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Daktronics

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Daktronics, Inc. is an American manufacturer of electronic scoreboards, LED video displays, and related timing, scoring, and messaging systems, based in Brookings, South Dakota. Founded in 1968 by two South Dakota State University engineering professors, it is a publicly traded company (NASDAQ: DAKT) and one of the principal suppliers of large electronic displays worldwide. Within aquatics it long supplied swim-timing consoles, touchpads, and start systems built around its OmniSport consoles, but it has since wound that line down; its current aquatic offering is mainly scoreboards and video displays.123

Part of the Daktronics hardware documented in the equipment reference is aquatic timing gear built around the company’s OmniSport timing consoles.

History

Daktronics was founded in 1968 by Aelred J. Kurtenbach and Duane Sander, both electrical-engineering professors at South Dakota State University; the name is a contraction of “Dakota” and “electronics.” An early aim was to keep engineering graduates employed in South Dakota.14 The company raised its first capital through a local stock offering in 1969, and in 1970 delivered its first product, an electronic voting-display system for the Utah state legislature.4

Its move into sports came after South Dakota State University’s wrestling coach asked for a better scoreboard; that wrestling scoreboard led to a broader line of programmable displays. A Daktronics scoreboard was used at wrestling during the 1976 Summer Olympics, and the company supplied displays for the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, by which point annual sales had passed one million dollars.14

Daktronics listed on the NASDAQ market under the ticker DAKT in 1994 and expanded into video displays, digital billboards, dynamic message signs, and sound systems, with manufacturing in Brookings and additional facilities in Sioux Falls, Redwood Falls (Minnesota), and overseas.12 The company describes itself as employing more than 2,500 people with displays in over 120 countries; its fiscal-year 2024 reporting listed 2,422 employees and revenue of about 756 million dollars, so the marketing “2,500+” figure is somewhat higher than the reported headcount.21

Products

Daktronics designs, manufactures, sells, and services electronic display, timing, and scoring equipment across many sports, with a dedicated aquatics line.25

  • Scoreboards & video displays, fixed-digit scoreboards in multisport, swimming, water-polo, and auxiliary configurations, and full-color LED video boards. Aquatic models use a silicone coating to protect the LEDs from pool moisture.5
  • Aquatic timing & scoring, the OmniSport timing-console line and its touchpads, start systems, and relay platforms for swimming, diving, water polo, and synchronized (artistic) swimming, interfacing to meet-management software such as Hy-Tek Meet Manager. Daktronics has since discontinued this swim-timing line (see In swim timing).563
  • Other sports, beyond aquatics Daktronics supplies scoreboards, timing, and video displays for sports including football, basketball, baseball, hockey, and track.2

Individual Daktronics aquatic products are catalogued in the equipment reference: the OmniSport 2000 timing console, the head end of a Daktronics swim-timing system, and the earlier OmniSport 1000 and OmniSport 6000 consoles it succeeded, together with the T-7000 series touchpads that sense each lane’s finish, the backup pushbutton that backs it up, the RTOP relay take-off platforms that judge relay exchanges from the blocks, the HS-200 Horn Start that starts the race, and the lane speakers mounted under each block. Scoreboard models are added as those pages are written.

In swim timing

Daktronics is one of a small number of major aquatic-timing and scoring manufacturers, alongside Colorado Time Systems, Swiss Timing (Omega), and Seiko.7 Its aquatics offering centers on the OmniSport 2000 console, which collects finish signals from in-lane touchpads and backup buttons, receives the start pulse, runs the race clock, drives the scoreboard, and prints results, and which also scores judged diving and water polo through wired and wireless judge consoles.65

Daktronics has largely withdrawn from swim timing. Its two earlier consoles, the OmniSport 1000 and OmniSport 6000, are discontinued and no longer documented by the company. The OmniSport 2000 is still listed on an active support page, but its ProSwimming, ProDiving, and ProSyncro software interfaces are discontinued and no longer available for purchase, with Daktronics directing customers to its professional services rather than selling new swim-timing software; the aquatic touchpads, relay take-off platforms, and start systems likewise appear among the company’s discontinued-product resources.36 Installed OmniSport 2000 consoles are still supported, and Daktronics continues to make aquatic scoreboards and video displays, but it no longer markets a current swim-timing system.65

In competition

Daktronics scoreboards and video displays have been used at multiple Olympic Games, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, and later Summer Games, and are widely installed in collegiate, professional, and municipal venues.14 The company says it has manufactured tens of thousands of video displays for customers in more than 120 countries.2

See also

References

Footnotes

  1. Wikipedia, Daktronics. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  2. Daktronics, About Us. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  3. Daktronics, Swimming software support (“Daktronics ProDiving, ProSyncro, and ProSwimming interfaces are no longer available for purchase and have been discontinued”). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  4. FundingUniverse, History of Daktronics, Inc.. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  5. Daktronics, Aquatics scoreboards & video displays. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  6. Daktronics, OmniSport 2000 console support. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  7. Wikipedia, Aquatic timing system. ↩

Last updated July 27, 2026.