Today the RBC Center officially unveiled its new video production facilities, including a new $4.3 million Daktronics “scoreboard”. The display actually consists of 12 video boards and two ribbon boards.

According to the fascinating CanesVision blog all summer, today was crunch day, as the entirely new production room had to be in place to operate the video boards in the adjacent Carter-Finley Stadium, which hosts a nationally-televised football game tomorrow night.

The video board is impressive, and it appears that the equipment will enable CanesVision to do much more than before. The crew needs to be careful with layout, however, as the display can easily stumble into looking more like a “jumbletron” (look at the hideous mess in Knoxville, for instance. What was that score, again?).

In the official photo at the RBC Center’s website, there are 26 discrete items one can see from the viewer’s angle. The ribbon boards are especially confusing as team logos from one “side” are adjacent to team logos from another “side” (in this case, an empty black zone would delineate the scoreboard facades better than a white stripe on the constant red background, guys). The original purpose of the scoreboard was to deliver key stats to the fans and players, and this purpose cannot get lost in a well-done display.

Hopefully the crew has what they need, too, to deliver good in-game basketball stats. The previous displays offered no more information than we got in the Greenboro Coliseum 35 years ago. They only occasionally offered paltry player stats of Points and Fouls, and only for players currently in the game. Team stats were only offered for a few seconds at halftime and during select timeouts. It would be great if the CanesVision crew can offer as much data as the United Center offers its fans.

The first official chance we have to see the boards in action comes two weeks from Friday, when the Hurricanes host the Predators in an exhibition game. Be sure to check the roofcam this week as the ice is being painted.