Digital signage in its many forms is establishing a worldwide presence. From the grand stage of the Summer Olympics in China, to a local subway station in Canada, systems are in place to inform, educate and entertain viewers seemingly anytime, anywhere.
Where once there was doubt as to whether people would even allow digital signage into their everyday lives—let alone react positively to its presence—the medium has quickly earned the trust and acclaim of the general population as an efficient, exciting means of acquiring information.
Some recent projects in various countries show how digital signage is making a name for itself around the globe as a fast, reliable, desirable part of electronic communications systems.

Luxury Theaters

Client: Showcase Cinema De Lux
Provider: Beaver Solutions
Web: www.beaver-group.com

Beaver Solutions, part of the Beaver Group, has partnered with Showcase Cinemas to provide the digital signage in three luxury theaters in the UK. Showcase Cinemas is a brand of U.S.-based National Amusements and specializes in luxury, state-of-the-art cinemas, creating what it calls an “exciting lifestyle destination.”

With the Cinema De Lux concept, Showcase designed an enhanced recreational environment and chose digital signage to help offer a premier customer experience, providing movie posters, trailers, box office screens and menu boards that are elegantly displayed and can be easily updated.

Sanyo 42-inch LCD Panels and Vogels wall brackets are used throughout the cinemas (in Derby, Leicester and Bristol) in a variety of landscape and portrait positions. The high-definition RGB signal is delivered to the screens through structured cabling, using Scion Pro9000 transmitters and receivers. All the hardware was chosen for purpose and installed by Beaver Solutions.

Scala InfoChannel 5 is used to play and distribute the content to the screens, as well as handle the scheduling of playable channels on the content manager server. The screens receive content from player servers based on-site at the cinema. Through an Internet connection, these players can be remotely accessed from any location. “We wanted a cinema that wasn’t ordinary, and now we have one unlike any other,” says Robert Steel, vice president of strategy and development, National Amusements.
The Derby and Bristol cinemas also include HD projector systems as well.

Center Stage at the Olympics

Client: 2008 Summer Olympics, Beijing
Provider: Apcus Technologies
Web: www.apcustech.com

Spectators in the Bird’s Nest Stadium and home viewers alike were mesmerized by the Opening Ceremonies at this year’s Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. Among the stars of the show, along with the precise choreographed moves of the stage performers, was new LED lighting technology that had only been seen before in the movies.

From the giant LED video displays, to the bright Olympic Rings, to the colossal center stage, LED lighting made a lasting impression at this year’s Olympic Games. Apcus Technologies and Beijing Leyard were a big part of the show, supplying more than 1,300 square feet of a product called the Ground Bar, a unique LED display that can be walked, danced, and even driven upon.

The Ground Bar display features Nichia LED technology with 3,500 nits of brightness and a durable magnesium/aluminum alloy casing. It was used, literally, at center stage for the ceremonies. “We have only just begun to see what our Ground Bars are capable of. You can expect to see them incorporated into venues such as walkways, nightclubs, even modeling runways,” says Maria Crisp, Apcus Technologies general office manager.

Ground Bars are a next-generation marketing channel for advertisers, she says. They can display static, video and even interactive images, presenting audiences with a fun, engaging and entertaining form of advertising.

‘Biggest Physics Experiment in History’

Client: European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Large Hadron Collider
Provider: Adder Corp.
Web: www.adder.com

Adder, a leading developer of KVM switches, extenders and KVM over IP solutions, provided the extension technology used in the control room of the ATLAS experiment of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

Built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the LHC is a large scientific instrument near Geneva, where it spans the border between Switzerland and France about 100 meters underground. It is a particle accelerator used by physicists to study the smallest known particles—the fundamental building blocks of all things.

The ATLAS detector is one of four main detectors on the LHC. “We are thrilled to be part of the biggest physics experiment in history,” says Nigel Dickens, Adder’s technical director. “CERN’s $3.8 billion investment can’t leave video resolution to chance. Adder provides that critical viewing experience.”

The high video and audio resolution and compact size make the Adder audio/video/data receivers an ideal solution for CERN’s ATLAS control room, the company notes. Two-dozen AdderLink X2-Gold units provide the control room with a clear view of the bid to recreate the Big Bang.

The AdderLink X2-Gold has been designed to provide video clarity, audio quality, compatibility and high rack densities. Adder’s UK-based partner, AIT Partnership Group Ltd., was instrumental in the success of the installation, the company adds. Having been briefed by CERN as to the nature of the requirements, Ian Martin, data center consultant for AIT Partnership Group, specified Adder’s X2 Gold extenders. “When faultless video and audio extension is required, the Adder solution is hard to beat,” Martin says. “It’s great to see the technology being put to use in such an important project.”

Innovation Comes Full Circle

Client: Parker Hannifin corporate headquarters, Cleveland
Provider: Karen Skunta & Co.
Technology: DynaScan 360-Degree LED Video Display
Web: www.dynascanusa.com

Given the opportunity to design a series of exhibits for the new 97,000-square-foot addition to the Parker Hannifin corporate headquarters in Cleveland, Karen Skunta, president and creative director of Karen Skunta & Co., looked for the newest and most innovative technology to display information about the company, a manufacturer of motion and control technologies.

She chose to integrate a DynaScan 360-Degree LED Video Display to present Parker Hannifin’s global reach through its unique customer service concept: the ParkerStore. “We needed a special vehicle in the new innovation wing that would speak to the innovative way ParkerStore ties-in with keeping customers satisfied and providing them with just-in-time, around-the-world service,” Skunta says.

Glazen Creative shot a two-minute video specifically for the DynaScan display that depicts customers from around the world assisted by ParkerStore’s management. Actors portraying ParkerStore managers speaking German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Hindi and English were hired to show the “global reach of ParkerStores, Skunta says.

Parker’s Innovation Area was designed to create a sense of motion to complement Parker’s position as “the global leader in motion and control technology.” One exhibit area features a pinwheel configuration with each wall highlighting different guiding principles, innovations and strategies at Parker.

The walls of the pinwheel are curved into individual waves, which complement the flowing wave-shaped ceiling throughout the area. Combining print and digital media, visitors are led through a series of presentations that are designed to engage, inform and challenge. An Inspiration Lounge provides an area where employees and their guests can meet together and brainstorm in an informal space.

Using the cylindrical shape of the DynaScan as an architectural element, the life-size LED display was the perfect fit for the project, creating a bright visual focal point for visitors as they enter the space and explore the dynamic exhibits, Skunta says. According to the company, the DynaScan 360-Degree Video Display is “...seen by employees and visitor alike, and is drawing a great deal of attention.”

Subway Riders’ Wait Abated

Client: Koodo Mobile
Provider: TAXI 2
Technology: iGotcha Media interactive software
Web: www.i-gotcha.com

Koodo Mobile and agency of record TAXI 2 are transforming usually uneventful waits for a subway train into an opportunity for entertainment by allowing commuters to interact with out-of-home advertising displays.

“Where’s Koodo?” is an interactive game that can be accessed by touching the backlit display screens in any of 12 kiosks located in six of Montreal’s subway stations. The game encourages users to search for one of the iconic Koodo characters amongst a cluttered, illustrated urban landscape and communicates the benefits of Koodo’s new Nationwide Talk & Text rate plan.

With the new, proprietary interactive digital signage software developed specifically by iGotcha Media for MetroMedia Plus, which sells media in the Montreal subway, commuters, in addition to playing “Where’s Koodo?,” are also able to navigate through Koodo Mobile’s phone and additional rate plan information.

“We were excited to lend an element of interactivity and engagement to what can otherwise be a fairly sleepy part of one’s daily routine,” says Lance Martin, creative director, TAXI 2, Toronto.

“Learning from the great success we’ve seen with the interactive touch-screens at our Koodo shops, we jumped at the opportunity to bring elements of this experience and more to consumers through a mass advertising channel,” says Jennifer Robertson, director of marketing communications for Koodo Mobile, Quebec. “We feel we’re giving consumers the chance to find out more about Koodo and have a little fun at the same time.”

MetroMedia Plus recently completed upgrading 12 kiosks in six of Montreal’s busiest subway stations (Berri-UQAM, Place-des-Arts, McGill, Peel, Henri-Bourassa and Bonaventure) to use the iGotcha Media software. Each kiosk’s interactive display uses 42-inch LCD screens and an innovative through-glass touch technology that allows users to control the screen’s content.