Cooler Than T-Shirts: The 76ers Buy New Image Projection Technology

Did you think hot flame throwers shooting out of the goal posts was tame? Is Big Bertha just not big enough for you? Have you run out of room for free t-shirts? If this is the case, this news on the latest attempt at improving the game atmosphere at the Wells Fargo Center is just for you.

As first reported by Scott Soshnick of Bloomberg News, Joshua Harris and his ownership group have purchased Quince Imaging's cutting edge projection-mapping technology for use in pre- and post-game activities at the Wells Fargo Center (for the 76ers) and Prudential Center (for the NHL's New Jersey Devils). The Sixers join the Cleveland Cavaliers as NBA teams to currently own the technology.

The Cavs debuted the projection-mapping technology at Zydrunas Ilgauskas's jersey retirement ceremony in March. Take a look here; it's pretty amazing:

Liberty Ballers had the opportunity to discuss this technology with Quince Imaging COO Scott Williams. "Other entities have tried to do this. But the fact of the matter is that projection image mapping where you project onto a surface and contour the imagery to a surface is relatively new," Williams told me. "It's beginning to be done everywhere. People are using this kind of technology on the sides of buildings, we're doing it on waterfalls. If you can imagine a surface, you can projection-image map it. This is really cutting edge stuff where you use the court as a pixel map and then you can create many, very impactful effects and have a different canvas to communicate."

"Anybody can point a video projector at something. The difference is, does it look great like people saw on the Cleveland Cavaliers video?" Williams said. "What we are providing them is a high resolution, high-bright projection image array that will project onto the court and enable them to build and have content that is new and engaging for their audience."

You can consider this the latest attempt at making games a more rewarding experience to attend in person. The on-court product is lacking, so the game presentation needs to make up for that. And in the age of high-definition, making the show more exciting and enjoyable is a key for getting people to attend games and, more importantly, come back for more and more games.

The Sixers hope the not-inexpensive technology makes a big difference. Williams seemed confident that it would. "We're going to be there, man," Williams said of Sixers home games. "It's going to be awesome and very exciting."