Houston Rockets to unveil new 'IMAX theater' scoreboard in home opener ... - OregonLive.com

Sean Meagher, OregonLive.comTerrence Jones is one of four rookies on the Houston Rockets this season.

When Houston Rockets fan enter the Toyota Center for the team’s home opener against the Portland Trail Blazers on Nov. 3, they’ll see what the Rockets are calling the “largest indoor center-hung scoreboard in the United States.” It’s part of a $15 million project that was part of Houston’s bid to host the 2013 All-Star Weekend.

The scoreboard has four screens â€" two 25-foot-high-by-58-foot-wide panels facing the sidelines, and two 25-by-25-foot panel facing the baselines.

“This new scoreboard is quite simply going to be the best in-class among indoor arenas in the country,” Rockets CEO Tad Brown said in a statement.

Brown told the Houston Chronicle’s Jonathan Feigen, “We wanted to make sure we created a better experience. We think this is going to put us on another level.”

Added senior productions manager producer Joe Abercrombie, “This thing will be like an IMAX theater. Our approach is changing to a more cinematic approach for everything from our intros to our pregame videos to our timeout videos. We want everything to feel like you’re watching a short film. The board is just a board, a piece of equipment. What’s played on the boardâ€"that falls on our shoulders.

“I’m not saying we won’t do the ‘get loud’ moments. We want people to walk away with memorable images in their head. We want them to think, ‘That video was amazing.’ We want them to go on YouTube to find it. We want them to remember not just the board but the content they saw on the board."

A skeptic might say, however, that the Rockets’ new mega-gadget isn’t even the biggest scoreboard in the state of Texas, never mind the U.S. There’s a larger one at Cowboys Stadium , after all

"The board will be the largest in an arena in the U.S.,” Rockets spokesman Nelson Luis told Yahoo! Sports.

“The Dallas board is much larger, but we do view that as an outdoor board since it has a (retractable) roof. Our designation was for arenas in the U.S."

Fair enough.

The Rockets, meanwhile, shook up their roster this offseason, and not much is expected from them on the court this season.

Feigen puts it this way: “We don't really have any idea what the team will actually look like on the court this year. But we do know, at least, that they'll be easy to see from pretty much anywhere in their home arena.”

-- This article originally appeared on SportingNews.com