JMU Athletics Upgrading Daktronics Installations at Bridgeforth Stadium & Sentara Park

HARRISONBURG, Va. – Continuing its longstanding arrangements with leading electronics outfitter Daktronics, James Madison Athletics is upgrading its audio-visual systems this summer at two key competitive venues, Bridgeforth Stadium/Zane Showker Field and Sentara Park.

"We are excited to embark on these two projects and to upgrade the experience in these two venues," Director of Athletics Jeff Bourne said. "The Bridgeforth display reached end of life 10 years after installation and needed to be addressed. As a result, our fans will have a vastly improved audio-visual experience this Fall. The Sentara Park board has had numerous performance issues since the original, non-Daktronics piece was installed in 2012. Bringing Daktronics to that venue puts Sentara on par with our other facilities that have benefited from the class of product offered by Daktronics."

The Daktronics installations begin the week of June 20 in football's Bridgeforth Stadium with completion anticipated in August before the Fall 2021 season. The project includes a new South end zone video board with a 24-foot by 60-foot, 10-millimeter LED display, which replaces the original board erected in 2011 when the stadium expanded to its current structure. While the size is unchanged, the new display offers a significant improvement on resolution and illumination, opens new board layout and design opportunities previously unavailable and addresses aging issues with the original board warranty expiring in September.

In addition to the primary display, Bridgeforth Stadium will have a new auxiliary ribbon board attached to the upper portion of the East Side Box behind sections 4 and 5. The 10-millimeter LED board measures 3.6-foot high by 72-foot wide. There will also be a new fixed-digit scoreboard added below the ribbon board to replace the current outdated game-in-progress scoreboard

The project also includes replacement of the Bridgeforth Stadium sound system and back-of-house video control equipment, each also dating to the 2011 expansion. The sound system work includes replacing the primary speakers that bookend the end zone video display, newly-added audio subwoofers and full back-of-house sound integration.

Work at Sentara Park kicks off in early July, replacing the facility's current board with a new 15.6-foot by 24-foot LED display. The video display will also be accompanied by a new fixed-digit display to show basic in-game information like score, clock, shots and player penalty time. Sentara Park serves as the home of men's and women's soccer, lacrosse, track and field and cross country.

The Bridgeforth and Sentara projects come on the heels of the November 2020 opening of the Atlantic Union Bank Center, which features a total of 23 different Daktronics LED displays around the interior and exterior of the building. JMU also has Daktronics displays in Godwin Hall in volleyball's Sinclair Gymnasium and swimming and diving's Savage Natatorium.

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.

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