Background

Founded in 1963, Oral Roberts University (ORU) in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is a globally recognized and admired Christian university, providing more than 150 higher education programs.

Hailed as one of the most beautiful universities on the planet, with its unique and multi-award-winning across-campus building architecture, the ORU has become one of the most diverse and multicultural college settings in America, with more than 5,000 students from over 145 nations, representing all 50 US states.

Outside of the classroom, the ORU is a strong sponsor for health (including mental), fitness and competitive sports. Home to the Golden Eagles, the ORU represents sixteen national intercollegiate athletics teams, including basketball, baseball, soccer, golf, cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field, tennis, and volleyball, among others.

Encouraging its students to maximize their potential – and aspire to change the world – ORU has a proud history in developing aspiring athletes, with Tyler Artolo Saladino (Chicago White Sox and Milwaukee Brewers), Alexander ‘Chi Chi’ González (New York Yankees), and Jeremy Scott Hefner (New York Mets) among many professional athletes to have started their sporting careers at the ORU.

Challenge

With a commitment to achieving excellence at the highest levels, both on and off the fields, in 2021 ORU decided to build a brand new $15m Athletic Center. Later that year they broke ground to replace the existing “old and outdated” training and academic facility, which no longer provided its students with the best resources to compete on a national level.

Measuring almost 50,000ft² and named in honor of ORU’s Athletic Director Emeritus, Mike Carter, the three-story MCAC is hailed as being among the best facilities in the country, housing basketball practice courts, administrative and coaches offices, and a 10,000ft² indoor sports performance area. It’s also home to the ELI (Education, Learning, Integrity) Academic Center, which includes individual and group study areas and dedicated team rooms.

With technology a key pillar to the university’s strategy and strengths – evident throughout the campus – the MCAC required a range of best-in-class professional display solutions to be installed throughout the new facility, each providing a canvas from which to help educate, inspire and inform students, coaches and faculty teams.

Solution

Starting with a blank canvas, the ORU teamed up with trusted partner NWN Carousel to help realize its ambitions. Following meetings with a long list of manufacturers during InfoComm 2022 in Las Vegas, PPDS emerged as the standout choice to meet their needs.

As the exclusive provider of Philips professional displays, it was PPDS’ range of advanced, highly innovative and flexible digital signage and direct view LED solutions, together with the professionalism and devotion of its team, which made Carousel and ORU’s decision a simple one.

Installed inside the Athletic Center’s ground floor sports performance area were 10 x 43" Philips D-Line digital signage displays. These impressive displays have been strategically placed throughout the gym area, providing full visibility for all workout areas and machines. Running on Android, the Philips D-Line displays were selected to provide maximum versatility to the MCAC team, with screens able to be tailored to meet their exact needs, and all content displayed – plus any updates – controlled and managed entirely remotely, with minimal effort. Displays can also be transformed into a bezel-free 2 x 2 videowall, capable of displaying up to four feeds at any one time, perfect for showing multiple live sporting events.

On the second floor, an unmissable wall-mounted 75” D-Line display features in the Academic Center’s reception area, greeting students as they approach, and providing valuable branding and marketing opportunities to visitors.

A stunning 16ft x 9ft Philips, 1.5 pixel pitch, Philips L-Line 6000 Series dvLED wall stars as the centerpiece for the Academic Center’s Team Room. Capable of displaying content beyond 8K, and supporting refresh rates as high as 3840 Hz, students in the room are guaranteed a smooth and clear viewing experience, with even the smallest details. This ensures an optimum viewing experience wherever a student is sitting in the room.

With precision planning from the start, and regular contact between the site and other installation teams involved in bringing the project to life, the entire project was completed in just two days, halving the originally agreed schedule. The Oral Roberts University Mike Carter Athletics Center officially opened its doors to great fanfare on April 20, 2023, with the installations deemed a complete success by AV/IT teams, coaches, staff and, crucially, the students and athletes.