Southern California’s newest arena is pulling out all the stops to stand out in the crowded market. On Friday (July 19), Intuit Dome (home of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers) unveiled its advanced center-hung board, which spans nearly a full acre. The flexible board will be utilized for basketball games, concerts and special events held at the Inglewood venue.
The Halo Board, as it has been dubbed, is one of the largest double-sided halo displays in an arena setting, curving around the top of the dome at 38,375 sq. ft. It is the equivalent of nearly 3,600 60-inch TV screens with 233 million LEDs.
Clippers owner Steve Ballmer told the media at a press conference on Friday (July 19) that he traveled around the globe looking at various scoreboards to develop his vision for the Dome’s Halo Board. He admired the board at AT&T Stadium in Dallas and told Halo Spots & Entertainment CEO Gillian Zucker to “make it bigger.”
With a video board, “you could say, ‘Hey, it’s just a thing that’s supposed to be there to be impressive’ – almost like some artwork,” said Ballmer. “But I didn’t want that and wanted to make sure that thing was totally functional, that it really added to the game.”
Ballmer, the former CEO of Microsoft, explained that he wanted the board to be functional for every fan. In order to reach every seat in the house, Zucker explained, “We actually had to map every single pixel and every single seat.” The Halo Board hangs high above the basketball court, leaving enough space between itself and the floor to avoid obstructing sightlines for any seat in the 17,700-seat arena. Every seat in the house will be able to see both exterior and interior screens on the board, allowing for a wide range of visible content.
The Halo Board will display gameplay, statistics, instant replays and audience moments for sporting events, and fans can interact with it via a light-up, four-button controller situated on their armrests.
The Halo board can also be utilized for concerts at the venue; artists can use the entire board or fold up the ends on either side to enhance sight lines.
“It is available for artists to use if they want. We have some standard software [where we] tried to make it easy for them to put their content up,” said Ballmer. “We think some artists will use it and some artists may well not use it because it doesn’t fit the way they think about things. But we wanted to have some extra area for acts to be able to enhance their concert experiences.”
Prior to the Clippers’ home opener, Intuit Dome will host more than 20 concerts. The venue’s grand opening will feature a two-night residency from Bruno Mars on Aug. 15 and 16. That will be followed by comedian Sebastian Maniscalco, Marc Antonio Solis and two nights of Olivia Rodrigo. Peso Pluma, Twenty One Pilots, and Future and Metro Boomin will close out the month of August.
Looking ahead, NCT DREAM, Slipknot, Grupo Frontera, Bujo Banton, Usher, Weezer, Billy Joel and Ana Gabriel are also scheduled to appear at the new arena.
