Bethlehem (Pennsylvania) Area School District (BASD) high schools are engaging football fans at BASD Stadium this fall with a full-color video board manufactured by Watchfire Signs.
The 16mm video display, specified and installed by Bartush Signs Inc. of Orwigsburg, Pa., measures 8’ x 16’, and is integrated with the stadium scoreboard. It enables the district’s high school teams to engage fans with live videos, messages and crowd prompts, and gives the school district an additional opportunity for a sponsorship revenue stream.
“Students and fans from both Liberty High School and Freedom High School love the new video board,” said Fred Harris, athletic director at BASD. “There’s a lot of excitement in the schools and in the community about everything we can do with this display.”
The video board replaced an old, failing digital display that hadn’t been used for a couple years. School administrators are working now to integrate the new digital board into the high school curriculum, so students can be involved in developing content to showcase in the stadium and in operating the video board.
There also are plans to offer sponsorship opportunities to local businesses. Today, messages are shown from St. Luke’s University Health Network, a regional health system that helped the district purchase the board.
“The trend in high school stadiums is to install video boards with fixed digit scoreboards or to upgrade to all digital scoreboards that can be used for any sport,” according to Matt Freiwald, a sales representative with Bartush Signs, who worked with BASD on the upgraded sign. “Schools realize that these boards, in addition to creating a professional environment, can be great revenue generators to defray the cost of the boards,” he said.
Bartush Signs has a long history with BASD, including installing a Watchfire digital messaging center at the entrance to Liberty High School.
“Bartush has been a great partner and we’ve been very happy with our Watchfire sign,” said Harris. “It’s important to work with companies that produce great products and support them after the sale.”
BASD is the sixth largest school district in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania with an enrollment of approximately 14,000 students.
