The world-renowned Rose Bowl hosted the year’s most anticipated college football game this season—the BCS Championship game—as well as the “granddaddy of them all,” the Rose Bowl. For each game, nearly 95,000 college football fans in attendance looked to the spectacular new Lighthouse LED screen for game action replays, sponsor messages and entertainment.

The college football season is filled with big games, but no game equaled the BCS Championship game on 7 January, pitting the two top-rated, undefeated teams in America, the Alabama Crimson Tide versus the Texas Longhorns. And though the historic Rose Bowl’s sheer size prevents it from being considered an intimate venue, the stadium’s new Lighthouse LED screen delivers a video experience to each fan that feels like watching high-definition television in the family room with 95,000 of your closest friends.

“Lighthouse is honored to be such an integral part of the Rose Bowl,” said Ed Whitaker, Lighthouse N.A.S.A director of sales. “Our advanced LED technology complements the history and tradition of the venue.”

Throughout both the Rose Bowl and BCS Championship games, content alternated between dedicated local feeds and the primary network feed, enabling the Rose Bowl control room staff to choose between live game action, slow motion replays, crowd shots and animation.

Network feeds of the live game action brought the Rose Bowl crowd closer to the action than possible prior to installation of the giant 10.16m (w) x 8.38m (h) Lighthouse R7-ER LED screen. Game-speed, slow-motion and stop-action replay were crystal clear, adding a startling intimacy to the electric atmospheres of both games.

“The screen’s 1,408 pixels wide by 906 pixels high dot matrix sets an impressive standard for high-resolution sports venue broadcasting,” Whitaker continued. “The screen’s 6,000 nit brightness is more than enough to overcome the bright California sun and, with a 2,000:1 contrast ratio and 281 trillion colors, every play explodes from the screen.”

Fortunately, for all involved, one key benefit of the Lighthouse screen was never put to the test. “The R7-ER is excellent in adverse conditions,” explained Whitaker, “but like the song says, it never rains in Southern California. So we had to content ourselves with flawless video delivery in a perfect environment.”

Considering the Rose Bowl’s past and Lighthouse’s reliability, such unchallenged excellence is likely to continue. “We’re pleased our video display performed as expected during such high-profile events,” said Whitaker. “It’s a testament to our technology, build-quality and installation expertise. And it’s indicative of things to come.”