Inside Michigan football's new scoreboard, lights and audio system

The installation of the new scoreboards, among other upgrades, at Michigan Stadium is nearly complete and they’re quite large.

The structures, which reside in exactly the same positions as before at the north and south ends of the stadium, are 179 feet wide and 62 feet tall — 85% larger than the previous boards (109 feet by 55 feet). The video boards themselves are 152 feet by 55 feet; that's a 118% increase from the old boards (85 feet by 45 feet).

U-M officials said each board, by itself, would be the nation's third-largest, behind only Auburn's Jordan-Hare Stadium and Purdue's Ross-Ade Stadium. However, as the Wolverines also pointed out, those fields only have one scoreboard.

THE TIME IS NOW:As fall camp begins, Michigan football is J.J. McCarthy’s team

JO, YEAH!Michigan football flips 2024 three-star cornerback Jo’Ziah Edmond from Purdue

Although it is nice to have the biggest and flashiest equipment — even if it is just a scoreboard — Michigan assistant athletic director Kurt Svoboda said that was not the catalyst for the $41-million dollar project, which also included $8 million in production room upgrades, $5 million to upgrade the audio system and $4 million in “permanent safety additions for access” of the boards.

"There's multiple factors, both in the video display that you see but also in addition to all of this, we did a total refurb of our Crisler production studios," Svoboda said. "All of the equipment that goes into there, all of the cameras, and so when you have parts that naturally break over the course of a decade, we found that they became increasingly difficult if not impossible to replace, to repair, to source.

"So at a certain time, you're talking about this was an actual need of the stadium, This wasn't 'how do we spend more money, how do we go bigger, bigger, bigger,' it wasn't that at all."

It might not have been the intention, but it was certainly the result.

Each board needed two new massive columns, which weigh 60-70 tons apiece, to support the structure; they were transported on trucks from Mount Joy, Pennsylvania.

That was arguably one of the most laborious parts of the process as workers — 40-50 on site at a time, with a combined 13,000 man-hours in steelwork alone and more than 35,000 feet of cabling — have been drilling the foundation since winter.

As for the function of the boards, the plan is to use the additional space to have more in-depth stats available to fans during games, as well as show other games' scores more consistently, to compete with the at-home experience.

"We're really trying to prioritize what's done for the fans," said Jake Stocker, U-M's director of game presentation and fan experience. "Using this new technology to make it a better fan experience, knowing that people can't always connect to their cell phones at Michigan Stadium, so we're giving them that experience.

"They're able to see that same stuff that, if you're pulling up your phone, you're going to be able to see."

Furthermore, they're much higher definition that the boards installed in 2011, now capable of handling somewhere between 4K and 8K resolution (though it's not an exact comparison, given LED resolution is measured differently than a standard TV).

"It's a night-and-day difference," said one project leader who walked media through the renovations but asked not to be identified. "The pixel density is increased significantly."

Meanwhile, the upgrades to the audio system include new concourse speakers as well as a new system in the south scoreboard. That, combined with the upgrades in the production room, will allow audio engineers more flexibility with the sound at the stadium and the ability to control individual aspects in the stadium.

The Crisler production room — which not only runs the videoboards at Michigan Stadium but is the main production room for U-M's sites for hockey (Yost Ice Arena), baseball and softball (Ray Fisher Stadium), field hockey (Phyllis Ocker Field), soccer (Michigan Soccer Stadium) and lacrosse (U-M Lacrosse Stadium) — is also getting a full renovation.

Because the bid for the contract came in under budget, the athletic department had enough money left over to upgrade the video boards for the baseball, softball, field hockey and soccer sites, plus Cliff Keen Arena (which hosts volleyball, wrestling and men's gymnastics). The boards are expected to last "at least 10 years" before upgrades, though it isn't expected they'd need to be fully replaced.

Although there's still notable work to be done on the south end zone, Svoboda said, "it will be ready" in time for the Wolverines to kick off their season vs. East Carolina on Sept. 2.

For starters

Matchup: Michigan (13-1 in 2022) vs. East Carolina (8-5 in 2022), season opener.

Kickoff: Noon Sept. 2; Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor.

TV/radio: Peacock (online only); WWJ-AM (950), WTKA-AM (1050).