Matsushita again supplying screen

Publication Date: 06/12/02

A corporation with local ties is helping to alleviate a problem that faces many spectators at the Great American Brass Band Festival — seeing the stage.
With thousands of visitors every year, the Centre College Main Stage, located at the bottom of the grassy hill between Old Centre and Cowan Dining Commons, can be difficult to see from a distance. 
Electronic appliance manufacturer Matsushita, which has a branch factory in Danville, is again providing a giant television screen that will 
simultaneously display the events on the Main Stage.

The Panasonic Astrovision screen is 17 feet high and 15 feet long. It is the same model as the famous screen that dons a skyscraper in New York City’s Time Square.
“This thing is huge,” said J.D. Lewis, vice president of administration for Matsushita in Danville.
Astrovision screens were also used at the Winter Olympics this year in Salt Lake City and the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
Lewis said Matsushita and its subsidiary Panasonic are glad to have something to offer Danville’s largest public event. “From a company standpoint, we’re happy we can make a contribution,” Lewis said. “Since there’s so large a crowd, it’s really hard to see, and this adds another dimension to it.”
Lewis said a contribution like the big screen is a way for a national organization to show its appreciation for its individual factory communities.
“Matsushita is always interested in being involved with cultural events that take place in communities where (a factory) is located."