The 55” DynaScan LCD videowall features a custom-built, heat-regulating enclosure to protect it from outside elements.
Park Place in Barrie, Canada is known for engaging its shoppers. The new outdoor mall is home to a large communal fireplace that encourages patrons to take a break, socialize, and keep warm. To complement the existing social space, they recently added another jaw-dropping element to the mix: an eye-catching, show-stopping digital signage display designed and installed by Advanced, a leading North American AV integrator. The result is a stunning solution that can remain bright in the sunshine of the summer and withstand the harshness of the winter.
“We were determined to help Park Place achieve their vision without breaking the bank. Given the close viewing environment at hand, outdoor LED display technology was out of the question. We had to figure out a way to bring a high resolution indoor display outdoors, and we were able to do so,” explained David Weatherhead, President of Advanced. “After a significant amount of research and a degree of creativity, we designed and installed a unique 2 by 2 matrix of 55” DynaScan LCD videowall panels that is extremely high 3000 nit brightness, with a seamless, super thin 3.5 mm bezel-to-bezel, inside of a custom enclosure to protect it from the weather. This customized solution remained within budget, and delivered a truly spectacular HD display.”
Because of the outdoor environment, utilizing specialized high brightness videowall panels was crucial to the success of the project. Advanced selected a DynaScan display because of its robust and unique LCD panels that provide a brightness of 3,000 Nits, opposed to the average LCD brightness of 500 Nits. Additionally, the LCD option creates a very seamless look, with one large image in high resolution, which is extremely unique for an outdoor application. “This is a rare outdoor solution that is extremely high-resolution,” Weatherhead emphasized. “It’s not often that this type of seamless picture is experienced on a display outdoors.”
Since the DynaScan LCD videowall is meant for indoor use, Advanced had to design a custom solution that would protect it from Canada’s severe outdoor elements. To do so, they partnered with Batko to design a custom enclosure that was weather-proof, tamper proof and temperature regulating. The customized enclosure effectively manages the heat of the video wall, consistently keeping an optimal temperature inside. “The climate in Canada is completely unpredictable,” Weatherhead explained. “We essentially engineered a solution that protects an indoor display and prevents the enclosure from overheating due to the heat dissipation of the high brightness displays.”
Advanced also had to customize a content distribution solution. The Park Place mall central office, where the content was to be transmitted from, was approximately 600 feet away from the display itself. “We quickly discovered that the only way to send the signal from the office to the display was with fiber optic cables,” Weatherhead explained. “We worked with a manufacturer to design a completely customized fiber optic cable solution to run from the video processor to the display, and we were able to transmit the signal, despite the far distance.”
Additionally, Advanced installed a videowall processor with 4K inputs instead of the traditional “daisychaining” configured with most projects of this nature. The specialized processor allows Park Place to add displays in the future, if they so choose. “We also configured the processor to work with a Crestron control system, which allows Park Place employees to control the display’s content easily and remotely from a touch panel,” Weatherhead said. “Controlling content on the display is as easy as the swipe of a finger.”
Now, Park Place uses the display as an enticing focal point for shoppers, and as a source of advertising revenue. They broadcast live sporting events, and they sell ad space to the mall’s retailers. “We are thrilled that we were really able to design a custom solution for our client,” Weatherhead concluded. “There is nothing better than being able to design a custom solution that checks off all of the boxes in a challenging outdoor environment.”
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