Real Time on the Fly

Each new generation of electronic signage features one installation that stands head and shoulders above the rest. Such is the case with the new multi-screen installation of the worldwide news and information provider Reuter's sign at its North American headquarters on 3 Times Square in Manhattan.

Taking more than 2.5 years from concept to implementation, the project features perhaps the most intricate and noteworthy technology in the storied history of Times Square. Gideon d'Arcangelo, interactive design manager of New York City-based Edwin Schlossberg Inc. (ESI), creators of this masterpiece, considers the technology to be so far advanced that he refers to it as "bleeding edge."

ESI contributed to all three aspects of the display design: system designer Matthew Moore oversaw physical design; Dean Markosian, system design; and d'Arcangelo, content design.

Comprising 11 giant, full-color LED video screens, the system serves as a spectacular communications vehicle for Reuters and its subsidiary, agency broker Instinet Corp., to establish brand awareness.

Reuters wanted a visual vehicle that could choreograph the huge array of news videos, photos, financial data, graphical databases and real-time financial data the company receives, stores and disseminates daily. Reuters recognized that the billion-person audience, passing daily through Times Square, coupled with the dynamic power of LED video, offered a landmark synergy.

Four screens reside inside the Reuters lobby, while seven are configured outdoors into an integrated matrix. David Caruthers, technical operations manager of Mitsubishi (Atlanta), which manufactured the screens, suggested that the outdoor screens must be viewed as one.

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From the top of the largest, 304-ft. screen, to the bottom of the smaller screens, the 7,000 sq. ft. of video image comprise an integrated matrix. Due to a 25mm pitch in the uppermost screens and 20mm pitch in the bottom screens, the image appears seamless from a distance, rather than as seven independent elements.

In some applications, photos appear first at the top of the uppermost screen, then slide down to ground level. The wider pitch at the upper levels accommodates greater viewing distance. As the image slides down near the audience, the pitch becomes tighter to enhance the image.

The total face area comprises 3,643 x 2,500 pixels. The resolution of 9,107,500 pixels, which spans 28 floors, crowns the Reuters installation as the world's largest screen.

Two additional screens will be positioned high on the building to present primarily text messaging visible from even greater distances. These screens will be operated from the same control base, but won't be integrated into the rest of the matrix.

Challenges encourage creativity

The system design's greatest challenge involved smoothly integrating a wide range of formats for daily, automatic, display of thousands of information bits. To accomplish this, Markosian convinced New York City-based lighting company Square One and software development and design firm R/GA into a collaborative effort, which involved such tasks as computer acquisition, platform design, wiring, Internet communication, software creation and implementation. The collaboration resulted in undoubtedly the most complex visual presentation of information ever falling under the label of "sign."

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The system comprises 22 computers — seven communicate with the screens and 15 support the primary seven. The screens continually display a system of 15 inter- laced templates of information.

R/GA's Executive Producer Kip Voytek explained two basic types of templates. The first type comprises six or seven minutes of large, motion-graphic pieces that frequently cycle, and, in some cases, serve as background for graphic information displayed by other templates. The other templates provide more timely information, plucked by Reuters editors from information routed through it daily.

Hundreds of rules imbedded into the code operating the system govern how, when and where information is automatically placed into the templates.

Markosian notes that the system is designed to accept live information routed worldwide into the Reuters system and directly beamed onto the screens, without any hands-on involvement outside of the normal Reuters editing process. In short, within minutes, live-feed information that Reuters collects travels to the display without a single human being working in the sign-control room.

For example, a photographer can download a digital image from the Internet directly to Reuters, and within minutes, a photo or video-clip from Afghanistan or another far-flung domain can be seen in Times Square.

"It's like real-time, designed on the fly…almost like watching CNN, but operated from a control room without people," says John Mayosmith, R/GA's director of technology.

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At any time, the sequence of templates can be overridden from numerous remote Reuters locations. A custom template can be inserted and run until directed to stop, at which time the standard operation continues.

Yet, the routing and display of information only shows one side of the project's complexity. Consider the difficulties Broadway National Sign Co. faced while constructing and installing giant, high-technology components both indoors and outdoors, in sections as large as 1,200 sq. ft., and at heights ranging from grade to 304 ft. To add to the complexity, the components required installation at a maximum tolerance of 1/16 in.

Bill Paparella, president of the New York City-based sign company, describes their installation as one of the most demanding and intricate in the company's history. Broadway fabricated and installed the structure, installed the Mitsubishi video screens, and supplied and installed aluminum and stainless-steel decorative cladding around the screens.

Project manager Dennis Hickey worked with ESI's Moore and Bruce Cohan of Advocate Consulting Group (New York City), whom Reuters hired as project managers.

In all, the installation required 10 months and involved hundreds of man-hours and three union groups (local 137 sheet-metal fabricators, and locals 3 and 25 electrical).

Installation foreman Jim Segall recounted using a sophisticated laser device to align the Mitsubishi panels to the specified tolerance. The success of the display system hinged on the exact placement of each component.

Major contributions

Such trailblazing installations as Reuters brings many benefits to Times Square's development. Certainly, there are few, if any, opportunities to duplicate such a soph- isticated installation. But, ample future uses exist for much of the software and front-end technology that has been developed.

As LED technology continues to mature, system design will be limited less by the display medium and more by the input-application technology. The Reuters installation demonstrates what human ingenuity can produce.

Diode manufacturers tell us that this coming year will bring lower prices, coupled with greater brightness. Both factors make the medium more amenable to a wider range of applications. Installations such as Reuters encourage developments in application software that will trickle down into future commercial applications in the real world.

Congratulations to all who participated in this project. Nice job!