Think you've got a big HDTV? Panasonic is currently working on a little something -- actually, a lot of something -- for the Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The company is planning to add a giant video screen there for racing fans to ogle over. Giant is actually an understatement, considering this whopper weighs in at 165,000 pounds and measures 200-feet wide and 80-feet high. Of course, you can't just pick up a mount on Amazon for that sort of thing, so a 500,000-pound steel frame was built to handle (literally) the job. Construction on that massive structure was just completed this Thursday.
"We are so excited for all the fans to come here for the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race and the Coca-Cola 600 and see just how big this TV is," said Marcus Smith, president and general manager of Charlotte Motor Speedway. "Our fans are going to love it. They're going to have a great time and they just will not believe how exciting the racing will be when they can watch it both in front of them on the track and catch all the action on the television screen. It's literally the biggest Fans First initiative in our history."
To commemorate the frame's final girder, it was signed by Smith, Richard Ballard, the VP of sales for Panasonic Enterprise Solutions Company, former Dallas Cowboy Ed "Too Tall" Jones, and all of the project's workers. The girder, measuring 40-feet wide with a 10-foot depth of bracing steel, was also adorned with an American flag, before it was hoisted over 110 feet in the air.
"We opened the new stadium in Dallas two years ago that had the largest TV in the world up until today, so I wanted to see it," said Jones, a former All-Pro defensive end. "The one in Dallas was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen in my life, but this one just kind of tops it all."
The frame may be finished, but the screen is still a work in progress. Crews from Granite Contracting and Parker Crane Service of Concord, N.C., Mid-Atlantic Construction of Charlotte, N.C., and Eastern Sign Tech of Burlington, N.J. are all currently working on this part of the project. The next step is to add the 158 panels that will make up the 16,000-square-foot screen. After that, they will add 13 sub-electric panels and more than nine million LED lamps. Yes, sports fans,
Once the project is completed, the plan is to have the thing certified by the Guinness Book of World Records before it's hoisted 110 feet above the track, and placed on the steel support.
Panasonic that will debut the giant screen during Charlotte Motor Speedway's 2011 May race events. It will be centered along the backstretch between Turns 2 and 3, right across from the start/finish line.
If you want to get your own peek at this HD beast, frontstretch tickets offer the best views of the new HD video board and pit road. Those start at $49 for the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, or $99 for two tickets to the Coca-Cola 600.
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