Unusual things that show up on electronic scoreboards
Anyone in technology knows that sometimes things happen, and there is no reason or rhyme of explanation for it. In the world of technical support, a ‘glitch’ can occur, never happen again and the conversation usually ends with “well, it’s a mystery”. While there are actual reasons, it would usually take too much time to figure it out. Sometimes things happen on electronic scoreboard displays. The manufacturers take every situation seriously and will always fix a problem.
We rely on technology in every aspect of our lives. You have to admit, technology is mostly pretty good, with only a few things happening that will try to ruin our day. The importance of an electronic scoreboard in any venue is pretty obvious and this technology has to run perfectly from the get go. Whether it’s a big game between two rival teams or a music concert, today’s electronic scoreboards attract the attention of every attendee and the special effects keep their attention. Any little ‘glitch’ is not only irritating but down right embarrassing.
Typically, an individual is assigned to run or ‘operate’ an electronic scoreboard and will put it through a series of maintenance checks before any game or event. Colors, lights, numbers, pixels, audio and video are just a few of these checks. If there is a streaming feed, additional cameras are checked along with wireless connection to the net and social media pages which will then feed over to everyone’s smartphones. Any problems in the connections are caught and repaired before a single fan walks through the gates.
The technology has achieved a level that is so in depth that each manufacturer now has a collection of programmers that code new features and their research and development teams test and retest before anything is released. Like any other technology, it is impossible to simulate every potential application until it’s in the field. Once in a while one of those ‘mystery’ situations happens and these are enough to make every ‘controller’ crazy. These situations may include a line of text that isn’t centered properly or is crammed too close with the line above it; or even some of the text that suddenly changes to some kind of special character or hieroglyphic. One of the more unusual displays included a sudden appearance of a dog tag icon that would show up and disappear. These are typically easy to repair and manufacturers often have a download that will take care of these and any other problems that may have been discovered.
Our society is progressing with technology at a speed of light pace and as consumers we take for granted that everything is going to work as planned. This is not a perfect world and having a small and unexpected ‘glitch’ just may be a way to stop us in our tracks, give us a moment to stop, think, laugh and remember that these are all created by people. Because, overall, the displays that we see every time we walk into the sports arena are not only pretty darned good, they are absolutely great.
