The Daktronics Experience

As the Out Of Home landscape progressed through the pandemic, a few things changed. Justin and Matt talked with Joni Schmeichel, Daktronics marketing strategist for OOH advertising, to hear about those changes, trends in the industry and the good things that we’ve seen since then.

• Daktronics OOH Webpage: https://www.daktronics.com/en-us/markets/out-of-home-advertising

As people get back out there and attend live events again, Justin and Matt checked in with Nick Schmeichel, President and Owner of Sideline Productions, to see how things are going with the live events industry when it comes to his display and production rental business. We discuss the recent SnoCross events as well as how events are coming back in 2021.

• Sideline Productions Website: http://www.sidelinemediagrp.com/
• SnoCross Website: https://snocross.com/ 

Taking care of a video display might not be at the top of your mind when making the initial purchase. To hear a little about maintaining a display, Justin and Matt talked with Gary Smith, Daktronics Project Manager Southeast region and former long-time field service engineer. He explains how he did systems checks, shares helpful tips and talks about interesting experiences he’s had in the field.

• Video Product Maintenance Guide: https://daktronics.widen.net/s/mvmutqv86u/guide_video-product-maintenance-guide 
• Extreme weather guide: https://daktronics.widen.net/s/m7dnfrcfcm/flyer_vandalism-and-extreme-weather-service-guide 
• 5 top displays surviving the obscure blog post: https://blog.daktronics.com/2017/03/03/top-5-led-displays-surviving-the-obscure/

As technology advances and more video displays are used to communicate, we take a look at how these advancements are affecting today’s high schools. To share their expertise and insight, Justin and Matt are joined by Kyle Sydow, Daktronics High School Market Manager, Lisa Silveira, Daktronics Product Marketing for Digital Signage and On-Premise, and Jody Huntimer, Daktronics High School Strategic Marketing Manager. In this conversation, we cover digital trends at high schools for sports facilities but also other opportunities to communicate via digital signage inside and outside the school.

• Digital Trends Video: https://daktronics.widen.net/s/tzgpkmxwbs/daktronics-school-of-the-future

Event production skills learned in high school can help students at the next level. To hear an example of this, Justin and Matt spoke with Becky Hoch, Media Academy Director at Papillion La Vista High School, and Aidan Cho, former Papillion student and current student at the University of South Dakota. They share details of their video board production and implementation, the manual Aidan created and much more.

• Papillion La Vista High School Project Photo: https://www.daktronics.com/en-us/photos/details?pn=WP-21141&cid=PLSBNE-005
• Daktronics Crew Connect: https://daktronics.widen.net/s/r83b7wthta/cutsheet_crew-connect_hs

When clarity matters for critical decision making, your video technology is extremely important. Nobody knows that better than those Inside the Joint Medical Operations Center (JMOC), as well as John Sublett, Director of Federal Sales for Crown Point Systems, and Andrew Stone, Program Manager for Solute. They join Justin and Matt to talk about the narrow pixel pitch project for the JMOC, their experiences with Daktronics and more.

• Crown Point Systems website: https://www.crownpointsystems.com/ 
• Solute website: https://solute.us/ 

We’ve made it to 100 podcast episodes! And what a better way to celebrate than talking with Tim Jackson, General Manager, and Steve Richards, Director of Ballpark Entertainment of the Round Rock Express. We talked about them needing to get creative last year with how they used their new displays and their facility when the pandemic hit as well as how they hosted different types of events, how they did it safely, and how they have to think of new ways to activate sponsorships going into this year.

• Daktronics Photo Gallery
• CMT Granger Smith Concert “It looks likes this is how we concert now” article.
• Round Rock Express Website
• Round Rock Express YouTube Channel

The madness is about to begin! As such, Justin and Matt sat down with Val Arias and Brandon McRae, Daktronics account service managers, to talk about the bubbles for the upcoming college basketball championships in Indiana and Texas. They share how Daktronics is involved with LED technology and support at certain venues, including the host of the men’s and women’s championship games at Lucas Oil Stadium and the Alamodome, respectively.

• Daktronics News Release: https://www.daktronics.com/news/Pages/Daktronics-Venues-Supporting-College-Basketball-Madness.aspx

A new baseball season is almost ready to swing into action and that means ballparks are also getting ready to turn on their systems for 2021. Justin and Matt are joined by Stephanie Walker, Daktronics live events services manager, to hear some tips for getting your systems up and running, things to check for, content and control system considerations, and more.

• Royals Crownvision upgrade: https://twitter.com/Royals/status/1353734381270130689
• Royals news release: https://www.daktronics.com/news/Pages/Upgraded-HDR-Capable-LED-Technology-from-Daktronics-to-Improve-Experience-for-Kansas-City-Royals.aspx
• Rangers news release: https://www.daktronics.com/news/Pages/Texas-Rangers-Introducing-Nine-LED-Displays.aspx
• Product Maintenance Guide
• Control system start-up & shutdown procedure
• NEW Baseball Essentials Package
  • MLB Package
  • MiLB Package

Capturing people’s attention as they pass by is one aspect while entertaining them while inside is another. To hear how LED displays play a part in both aspects, Justin and Matt talk with James Fuchsel, Sign Consultant for La Crosse Sign Group; Alan Harper, Executive Account Manager for AVI Systems; and Chris Ebben, Attractions Director for Wilderness Resort.

• La Crosse Sign Group Website: https://www.lacrossesign.com/
• AVI Systems Website: https://www.avisystems.com/
• Wilderness Resort Website: https://www.wildernessresort.com/