Gilmer High School’s new video scoreboard is up for board approval Wednesday.
Details about the scoreboard, which will be installed at Huff-Mosley Memorial Stadium, were unveiled at Monday’s board of education work session.
The school system posted an invitation to bid with specifications in mind, eight companies responded and six formally submitted bids.
Plainview LED emerged as the top company with video board dimensions of 21’x36.75’. The cost is $440,103 with a 10-year warranty (including lightning protection) and can be integrated with Huff-Mosley’s lighting system.
“It will be like looking at a 1080p or 4K television,” said Dana Berry, director of human resources and facilities. “We’ll literally be able to do movie nights at the stadium, gaming competitions, videos for graduations, and we can utilize instant replay.
“Other things we looked at were instillation and time lines. We wanted to make sure we had this installed by graduation. Cost was certainly a consideration. Plainview LED has visited us 10 times at no charge to really learn what Gilmer County is about, as well as what we wanted in our LED board, and what it could do for our community, as well as our high school.”
Berry and a contingent from Gilmer made their way to Chattanooga to see what Plainview LED had to offer at Red Wolves’ soccer stadium.
They also got to see a scoreboard from Formetco in action, who was a finalists along with Plainview LED. Formetco’s video board came in at a cost of $495,819 with a five-year warranty (no lightning protection) and was unable to be implemented with stadium lights.
“After this exhaustive process, we came back and met with a committee here that was comprised of the superintendent (Dr. Brian Ridley), Bob Soesbee (director of operations and maintenance), Paul Standard (head football coach), Carla Foley (GHS principal) and Emily Plumley (board of education clerk/executive administrative assistant). From there, we selected Plainview LED Systems.
“One of the things that we wanted to make sure of, when spending this much on a LED board, and for everything we’re going to use it for, that it is state-of-the-art technology, and we’re not buying something that’s on its way out.”
The school system is also looking to install video scoreboards at the GHS gym that will hang down in the center of the facility. They are still waiting on the engineer’s report.
The scoreboards will be funded by the 2015 special-purpose local-option sales tax earmarked for renovations and improvements at GHS athletic facilities.
Once approved by the board of education, more information regarding the scoreboards will be available in next week’s Times-Courier.