Data Studio vs Sportswire 4000 vs GameSlate for out-of-town scores
Three ways to put out-of-town scores on a Daktronics board, and they are not the same kind of product. Two of them stream data into templates your crew builds and runs. The third hands your board finished pages. Here is what each one covers, based on Daktronics' documentation, and who each one fits.
Sports Wire 4000
Daktronics' long-standing out-of-town scores software. It connects to one data provider at a time (NFL, NHL, Pointstreak or Stats Perform) and covers NCAA Division I football, men's and women's basketball, the NFL, CFL and NHL. Scores go out to the display controller as real-time data, typically Enhanced RTD over UDP, into templates built in Daktronics content tools. It is licensed yearly, and college data is sold per sport. Daktronics lists its NBA and MLB drivers as end-of-life.
Data Studio
Where Daktronics moved the leagues Sports Wire no longer covers: NBA, G League and WNBA out-of-town scores come through Data Studio Basketball NBA, and MLB and MiLB through Data Studio Baseball. Data Studio Baseball's out-of-town outputs are documented as Enhanced RTD (up to 8 games expanded, or up to 18) over UDP, or multi-drop for numeric boards, with a 10-second default hold. Same model as Sports Wire: data into templates your crew configures.
GameSlate
An independent product that replaces the template workflow instead of the feed. It renders finished out-of-town pages in the venue's own look and writes them to the content share Show Control already plays, updating within about a minute all game with nobody driving it. Football and men's and women's college basketball are on one license at $4,950 per venue per season. It does not cover pro leagues today and is not a Daktronics product.
Side by side
| Sports Wire 4000 | Data Studio | GameSlate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What reaches the board | Data into templates | Data into templates | Finished pages |
| College football, hoops | Yes, per-sport data | Ask Daktronics | Yes, one license |
| NBA, WNBA, MLB | End-of-life drivers | Yes | No |
| Who keeps it running | Your crew | Your crew | Runs itself, texts on failure |
| Vendor | Daktronics | Daktronics | Independent |
Which fits
Pro venues and anyone showing NBA or MLB scores are in Data Studio either way. College venues on Sports Wire that are happy with their templates and have someone to run them can stay put. College venues that want the out-of-town board to stop needing a person, or that are about to buy a second sport's data package for basketball, are who GameSlate is built for. Venues on Daktronics Camino have dynamic out-of-town templates in that package already. More in every Sportswire 4000 alternative compared.
Quick answers
What is the difference between Data Studio and Sportswire 4000?
Both stream data into templates on Daktronics systems. Sports Wire 4000 covers college football and basketball, NFL, CFL and NHL; Daktronics moved NBA, WNBA and MLB out-of-town scores to Data Studio.
Does Data Studio replace Sportswire 4000?
For NBA, G League, WNBA and MLB out-of-town scores, yes: Daktronics lists those Sports Wire drivers as end-of-life and delivers them through Data Studio. Daktronics' documentation still lists Sports Wire 4000 for college and other leagues.
Sources
- Daktronics KB: Sports Wire 4000, supported sports and data providers
- Daktronics KB: Data Studio Baseball, configuring out-of-town outputs
- Daktronics KB: How to set up and edit a Sports Wire 4000 output
- Daktronics blog: graphics and data packages for college sports
See it on your own ribbon
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