Ran with fact box "Super system", which has been appended to the end of the story.

Fans who arrive at General Motors Place for Vancouver Canucks games will have new high-resolution graphics to watch on the scoreboard and on a new ribbon board that runs around the building.

Orca Bay Sports & Entertainment has signed a multi-million dollar deal with Daktronics, a South Dakota-based supplier of electronic scoreboards and computer-programmable displays, to provide and install the new displays.

The Vancouver arena will be the sixth NHL venue to have a Daktronics super system that incorporates video, scoring and game information on multiple displays, including the overhead scoreboard.

Twenty of the NHL's 30 arenas use Daktronics equipment.

Other venues using this system include Montreal's Bell Centre, Dallas' American Airlines Center, Phoenix's Glendale Arena, and Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, N.J.

The centre ice scoreboard will use Daktronics' high-resolution ProStar light emitting diode (LED) technology. The four video displays on the scoreboard will be 24 feet long and 14 feet high, with a resolution exceeding 300,000 pixels per screen.

The four main video displays are flanked by smaller LED displays presenting scores and statistics, as well as circular ProAd displays above and below the main video screens.

The ribbon board, also known as a power ring, runs the circumference of the arena, where out-of-town scores, graphics, video clips, messages and revenue-generating advertising messages can be projected.

The GM Place power ring will be located in front of the 300 level of seats, running 950 feet in circumference and two feet high.

Harvey Jones, Orca Bay's vice president and general manager of arena operations, did not return calls, so no one would comment on the price of the system, cited in a Daktronics press release as a "a multi-million dollar enhancement."

Daktronics, which began in 1968, has installed 2,500 ProStar, ProAd and ProTable display units at sports, entertainment and commercial venues. The company's scoreboards are currently used in 70 countries on six continents, and users include the winter and summer Olympics, the PGA, and professional and college hockey, baseball, basketball and football leagues.

Daktronics technology is also used in airports, train stations, bus and ferry terminals displaying travel information, and electronic voting and display of results during elections.

mandrews@png.canwest.com

SUPER SYSTEM

The new Daktronics video display system at General Motors Place will have:

- Four video displays on the overhead scoreboard, 24 feet long by 14 feet high.

- Each screen has a resolution exceeding 300,000 pixels per screen.

- LED displays 13 feet, 6 inches by five feet, flanking the main video displays.

- A 950-foot-by-two-foot "power ring" display running the circumference of the arena that shows scores, graphics and advertising.