Jumbotron

ABC Super Sign in Times Square was a very large Sony JumboTron. This unit was later replaced with a Mitsubishi Electric LED display.

The Sony JumboTron made its debut at World's Fair 1985.

A Jumbotron (sometimes called 'Jumbovision') is a large-screen television using technology developed by Sony, typically used in sports stadiums and concert venues to show close up shots of the event. Although JumboTron is a registered trademark owned by the Sony Corporation, the word jumbotron is often used by the public as a genericized trademark. Sony JumboTrons ceased being sold in 2001, when the company decided to exit the business.

Design

Manufactured by Sony, the JumboTron is recognized as one of the largest non-projection video displays ever manufactured. Originally, it was not an LED (light-emitting diode) display - each display consisted of multiple modules composed of 16 or more small flood-gate CRTs (cathode ray tubes), each of which included two to 16 pixels composed of red, green, and blue phosphors. Sony displayed one of the earliest versions at the Expo '85 World's Fair in Tsukuba. It was actually Mitsubishi Electric that pioneered the development of large-scale video screens, having begun manufacturing and installing Diamond Vision large-scale LED display systems in 1980. That year, the first Diamond Vision board was introduced at the 1980 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

Sony creative director Yasuo Kuroki is credited with the development of the JumboTron. Eventually, JumboTron systems adopted LED technology. LED based systems have about 10 times the lifespan of CRT based systems, a key reason for the change.

Deployments

While the Jumbotron and similar large-screen displays are physically large, they were often low in display resolution. The Jumbotron at the now demolished Tampa Stadium in Tampa, Florida, USA, measured 30 ft (9 m) diagonally with a resolution of only 240×192 pixels. Screen size since then varies depending on the venue. The display introduced in 1985 was 40 meters wide by 25 meters tall. Newer, LED-based large screens have 2 or 3 times this early Jumbotron resolution at a fraction of the cost.

The largest Jumbotron in use was located at the SkyDome (now called Rogers Centre) in Toronto, Ontario, and measured 10 m tall by 33.5 m wide (33 ft. × 110 ft.) at a cost of US$17 million. By comparison, a similar sized LED system sold today would cost around $3.0M. The Rogers Centre Jumbotron was replaced in 2005 by a Daktronics ProStar as a part of a stadium revitalization project.

WWE makes frequent use of a Jumbotron, which has been coined the "TitanTron", named after WWE's former parent group Titan Sports. Defunct competitor WCW also made use of similar screens dubbed "TurnerTrons", named after then-owner Ted Turner.

Similar devices

Displays similar to the Jumbotron include:

• Martin Professional LED Screens
• Barco LED Screens
• D3 LED's Dynamic Digital Displays
• Daktronics ProStar
• Mitsubishi Electric Diamond Vision
• Panasonic AstroVision
• Philips Vidiwall
• Toshiba TechnoRainbow