In Odense, one of Denmark's largest newspapers, Fyens Stiftstidende, has recently moved its head office to the centre of the main city, situated opposite Hans Christian Anderson Square, in a new building, of which the façade is made almost entirely from glass.
Fyens wants to let its customers know what the company does, as it not only produces a newspaper, but is also a radio station and advertising bureau. For this the company turned to DDD who worked in conjunction with the architects to install a Lighthouse LED video screen on the side of the building. This displays news to the city as it's produced by the journalists inside the building.
"We looked at various solutions including plasma screens and rear projection," explains DDD's Kristian Glahn. "But it became apparent that LED was the obvious solution." As the screen was going to be viewed outside, the brightness levels needed to be adequate to cope with direct sunlight, as well as a fine enough resolution to allow close viewing distances. "Fyens compared various products, including a Barco screen with a lower resolution," continues Glahn, "but Lighthouse's P10i/o LED screen was the best. This is due to the SMD design of the panels, which gives a fine resolution, and the superior viewing angles."
The 10mm pixel pitch screen measures 5.12 x 2.88m, is in 16x9 ratio format and is positioned with the bottom of the screen at first floor height, so the distances and angles were of particular importance to Fyens. Not only that, but because the front of the building is made entirely of glass, there were only a few points at which the screen could be attached and access to the rear of the screen for maintenance is not possible. "Hanging the screen was a particular challenge," continues Glahn. "We worked closely with a firm of engineers who designed a system that enables the screen to swing out from the front of the building to allow us to maintain it.
"The database system that enables news to be grabbed automatically from the journalists inside the building and instantly displayed on the screen was supplied by one of the Danish National TV stations, but DDD has also supplied a streaming system that allows this data to be streamed over a network of potentially 12 screens around Denmark owned by Fyens."
Meanwhile elsewhere, 81 panels of Lighthouse R10 LED video screen is being put to use by Arhus-based Pro Shop, who work extensively in the exhibition and corporate markets as well as media systems and outdoor events. "We now have a stock of Lighthouse LED screen and associated processor (the LIP KX0 and scaler X Drive Pro) to enable us to work extensively in our target markets," says Pro Shop's Soren Holmriis. "The R10 is ideal for us because it can be used both indoors and outdoors, is viewable down to 10m distance, and can even go down to five or six metres and still be adequate. The colour reproduction is good, which is important for many applications. All of this together makes it a very versatile product."
"We've got all 81 panels pre-booked for the FIFA World Games in Germany next year," adds Homriis, "so we're confident that we're going to get an extremely good return on our investment." Pro Shop also has 36 panels, a total of 11m2, ready to for its first outing to Cologne in October for Danish food retailer Arla Foods' stand at the Anuga exhibition.
"These are two very different applications for our 10mm screen," comments Lighthouse managing director Mark Chan. "We are pleased with the way our products are being embraced by so many different market sectors. This is due to our commitment, innovative approach, quality and customer support and we look forward to this conti
