New Technology at Kinnick: Game Data Inside the North Ribbon Board

July 10, 2013

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Last week, the UI Athletics Department shared a draft of what the game data area inside the south scoreboard at historic Kinnick Stadium will likely look like when the Iowa Hawkeyes open their 2013 season on Aug. 31.

in editorial iowa football helmet graphic

This week, it’s the same content – plus a little more – and where it will appear inside the new ribbon board that has been installed atop the north grandstand of Kinnick.

Let’s start with the numbers…

The ribbon board measures approximately 8-feet in height and spans a width of approximately 380 feet. Yes. 380 feet. Or, if you’d prefer, the board measures 196 square pixels high by 8,904 square pixels wide.

The space on the ribbon board that will be used on game days to display, from the left moving right, player and team statistics, game data, and messages, measures approximately 8-feet high and approximately 110-feet wide. It will be located at the very center of the new ribbon board – the area marked in yellow in the picture of the ribbon board below – and immediately below the space that has been constructed for the UI video staff to operate from on game days.

The player and team statistics area will display player and team statistics exclusively. The priority will be real-time player statistics for Iowa players only, but the space will, periodically, display current team statistics for both teams. The space will be much more “dynamic” than what appears in the draft image, e.g., more than likely, when statistics are to be displayed for a new player, the “introduction” of that change will include some kind of movement, most likely video of the player whose game stats are about to appear.

When team statistics are displayed, those that are to be made available in the north ribbon board will go beyond that which will be displayed inside the south scoreboard (You can review those details HERE.). The team statistics displayed in the north will include those displayed on the south main board, but will also include, for example, the number of penalties and yards penalized, time of possession, etc.

An increase in the number team and individual player statistics, and how often team statistics and individual player statistics were displayed inside historic Kinnick Stadium on a game day were among the most popular requests of 2013 Iowa football season ticket holders who responded to a recent survey conducted by the UI Athletics Department.

An increase in the number of team and individual player statistics, and how often team statistics and individual player statistics were displayed inside historic Kinnick Stadium on a game day were among the most popular requests of 2013 Iowa football season ticket holders who responded to a recent survey conducted by the UI Athletics Department. They were the third and fourth most popular selections from a list of nine suggestions, behind a request for more “views” (camera angles) of significant and “controversial” plays when they are shown as replays, and an increase in the size of the video available during the game.

The team score, possession, time outs remaining, down and distance, ball on, and the current quarter portion of this piece of content will be displayed, as noted above and as the draft image shows, at the very center of the ribbon board, immediately below the new video booth. A clock showing the game time remaining in the quarter has been installed on the front of the video booth, immediately above the game data.

To the immediate right of the game data is a space that will be used to display messages and other information such as upcoming athletics events, activities of the National I-Club, information about the purchase of game tickets, etc.

The spaces of the ribbon board to the left and the right of the space marked in yellow in the photograph below will be used throughout game day for “spirit messaging” and advertising by the corporate partners of the UI Athletics Department.

The aforementioned summarizes the “what” fans will likely see on game day with respect to the center portion of the new ribbon board. Here’s a little about some of what is likely about the “when”…

Fans will likely see the content areas that have been described – player and team stats, the team scores, possession, time outs remaining, down and distance, ball on, and the current quarter, and messages – from virtually the start to the end of each quarter. This information may disappear briefly from the ribbon board immediately after, for example, the Hawkeyes score a touchdown or secure a turnover at which times there will be “spirit messages” displayed.

It may also disappear for portions of the time between the end of the first quarter and the start of the second, halftime, and the end of the third quarter and start of the fourth. However, in the vast majority of cases, this content will not be displayed on the ribbon board only if the game data area on the south scoreboard is being displayed. In other words, because the game data is information required by the coaches, student-athletes, and game officials, rare will be the seconds/minutes when game data is nowhere to be found inside historic Kinnick Stadium once the game has started.

The yellow area indicates the approximate size and location in the new north ribbon board that will be used for the combination of player and team stats, game data, and messages.