I’m as baffled as you are that it’s taken so long, but it seems someday we still might get the stadium we’ve all known architecture really needs: Turkey’s Burasapor soccer team, nicknamed the "Green Crocodiles," could soon be getting an architectural masterpiece, a structure that will rival the greatest palaces of the last 200 years, even outdoing the timeless proportions of the Acropolis. It is a coiling green crocodile with blazing spotlights in its eyes.
Because most of us will never take the literal leap of jumping off a damn plane, here’s POV footage from the Leap Frogs aka the Navy’s parachute team. For the San Diego Padre’s home opener, the jumpers took off in a plane and landed right smack inside Petco Park. You can hear the roar of the crowd grow louder as they get closer.
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There are very few stadiums in the world that leave you truly speechless when you walk in. Maracanã is one of them. The other one is Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu, the best club of the 20th century. The famous coliseum is getting a major remake. It looks like a spaceship about to start abducting people.
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The future of gaming? Huge stadiums, like those for football and soccer, with cavernous interiors and screaming fans. That’s the vision of Kansas City-based architects Populous, designers of sports venues all over the world, including London’s 2012 Olympic stadium.
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Everyone at the August 17th NFL preseason game in Houston’s Reliant Stadium will be treated to humongous images of sweaty athletes, thanks to the venue’s monstrous scoreboard. According to Reliant’s officials, the new HD monitor isn’t just any enormous display, but the widest one in professional sports. We’re talking about several connected boards measuring 277.17 x 52.49 feet as a whole, with each display covering 14,549 square feet and boasting a 5.28 million pixel resolution. That’s more than 100 feet wider than Dallas Cowboy’s LED setup, enough for Reliant to usurp its throne as the widest screen in football, and largest in Texas. Due to the scoreboard’s gigantesque real estate, it can show not only side-by-side live feeds and replays, but also statistics and advertisements during a game. Unfortunately for the folks at Houston, the stadium can only hold the record for a year. Jacksonville’s Everbank Field will debut an even longer 301 x 55 feet scoreboard in 2014, and Charlotte Motor Speedway still holds the overall sports record with its 200 x 80 foot screen.
[Image credit: Houston Texans, Twitter]
Via: Houston Texans
Source: Houston Chronicle
The 49ers may not have won the Super Bowl, but at least fans will have something to look forward to during the 2014 season. The brand new Santa Clara Stadium, which boasts 68,500 seats and an estimated $1.2 billion construction cost, is expected to pack the country’s most powerful WiFi network. The new installation is being overseen by two Facebook IT alumni, and is expected to feature roughly one terabit of overall capacity. According to an Ars Technica feature, every attendee will be able to connect to the network simultaneously, without bandwidth restrictions. That figure is dependent on more devices offering 5GHz compatibility, which seems reasonable considering that the stadium won’t open until late 2014. And, if arena-grade equipment is ready in time, the network will be 802.11ac compatible, though it will also support 802.11n, along with 11a, 11b and 11g, regardless.
Such a network is a key component of any modern structure, and if the team pulls it off, they might want to consider taking on some consulting gigs — as Samsung has proven time and again, the company can’t manage to keep press conference attendees online during major launch events, despite months of planning and unsurpassed budgets. Cellular signals will be boosted as well, with support for all carriers, just in case customers opt out of the free WiFi offering. For a more in-depth look at how the 49ers might pull it off, check out the Ars piece at the source link below — it’s a solid read for sports fans and infrastructure junkies alike.
Filed under: Wireless, Networking
Source: Ars Technica
Sound and time: two things that fly by pretty fast — and many an Engadget editor have been known to make time zip by faster with Klipsch headphones. While the company showed us its latest ear-gear in the fall of 2011, it’s kicking off 2013 at CES with a focus on speakers. It was a year ago when we checked out a mockup of Klipsch’s Stadium AirPlay speaker, and it’s finally poised to hit shelves in the coming months. Part of its Music Center lineup, the visually striking, wireless 2.1 system (pictured right) hasn’t changed aesthetically, but the company does have more to share when it comes to specs and availability. In addition to AirPlay, it’s now loaded with DLNA and Bluetooth, with compatibility for aptX. The Stadium is loaded with a duo of 5.25-inch subwoofers, a pair of three-inch woofers for mids and a pair of 1-inch “horn-loaded” tweeters to handle the highs. Now word on price just yet, but north of $1,500 (yes, you read right, audiophiles) wouldn’t be a bad guess when it arrives this summer.
For those looking solely for Bluetooth connectivity in a semi-portable package, Klipsch’s KMC3 (pictured left) might be the ticket. This 130-watt system features a 5.25-inch subwoofer and a pair of two-inch full-range drivers. Naturally, an 3.5mm input lets you plug your devices in the old fashioned way, while on integrated USB port can be used for charging your devices. Sadly, there’s also no word on price for the KMC3, but it should arrive a bit sooner in the spring. Klipsch says it has more planned for the Music Center this year as well, so we’ll keep you posted when we hear more. More details in the press release after the break.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Audio/Video
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