the Miami HEAT, Kaseya Center and their audiences is a great engineering feat that we are proud to have accomplished.”

The Flame Ball is at the center of the system that hangs above the court inside the arena. Four centerhung video displays face each direction of the arena, each measuring 19.5 feet high by 29.5 feet wide and featuring 2.5-millimeter pixel spacings. Two upper rings circle the configuration above the main video displays. Each ring measures 4 feet high by 213 feet in circumference and features 3.9-millimeter pixel spacing.

On the underbelly of the centerhung, four displays measure 10 feet high by 21 feet wide and feature 2.5-millimeter pixel spacing. These displays are angled toward the edges of the court to appeal to those sitting closer to the action.

The Flame Ball, ring displays, and main video and underbelly displays are on three separate hoists to raise and lower the configuration as needed to accommodate the multiple events hosted by the Kaseya Center.

Additional Displays
Installed in 2023, four corner displays supplement the new centerhung system. Each measures 17 feet high by 44 feet wide and features 5.9-millimeter pixel spacing.

Event floor clock, basket stanchion and vomitory displays were also added to Kaseya Center, all featuring 2.5-millimeter pixel spacing. Four basket stanchion displays each measure 1 foot high by 1.5 feet wide, 12 event floor clock displays each measure 3 feet high by 5 feet wide and 30 vomitory displays above the entrances and exits of the seating bowl range from 1.5 feet high to 3 feet high by 5 feet wide to 11.5 feet wide.

These displays allow for additional game information, graphics and animations, and the opportunity to highlight sponsors throughout events.

Daktronics is also including a complete Show Control solution including Camino with this installation. This industry-leading control system provides a combination of display control software, world-class video processing, data integration and playback hardware that forms a powerful yet user-friendly production solution. The addition of Camino to the control system will provide a new level of functionality to create dynamic, real-time rendered content never before possible in a Daktronics system.

Camino opens up creative possibilities to display visuals in a 2D/3D space, incorporating data-based logic to automate production elements, and developing timelines within a single piece of content so it can react in real time as the event unfolds.

About Kaseya Center
Located in the center of booming downtown Miami and the Entertainment District, Kaseya Center—home of the NBA Champion Miami HEAT—hosts 80+ non-basketball events each year including A-list concerts, family shows, sporting events, national conferences and more. Built with state-of-the-art sound and lighting and HD and electronic media signage inside and out, the impressive 19,600-seat Kaseya Center is currently ranked the #1 arena in Florida for the ninth consecutive year—and the 12th time during the past 13 years—according to both Pollstar and Billboard’s 2023 year-end rankings. Kaseya Center is also among the leading facilities in the country for hosting Latin entertainment. The Center has led the renaissance of downtown Miami over the past two decades, helping to transform the area into a thriving arts and entertainment district. The facility has hosted more than 1,200 events including diverse musical superstars such as Marc Anthony, Celine Dion, Ed Sheeran, Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, The Killers, Bad Bunny, Carrie Underwood, Dua Lipa, Tool, Imagine Dragons, Kane Brown, Karol G, Drake, Andrea Bocelli and Paul McCartney, just to name a few. In 2009, Kaseya Center became among the first existing buildings in the country to have achieved LEED certification by the United States Green Building Council for its commitment to sustainability practices. More recently, in 2021, the Arena achieved its second LEED gold recertification. For more information about Kaseya Center, visit kaseyacenter.com.

About Daktronics
Daktronics helps its customers to impact their audiences throughout the world with large-format LED video displays, message displays, scoreboards, digital billboards, audio systems and control systems in sport, business and transportation applications. Founded in 1968 as a USA-based manufacturing company, Daktronics has grown into the world leader in audiovisual systems and implementation with offices around the globe. Discover more at www.daktronics.com.

Safe Harbor Statement
Cautionary Notice: In addition to statements of historical fact, this news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and is intended to enjoy the protection of that Act. These forward-looking statements reflect the Company's expectations or beliefs concerning future events. The Company cautions that these and similar statements involve risk and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations, including, but not limited to, changes in economic and market conditions, management of growth, timing and magnitude of future contracts and orders, fluctuations in margins, the introduction of new products and technology, the impact of adverse weather conditions, increased regulation and other risks described in the company's SEC filings, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for its 2024 fiscal year. Forward-looking statements are made in the context of information available as of the date stated. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise such statements to reflect new circumstances or unanticipated events as they occur.

MEDIA RELATIONS
Justin Ochsner
Public Relations/Marketing
Tel 605-692-0200
Email justin.ochsner@daktronics.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at

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