Metinteractive Upgrades AV Systems at UCONN’s Gampel Pavilion Basketball Facility

Metinteractive, which provides strategic solutions for architecture, communication and technology, furthered its relationship with the University of Connecticut (UCONN) at Storrs by upgrading AV systems at the Gampel Pavilion basketball facility to deliver an improved fan experience.

Gampel Pavilion is the latest in a number of projects Metinteractive has completed with UCONN, including UCONN Freitas Volleyball, Toscano Hockey arena, the student rec center, the university’s Athletic District Development and exhibits for the UCONN Hartford campus.  Metinteractive also supplies the majority of UCONN’s on-site AV game support.

“UCONN is our home team – we’re big Huskies fans,” says Jeff Mele, Metinteractive’s Chief Commercial Officer and Project Executive for Gampel Pavilion.  “As taxpayers in the state, it’s also important to us to see that tax dollars and donor dollars are spent wisely.

“Gampel Pavilion is part of the continuing effort to standardize and connect facilities across all sports on the UCONN Storrs campus,” he explains.  “Facilities that are fragmented often require more support and more initial capital expenditures due to their individual, complete systems.  Although standardization and connectivity add complexity, the long-term results are lower costs and greater operational flexibility.”

Gampel Pavilion’s geodesic dome structure “makes it unique in the NCAA spectrum,” he notes.  Inside, the upgrade added new and improved LED videoboard displays and replaced old inner bowl seating.  Metinteractive updated Gampel Pavilion’s existing broadcast system to enhance the university’s live production capabilities and planned for the future by tying Gampel Pavilion to the Rizza Performance Center’s control room enabling a second basketball show to be produced there when Gampel Pavilion’s control room cannot accommodate people shooting for in-house and major broadcast simultaneously.

“We were tasked with optimizing live production by installing an up-to-date broadcast system and integrating with their existing infrastructure.” says Eric Pirozzi, an Integration Technician at Metinteractive who served as Project Manager for Gampel Pavilion.

The control room was outfitted with two larger ElationLogic DV65 monitors, a Ross Ultrix router, Ross XPression motion graphics render engine, an Evertz DreamCatcher DC-ONE replay platform and a master clock for AV synchronization.

Metinteractive installed fiber to connect the control room to two much larger Daktronics LED videoboards mounted at each short end of the court and integrated a Ferrofish Pulse16 MX AD/DA converter with the displays’ video content.

“We have an extensive roster of work in sports facilities nationwide and have such a great relationship with UCONN that it made this project go very smoothly.” says Pirozzi.  “It’s always a pleasure to return to UCONN and work with David Kaplan and Evan Feinglass.” 

UCONN Director of Athletics David Benedict thanked Metinteractive “for the incredible work” they did in updating Gampel Pavilion.  “The new graphics, lighting and videoboards have truly transformed the venue, and the improvements are already making a noticeable impact.  Metinteractive’s attention to detail and dedication to enhancing the experience for everyone who visits Gampel is evident in every aspect of the upgrade.” 

He goes on to cite Metinteractive’s “hard work, creativity and commitment to excellence.  We’re excited to see the positive effects these updates will have on both fans and teams alike.  It’s clear that Metinteractive’s efforts have set a new standard for what this space can offer, and we couldn’t be more thrilled with the results.”