MTA and Clear Channel had originally experimented with plasma screens for the sites, which are at eye-level on top of the railings surrounding the steps leading down to platform level. But the wide variations in ambient light levels and other physical factors led them, through UDN, to look at LED technology. Says Williams: "Plasma did not reach the accepted levels of brightness in daylight hours, so we looked at a number of different manufacturers' LED screens, including Lighthouse, whose products I was familiar with as VP of Ad Art. Having looked at their latest screens I visited the factory in China. Seeing how well put together the screens are, and the attention to detail of the engineers, the decision to go forward with the Lighthouse product was an easy one."
The screen model chosen is the latest LVP0620 (6mm pixel pitch, 2000 Nits brightness) that employs Lighthouse's M4 technology and includes 13 bit processing, uniformity control and full remote diagnostic feedback. A 2000 Nit screen might seem unusual to select for an outdoor environment, but in New York City there are tall buildings all around the sites which makes the brightness quite sufficient - and the colours are spectacular. When our first screen was installed the chairman of Clear Channel Outdoor came to look at it. He walked up from a block away and said that it looked to him like a plasma screen only brighter: that's how good it was."
The content delivery process is all-digital and extremely fast, with the ads sent via the Internet from Clear Channel in New York to UDN's Las Vegas office. There, the advertising content is play scheduled using the Webpavement sign operating system and web-based server, edited (if necessary) by UDN's creative department and finally uploaded to individual screens via the Verizon wireless connection. "We can remotely administer the system from anywhere - Las Vegas, for example - and the open architecture means we were able to customize the functionality to our specific needs," adds Williams.
Each screen is fitted with an omni directional WiFi-Plus Ultra-M antenna, which had proved to give the best performance on the Manhattan streets, a demanding environment because of the multiple obstacles of buildings, cars and pedestrian traffic. The screen housings were specially fabricated to cope with the extremes of weather from subzero winters to boiling summers, "along with all the extracurricular activities that happen in New York," says Williams. All cabinets and electronics are completely enclosed with special tools required to open them. They have created an instant response from New Yorkers, with the journal Media Week quoting Tim Stauning, president of Clear Channel Outdoor New York, as saying: 'It's like outdoor [advertising] on steroids'.
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
