SYRACUSE -- It's been a summer of construction inside the Carrier Dome, all to enhance the Syracuse University fan's game experience.
Two brand new 21'x66' video boards were finally turned on for the media on Tuesday, along with an LED board that displays the time and temperature, and 360 degree ribbon lighting that surrounds the third level façade of the Dome.
The imagery is crystal clear, and the Dome will look much more futuristic when SU fans take to the Dome on Saturday at noon when SU takes on Northwestern in their season opener.
"This whole project was part of the enhancement of the game experience," says Executive Director of the Carrier Dome Peter Sala. "When you see the ribbon board, we had the video board on this side of the building east end, it is unbelievable. You don't realize how big that board is down there until you have the old board on and you have them on at the same time and you'll be like this is so different."
Meanwhile, in the age of social media, texting and other cell phone technology, the goal now is to also make the live game a truly interactive experience for the fans.
"The boards have the capability of taking tweets, says Sala, "people are interacting with our Facebook page. We will have people that will be able take that and put that up on the board as we receive them."
And while Sala, and everybody involved with the project at SU, are thrilled with the new look, they're even more thrilled with the amazing fact that all this new technology will actually use less energy than before. While the two endzone boards are now twice the size of the old ones, they will use pretty much half of the energy as before.
