As the 2024-2025 school year commenced, Hart Public Schools implemented new technology across campus. Freshmen entering the high school were not the only “fresh blood” that could be found around the school. One of the newest additions to the complex was the new Scorevision Scoreboards. There has been talk about getting new scoreboards for a couple of years because the middle school needed an updated one, but such additions can be quite costly. However, after much discussion, it was decided that the high school would update its system, allowing the middle school to use the old high school scoreboard and adding the second older scoreboard to the high school auxiliary gym.
Hart’s “tech guys,” Jason Gale and Phil DeBrot, found a company that makes LED walls that can be turned into scoreboards. They then learned how to install the walls themselves, making the process a lot more affordable. The LED screen used as the new scoreboard is made up of small cabinets with LED panels attached. The bigger scoreboard consists of fifty square cabinets that are 20 inches x 20 inches, and the smaller one consists of 15 of the same size cabinets. One positive fact about the new board is that if one of the small LED cabinets breaks, only one of the cabinets has to be replaced instead of replacing the whole board.
The brain (which is similar to the back of a TV) is in a separate room that is connected to the board. There is scoring hardware installed that communicates with the LED wall processor to display pictures controlled by iPad apps. The Hart Media class makes content on the Cloud, which is transferred to the screen. There are multiple iPads needed to make it run. One controls the score, and one controls the media. In the future, more can be added that could display replays and highlights of the game.
Throughout the school day, the board is set on rotations of different pictures, and in the future, sponsors’ logos will be displayed up there. Hart High School student and JV volleyball player Taylor Kies spoke on the new scoreboards, saying, “I really like the hype videos that were played before the volleyball games.”
Following the Scorevision investment, the school also obtained new “robots” that can be seen helping with outdoor work on campus. One is used to paint all of the sports fields, and another cuts the grass. The school’s groundskeeper has close to 30 acres of grass to cut, so the robot has come in quite handy already this fall. When speaking with tech guy Mr. Gale, who helped set up the robots, he said, “Robots can't miss work and can work whenever we want them to.” The mower robot also mows the tips of grass, which is healthy for the grass, unlike cutting a lot off when the grass gets long.
The turf tank robot also paints all types of fields for Hart’s sports programs. When the football team was getting ready for their first game, it took about 40 hours and about six guys to get the field fully painted. With the new robot, it only takes about 4 hours and less than half of the amount of paint to do the whole field. This helps the groundskeeper get a lot of other work done while these robots are doing that preparation work. As robots are not humans, however, someone watches the painter while working on the field in case it needs paint in the tank or if the battery needs charging, but they do not have to paint every line by hand.
As the school year continues, the community will see the new technology in action at a lot of sporting and other events, including volleyball, basketball, wrestling, and other activities going on in the gym.
