The Tsongas Center is the home of UMass Lowell River Hawks hockey — a program with a passionate fanbase and a venue that, until this summer, was working with display hardware that no longer matched the energy inside it. When UMass Lowell set out to replace the center-hung and ribbon displays, they brought in Anthony James Partners (AJP) as technology consultants and UberDisplays to design, manufacture, and install the new system. Construction started in August 2025. The home opener was non-negotiable.
The centerpiece of the install is a four-sided curved center-hung display built with custom 3.9mm LED panels — seamless, convex, and visible from every seat in the arena. Flanking it are two 305-foot LED ribbon displays at 10mm pixel pitch that encircle the venue, keeping fans connected to real-time stats, sponsor content, and crowd prompts no matter where they're sitting. All told, 2,913 square feet of LED and nearly 7.9 million pixels, powered by NovaStar H9 processors and a LynTec Power Controller for automated sequencing and monitoring.
UberDisplays also partnered with Josh Echo-Hawk of Sports Graphics Now to produce custom sports graphics for the River Hawks — making sure the content library matched the hardware. The system launched on time, and the River Hawks skated out to a fully operational, fully branded display environment from day one.
A four-sided convex center-hung is one of the more demanding display builds in collegiate sports. The curve has to be exact across every panel seam; any gap or misalignment is visible from every angle in the building. And this wasn't a new construction project with a flexible timeline — it was a replacement. The old hardware had to come out, the new system had to go in, and everything had to be calibrated and live before the River Hawks' preseason home opener.
UberDisplays manufactured the center-hung using custom 3.9mm LED panels engineered for the convex curved configuration. The install team coordinated directly with AJP, Phoenix Signs, and Mercier Electric to sequence the demolition and installation across multiple trades without losing time. Ryan Washburn, UberDisplays' Senior Project Manager, called it "an exceptional effort that involved numerous contractors all working in unison."
The Result: The four-sided curved center-hung came in on schedule — seamless, calibrated, and running River Hawks content in time for opening night. No delays, no compromises on the build.
Ribbon displays look straightforward until you're actually installing them. Running 305 feet of continuous LED around the interior of an arena — twice — requires precise structural coordination, consistent panel alignment across the full length, and a content system that can drive the entire ribbon as a unified display surface. Do it wrong and you get visible seams, dead zones, or a ribbon that never feels like one coherent display.
The UberDisplays team installed both 10mm ribbons as part of the same compressed summer build window, running parallel to the center-hung install. The full system — center-hung and both ribbons — is controlled through NovaStar H9 processors with LynTec power sequencing, giving operators precise, automated control over every zone from a single workflow.
The Result: 610 combined linear feet of ribbon LED, installed clean and operational alongside the rest of the system. Every seat in the Tsongas Center now has a sightline to live game content.
A display upgrade is only half the equation. If the content library doesn't match the hardware — wrong aspect ratios, stale templates, graphics that don't read at arena scale — the investment in the display system doesn't fully land. College hockey has a specific visual energy, and the River Hawks' new centerhung deserved content built for it.
UberDisplays partnered with Josh Echo-Hawk of Sports Graphics Now to develop custom sports graphics tailored specifically for the River Hawks and the Tsongas Center's new display configuration. Echo-Hawk built a content package designed to match the resolution and format of the curved centerhung, with the gritty, kinetic energy that fits a college hockey atmosphere.
The Result: The River Hawks went into their home opener with a complete content system — not just new hardware waiting for old graphics. The display and the content launched together, the way it should work.
"UberDisplays was outstanding to work with on our recent LED replacement project. From the bid process through final installation, we consistently felt like their top priority. That high level of service carried through every touchpoint — sales, project management, installation, and everyone else we interacted with. The entire experience was smooth, collaborative, and genuinely enjoyable."
— Keith Vaske, District General Manager, Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell
