Coca-Cola used a hand-picked team of British designers and technical experts, who spent over a year working to create one of the biggest and most intelligent signs of its kind and allows The Coca-Cola Company to deliver cutting-edge entertainment to transform the face of the world's most famous billboard. Lighthouse's Simon Taylor explains the strict brief: "There could only be a gap of a 1mm (maximum) between panels ensuring it was completely seamless. We have also down-angled the LEDs by 15°, so that the cone of maximum brightness is directed towards street level where people are viewing from, rather than straight ahead which would waste energy and not have such a dramatic effect."
As the giant covers screening the site were finally removed, Londoners were able to see Britain's biggest permanent LED display. It's an 'intelligent sign', with state-of-the-art computer technology, built-in cameras and even an on-board, heat sensitive weather station.
Processing is via three Lighthouse LIP KX (Lighthouse Interface Processor), that take analogue RGB input signal and output a high-speed serial digital signal for display on the LED screen panels. The LIP provides diagnostic feedback, as well as control of brightness, contrast, gamma, colour balance and gamut of the screen. This, along with Lighthouse's proprietary M4 uniformity control, allows fault reporting to be done remotely and can monitor LED, fan speeds and power supply. This is all designed to ensure that optimum brightness is achieved, whilst maximising the life of the LED, all in an environmentally friendly way. "This is the first installation to report data on the LEDs and screen components," continues Taylor. "From this, we can start to build up accurate reports on the degradation of the LEDs and thus estimate the lifetime of the screen."
This innovative and groundbreaking intelligence is set to transform outdoor advertising. For the first time in its history, the Coca-Cola sign, in the heart of Piccadilly Circus, is able to interact with people on the ground, recognising colour and movement in the crowd. The sign - which is three times bigger than the previous Coca-Cola sign on the site - can even adapt its messages according to the weather, with its special sensors recognising rain, wind and heat.
(Lee Baldock)
