Photo Gallery: Introducing the New Rupp Arena Video Board

Story by Metz Camfield, CoachCal.com

Gone are the days of “Big Bertha,” four standard definition videoboards in the corners, yellow lights and static advertising signs. Rupp Arena has the technology, and it showed it off Sunday afternoon.

Among the improvements to the historic arena that is celebrating its 40th anniversary year, is a new Daktronics center-hung videoboard, a new sound system, new venue video production equipment, an LED courtside scorer’s table display, an enhanced rigging grid for concerts, new eastside/upper arena camera platform and energy efficient LED fixtures for basketball games. Rupp Arena also painted all the HVAC ducts and structural support towers blue.

The biggest and most notable change to Rupp Arena is of course the new center-hung videoboard. The video array, which is 34 feet wide and 28 feet tall, replaces the honeycomb-looking cluster of speakers known to Kentucky fans as Big Bertha. 

The new video array features four rectangular boards measuring approximately 15 feet tall by 25 feet wide, and four triangular boards between each of them, which are 15 feet tall and six feet wide. A ring display sandwiches the top and bottom of the main displays. The top display is four feet tall and 126 feet long, while the bottom display is three feet tall and 116 feet long. The new video array and new sound system figures to amplify the game day atmosphere at Rupp Arena in a major way.

With the addition of a new LED courtside scorer’s table display, the former scorer’s table display will be moved to the radio/TV side of the court. The new LED light fixtures give a much cleaner, white light to the gym.