Jumbotron

A Jumbotron, sometimes referred to as Jumbovision, is a large-screen television using technology developed by Sony, typically used in sports stadiums and concert venues to show close up shots of the event. Although JumboTron is a registered trademark owned by the Sony Corporation, Sony stopped manufacturing the devices under that name in 2001 and the word jumbotron has since become a genericized trademark.

Design

Manufactured by Sony, the JumboTron is recognized as one of the largest non-projection video displays ever manufactured. Originally, it was not an LED (light-emitting diode) display – each display consisted of multiple modules composed of 16 or more small flood-beam CRTs (cathode ray tubes), each of which included from 2 to 16 pixels composed of red, green, and blue phosphors. Sony displayed one of the earliest versions at the Expo '85 World's Fair in Tsukuba. It was actually Mitsubishi Electric that pioneered the development of large-scale video screens, having begun manufacturing and installing Diamond Vision large-scale LED display systems in 1980. That year, the first Diamond Vision board was introduced at the 1980 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.