Hockey ice is white because it's painted. Rinks freeze a thin base layer, spray it with white paint, then seal the paint under more ice. The league has done this since the 1940s so fans could follow a black puck. Then someone pointed a projector at it.
It turns out hockey had accidentally built the best movie screen in sports. Matte white paint under a sheet of clear ice diffuses light almost perfectly, and the whole surface is dead flat.
It's also enormous. An NHL rink is 200 feet by 85, about 17,000 square feet. A standard IMAX screen is around 4,000.
A show like this takes roughly a dozen 20,000-lumen projectors hung in the rafters, aimed nearly straight down so the beams don't glare off the ice or bleed into the seats. Software warps and blends all of them into one picture that fits the rink's rounded corners pixel for pixel. The Devils put about $1 million into their rig a decade ago, and arenas across the league copied it.
San Jose was always going to push this furthest. The Sharks have run the most famous entrance in hockey since the 90s, a 17-foot shark head lowered from the rafters with fog pouring out of its mouth and eyes glowing red. For thirty years the players skated out of the tank. Now the whole rink is the tank, and the sharks circling under their skates are just light bouncing off paint that was only ever there to make a puck visible.
What if they had an alternate, adults only broadcast for #NFL games where the announcers wouldn’t have to censor themselves
Instead of @TomBrady being limited to just “ piss missile” we could get some genuine, f bomb-laced coverage
Think about it, @NFLonFOX
Joe Buck:
-classy
-hot wife
-parties with Kenny Chesney Alex Rodriguez and Vince Vaughn
-donated $5 million dollars to childrens hospitals in St Louis
-Nikki Glaser says he is “hilarious” and a “gentleman”
-crashed weddings in the 90s with John Hamm and Paul Rudd
-throws an afterparty in whatever city after every Monday Night Football game
-6 Super Bowls
-24 World Series
-219 playoff games
-the narrator of Millennials sports childhood
-finds the right words and delivers them like an articulate savage
When Joe Buck retires it’ll be a sad day for America.
If you’re not a fan of Joe Buck you’re not a fan of life.
@AdamSchefter@TomPelissero Given how they conduct business what is the likelihood the @Browns were less than forthright on Garrett’s medicals when they agreed to deal him to LA?