DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — New L.A. Live partner Panasonic is considering three replacement options for the massive center screen at ESPN Zone, one of which would be a prototype 150-inch plasma unit. The technology company unveiled the 150-inch screen one year ago, but has just to put it into production.

The center screen in the sports restaurant's Screening Room has been a source of negative comments since ESPN Zone opened in November. It was assembled from three 103-inch high-def screens turned sideways, creating a single panel roughly equivalent to a 175-inch unit. While that's certainly large, the bezels disrupt the viewing experience, leaving ESPN's favorite split-screen talking heads faceless.

Less than two weeks after Panasonic was announced as a Founding Partner for L.A. Live, replacement plans are moving quickly. At Thursday night's benefit for Pete Carroll's A Better L.A., a staff member at the restaurant said that they were down to three choices, one of which is the massive plasma.

The 150-inch screen, which Panasonic unveiled at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show, is eleven feet wide, a little over six feet high and just one inch thick. It's a 4k unit, meaning that it offers four times the resolution of a typical HDTV screen.